The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in Science. The lowest is 43% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Moton Elementary School
Moton Elementary sits on Emerson Road in Brooksville, the historic county seat of Hernando County, about 45 to 50 miles north of Tampa. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, making it a full early-elementary school. A graduation rate does not apply here, as the school does not serve secondary grades.
The student body is substantial for an elementary school of its grade band. The racial and ethnic composition is genuinely mixed: white students make up a plurality, with Black and Hispanic students each forming meaningful shares of the enrollment, and a noticeable group of students identifying as two or more races. What is not mixed is the economic picture. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing Moton in the high-need tier. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the data provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is uneven and warrants a close look. Third-grade math sits above the midpoint, which is a relative bright spot. From there the results fall across the upper grades, with fifth-grade math the weakest of the three. ELA tells a similar story: third grade comes in just below the midpoint, and results continue to decline through fifth grade. Fifth-grade science, tested through the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, performs comparably to third-grade math, which is the strongest single result in the dataset. Taken together, proficiency rates across most grades and subjects sit below the state midpoint, and the drop from third to fifth grade in both math and ELA is a pattern a parent may want to ask the school about directly. Trend data was not available, so it is not possible from this data to say whether results are improving, holding, or declining.
The neighbor comparison set for Hernando County contains only one district, so no meaningful peer comparison could be produced.
The broader Brooksville and Hernando County context shapes what families weigh alongside academics. Hernando County voters approved both a one-mill property tax for teacher salaries, school safety, and mental health resources, and a half-cent sales tax that was renewed in November 2024 with a new provision allowing funds to be used for building or expanding schools. That second measure directly addresses the growth pressure the county is navigating. Local officials described the situation publicly as "unprecedented growth," driven by post-COVID in-migration, and school concurrency has become a live planning challenge. New residential development ranges from apartment projects to subdivision communities with builders active across the area. Families choosing a home near Moton should factor in that school capacity questions are real and ongoing.
Housing near the school in the Brooksville zip code has a median home value that sits below the Florida state benchmark and is also modestly below national levels, with values roughly flat year over year and rents that have edged slightly lower recently. Renting carries a rent-to-income burden that is publicly reported as sitting below the threshold commonly used to flag housing stress, and the estimated monthly mortgage on a median-priced home at current rates is in the mid-range for the region. By Florida standards, this remains a relatively affordable entry point.
Brooksville itself offers a compact, walkable historic downtown with brick streets, independent shops, a main public library branch, and recurring community events. Outside the core, the city is car-oriented. The county bus system connects Brooksville City Hall to other parts of the county and to the community college campus. Major employers in the area are concentrated in healthcare, government, and retail distribution, with a smaller manufacturing and aerospace cluster near the regional airport.
For a family considering Moton, the economic accessibility of the surrounding housing market is real. The academic results, particularly the declining trend across grades in math and ELA, suggest it would be worth visiting the school and asking specifically what the school is doing at the fourth- and fifth-grade levels.
See more original research from School Decision →