Kendall Square K-8 Center, Miami FL

Original Research by School Decision on Kendall Square K-8 Center

Kendall Square K-8 Center sits in the southwestern corner of Miami, a regular public school serving kindergarten through eighth grade within Miami-Dade County Public Schools. It occupies a residential stretch of the Kendall area, where suburban-style neighborhoods spread out well beyond the walkable energy of downtown Miami. The school is not a magnet, and Title I status was not reported in the data available.

The student body is heavily Hispanic, representing the vast majority of enrollment, with smaller shares of Asian, white, and Black students. Roughly two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning the school serves a mix of economic backgrounds rather than being predominantly high-poverty. IEP and English learner rates were not reported, so families of students with disabilities or English language needs would want to ask the school directly about those programs and staffing levels.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the most recent results show a clear and consistent pattern: third graders post some of the strongest scores in both reading and math, with most demonstrating proficiency. By fourth and fifth grade, scores pull back to a more moderate range. Sixth and eighth grade results in both ELA and math land in a similar mid-range. Seventh grade is the softest point, particularly in math, where less than half of students tested as proficient. Science scores, assessed at fifth and eighth grade, run below the ELA and math results at both tested points. The overall picture is a school where early-elementary performance is a genuine strength, and where gains made in the primary grades face some attrition heading into the upper-middle grades. Parents of students entering fifth grade and beyond may want to ask the school what academic supports are in place for that transition. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these patterns are improving or holding steady.

A graduation rate does not apply here because the school ends at eighth grade, and no AP or dual-enrollment pathways are reported, as those belong to high school settings. Program information was not provided in the data.

The housing market around the school, in the Kendall zip code, sits well above both the Florida state median and the national median for home values. Prices have edged slightly downward over the past year. Rents are also elevated, and rent as a share of income runs high relative to national norms. For a family budgeting around this school, the local cost of housing is a real factor. Miami-Dade homeowners also carry an ongoing property tax levy approved by voters in 2022 to fund teacher pay and school safety, which remains in effect through 2027 and would need voter renewal to continue.

On the district level, Miami-Dade is navigating a period of declining enrollment. Publicly reported coverage indicates the district is weighing closures and consolidations affecting schools across all three of its regions, with some boundary changes and grade-structure reconfigurations under consideration. Families choosing a school now should confirm current attendance boundaries directly with the district, as reassignments remain a live possibility.

Miami itself, as the city of record, is a large, dense urban environment with a transit system that includes Metrorail running from the Kendall corridor through downtown, which is relevant context for families who commute or who want their older children to access city amenities independently. The broader city has seen recent county-level population softening driven partly by an immigration slowdown, though residential construction continues at pace in the downtown and Brickell corridors far from the school's location.

Kendall Square K-8 offers a stable neighborhood school with genuine early-grade academic strength, a predominantly Hispanic peer environment, and a school calendar that carries a child from kindergarten through the end of middle school in a single building. The middle-grade science and seventh-grade math results are worth a direct conversation with the school about instructional focus and intervention resources.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 382%

School 82% · District 69% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 68% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 62% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 670%

School 70% · District 64% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 54% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 873%

School 73% · District 60% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 386%

School 86% · District 60% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 59% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 570%

School 70% · District 60% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 672%

School 72% · District 63% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 764%

School 64% · District 62% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 60% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Science

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 56% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 46% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 3 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 3Lower-income95%Higher-income83%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income64%Higher-income67%3 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income72%Higher-income70%2 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income65%Higher-income75%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income63%Higher-income65%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income63%Higher-income75%12 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income84%Higher-income81%3 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income58%Higher-income71%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income63%Higher-income66%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income70%Higher-income71%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income33%Higher-income52%18 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income87%32 pp gap