The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Edward A. Upthegrove Elementary
Edward A. Upthegrove Elementary sits on North Main Street in LaBelle, the county seat of Hendry County, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. It is a regular public elementary school, not a charter or magnet, operating within the Hendry County School District.
The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with white students making up a smaller but meaningful share and small numbers of Black and multiracial students. A large majority of the school's children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic conditions of the surrounding community. Data on English learner and special education populations was not available in the records reviewed. The school's enrollment puts it in a range typical for a rural county elementary.
State testing results come from Florida's FAST assessments in reading and math, and the statewide science assessment at fifth grade. Across the tested grades, reading and math proficiency rates fall below half for most grade levels, with fourth grade math being the clearest exception, where a majority of students tested proficient. Fifth grade science proficiency was lower still. These results are worth discussing directly with the school, particularly around how they address foundational literacy and math gaps in the earlier grades. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from the data provided to say whether performance is improving, flat, or declining.
No program information was on record for the school. Civil rights and discipline data were also absent from the records reviewed.
The housing market in the LaBelle area shows home values that are meaningfully below the Florida state benchmark, making the area considerably more affordable than much of the state. Rents run at a level where a household near the national median income would spend roughly a third of income on housing, which sits at the upper edge of conventional affordability. Home values have edged down slightly year over year. Families planning to build a new home in Hendry County should be aware that the district adopted school impact fees, publicly reported as a response to enrollment growth that places Hendry among Florida's fastest-growing districts by student generation rate. That fee applies to new residential construction and is restricted to growth-related school needs.
The larger district context offers one development that families with young children today will feel directly in a few years. Hendry County publicly broke ground in 2026 on a new LaBelle High School, the first new school built in the county in nearly three decades, replacing a 1970s-era campus that had been relying on portable classrooms to absorb growth. The new facility is designed to include career and technical education space, an auditorium, and upgraded athletics, with an opening targeted for the class of 2027. For a parent enrolling a child at Upthegrove now, this means the high school their child will eventually reach is itself undergoing a substantial, publicly reported transformation.
Detailed information about LaBelle's community character, major employers, and civic anchors was not available in the research gathered for this profile, so that context is left out rather than filled with guesses.
For a family weighing Upthegrove specifically, the picture is a school serving a predominantly low-income, predominantly Hispanic student population in a small rural county seat, with tested proficiency rates that sit below state norms across most grades and subjects. The district surrounding it is in a real growth phase, with infrastructure catching up to that growth. A parent who wants to understand how the school is addressing its academic gaps would be well served by a direct conversation with school leadership.
See more original research from School Decision →