The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in English language arts. The lowest is 46% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hialeah Gardens Middle School
Hialeah Gardens Middle School sits on a suburban campus in Hialeah Gardens, a densely settled city in northwest Miami-Dade County wedged between Hialeah and Medley. The surrounding neighborhood is a working-class, predominantly Hispanic community built around a mix of single-family homes with terracotta roofs, large apartment complexes, and a commercial corridor along Okeechobee Road anchored by big-box retail and warehouse operations. Daily life in the area is car-dependent, with modest walkability and limited bus service. A rebuilt branch library at the Westland Gardens Park complex and several neighborhood parks are among the main civic resources nearby.
The school serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public middle school within Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Its student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic, reflecting the character of the surrounding community. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this in the range of a higher-poverty school. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in the records we reviewed.
On Florida's FAST assessments for the 2024-25 school year, performance varies notably by grade and subject. In English language arts, results across all three grade levels cluster in a solid middle range, with sixth and seventh graders performing comparably and eighth graders slightly stronger. Math tells a more uneven story: sixth-grade math proficiency is a clear strength, well above the other grades, while seventh-grade math proficiency drops substantially and represents the school's softest data point by a wide margin. Eighth-grade math falls in between. On the eighth-grade Florida Statewide Science Assessment, fewer than half of students scored proficient. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these patterns represent improvement, stability, or decline. Parents of incoming students, particularly those who will enter seventh grade or who are strong math students, may want to ask the school directly about supports in place for that grade level.
No program offerings data was available for this school, so it is not possible to speak to electives, advanced coursework, or extracurricular options. Parents would need to contact the school to understand what pathways are open to their child during these three years.
The comparison framework for placing this school against county peers is limited because Miami-Dade County has only a small number of districts, and the proficiency index comparison was not applicable given that constraint. Chronic absenteeism and graduation rate data were also not available, the latter expected since this is a middle school without a graduating cohort.
The broader district context carries a few things worth knowing. Miami-Dade voters approved a property-tax measure to fund teacher pay and school safety, which runs through 2027 and adds a direct cost for homeowners in the area. The district has also been managing sustained enrollment decline, and publicly reported plans as of spring 2026 included proposals to close or consolidate up to nine schools, with some reconfigured into new grade-band structures. Families moving into the area should confirm their child's school assignment, since boundary changes remain an active possibility. Separately, a statewide shift toward stricter cell phone policies during the school day is working through Florida's legislature, with a district-level policy required by end of 2026.
The housing market around the school reflects the broader Miami-Dade pressures. Home values in this zip code are well above state and national midpoints, though they have dipped slightly in the past year. Rents, too, run at a level that puts housing cost at a substantial share of income by national affordability benchmarks. The area has seen new residential development, with builders converting former farmland into planned communities, which may bring more families into the school's attendance zone over the coming years.
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