The top reported proficiency rate is 48% in Math. The lowest is 33% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Maya Angelou Elementary School
Maya Angelou Elementary sits on NW 32nd Street in Miami's 33142 zip code, a corner of the city that the broader urban context places within reach of Little Havana and the dense residential neighborhoods west of downtown. It is a regular public elementary school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of the largest urban districts in the country.
The school's student population is overwhelmingly Hispanic, making it among the most demographically concentrated schools of its kind in the county. A majority of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school firmly in the high-need category for an urban public elementary. English learner counts and special education participation rates were not available in the data provided, which a parent with children in either group may want to raise directly with the school.
On Florida's state assessments, proficiency results across tested grades tell a mixed but readable story. Math scores sit in a middle range across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with fourth grade showing the strongest performance among the three. Reading and language arts scores are lower across the board, particularly in third grade, where less than a third of students tested at proficiency. Fifth-grade ELA shows the most improvement within that subject. Science, assessed only at fifth grade in Florida, came in below the midpoint of the proficiency scale. These are honest gaps, and a parent should ask the school what early literacy interventions are in place, given that third-grade reading outcomes in particular carry long-term implications for student trajectories.
No trend data across multiple school years was available, so it is not possible from this data to characterize whether performance is improving, declining, or holding steady. That context would be worth asking about.
The neighborhood housing market carries a home value that sits above the statewide median and considerably above the national median, though the local zip code saw a year-over-year dip in home values. Rents are running at a level that pushes affordability to its limits for many households: rent as a share of income is well above what housing economists consider the threshold for cost burden. The gap between renting and buying, at current mortgage rates, is narrow, which is somewhat unusual and reflects how elevated both sides of the market are in Miami.
Miami itself is a large, dense city with genuine transit infrastructure. The Metrorail and the free Metromover cover a significant swath of the urban core, and the 33142 area is positioned within range of those connections. Walkability across the city is real, though it varies sharply by neighborhood. Publicly reported data notes that Miami-Dade lost population in the most recent year tracked, driven in part by an immigration slowdown, and that school enrollment across the district declined as a result.
That enrollment decline is producing concrete change at the district level. Miami-Dade publicly proposed closing or consolidating up to nine schools ahead of the coming school year, with restructuring touching all three of the district's geographic regions. Families enrolling now should be aware that school assignments, boundaries, and grade configurations could shift, and it would be worth confirming Maya Angelou's status directly with the district. A voter-approved tax referendum from 2022 continues to fund teacher pay and campus safety, adding a known cost for homeowners in the district; that funding expires in 2027 unless voters renew it.
Program information for Maya Angelou Elementary was not available in the data. The school does not carry a magnet designation in the records provided, and Title I status was not listed, though the school's free-lunch rate is consistent with Title I eligibility. A parent should ask the school about any enrichment, after-school, or bilingual programming given the student population's composition.
This is a school where the peer environment is culturally specific and linguistically concentrated, and where academic outcomes, particularly in reading, represent a real challenge the school and its community are working through. A family for whom cultural and linguistic alignment matters will find that dimension reflected clearly here. A family prioritizing demonstrated academic proficiency will want to ask pointed questions and look at whether recent initiatives have moved the numbers before making a decision.
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