Herbert A. Ammons Middle School, Miami FL

Original Research by School Decision on Herbert A. Ammons Middle School

Herbert A. Ammons Middle School sits in the southwestern reaches of Miami-Dade, serving grades six through eight as a regular public school within one of the country's largest urban districts. The surrounding zip code is deeply residential, a contrast to the dense downtown core miles to the north, and the school draws from a community where the vast majority of students are Hispanic, with smaller shares of Black, white, and Asian students. About two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning economic diversity within the school is real but the student body leans toward working and middle-class households rather than concentrated poverty.

The academic results reported on Florida's FAST assessments are a clear strength. Across all three grade levels tested in ELA, reading proficiency is consistently high, holding above nine in ten students from sixth through eighth grade. Math tells a similar story: sixth and seventh graders perform very well, and eighth-grade math proficiency approaches near-universal rates among tested students. The eighth-grade science assessment also shows strong results. These are genuinely impressive numbers for an urban middle school, and parents looking at academic outcomes will find little to worry them here. Trend data was not available in what was provided, so it is not possible to say whether the school has been climbing, holding steady, or recently accelerating, and a parent may want to ask the school directly about year-over-year trajectory.

Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were not included in the data provided, so those dimensions of day-to-day school life are not assessable here. Data on students with IEPs or English learner status was also missing, so families whose children receive special services or language supports would want to ask the school specifically about those programs and staffing levels. The school is not designated as a magnet or charter; it is a conventional neighborhood public school.

The neighborhood context matters for families considering housing nearby. Home values in the zip code sit well above both the Florida state median and the national median, and they have edged downward slightly year over year. Rents are high relative to income, with rental costs consuming a notably large share of typical household earnings, a constraint that reflects Miami's broader affordability pressures. The southwest Miami suburban character here is quite different from the highly walkable downtown corridors; families are generally car-dependent for daily errands at this address.

At the district level, Miami-Dade County Public Schools is navigating a period of meaningful contraction. Publicly reported enrollment has declined for multiple consecutive years, and the district proposed closing or consolidating up to nine schools going into the next academic year. Families enrolling now should be aware that school boundaries and grade configurations are actively under review, and reassignment remains a real possibility even for students currently zoned for Ammons. A property-tax referendum passed in 2022 funds teacher pay and school safety staffing through 2027, when voters would need to renew it; homeowners in the area pay that levy as part of their property tax bill.

The comparison data available for Miami-Dade County covered only a small number of districts, which made a meaningful statistical comparison impossible, so no positioning against county peers is offered here. The school is not a high school, so graduation rates do not apply.

For a family weighing middle school options in southwest Miami, Ammons presents a picture of strong academic proficiency across its core tested subjects within a predominantly Hispanic, mid-sized urban school. The open questions worth pursuing with the school directly are around services for special populations, what programs or electives exist beyond core academics, and how the district's ongoing boundary review might affect enrollment stability.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 689%

School 89% · District 64% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 780%

School 80% · District 54% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 898%

School 98% · District 60% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 47 pts above state median · ▲ 39 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 693%

School 93% · District 63% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 793%

School 93% · District 62% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 892%

School 92% · District 60% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Science

Grade 886%

School 86% · District 46% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

This schoolMIAMI-DADE, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income94%Higher-income92%3 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income90%Higher-income94%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income93%Higher-income92%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income87%Higher-income91%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income76%Higher-income83%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income97%Higher-income98%1 pp gap