The top reported proficiency rate is 27% in Math. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Twin Lakes Elementary School
Twin Lakes Elementary sits on North Habana Avenue in Tampa, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Hillsborough County district. Its enrollment puts it in a mid-sized range for an elementary school, and its student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black and white students making up smaller shares. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals the school draws heavily from lower-income households in its neighborhood.
On state assessments, Twin Lakes's results are a clear area of concern. Florida's FAST assessments in reading and math, and the statewide science assessment in fifth grade, all show that the large majority of students are not reaching proficiency. Across every tested grade and subject, fewer than a third of students scored at proficient levels, with some grades falling well below that. These are materially lower outcomes than a parent might hope to see, and they hold across reading, math, and science. The data does not include prior years, so it is not possible to say whether scores are improving or declining, only that the current picture is well below state norms. A parent would be well served to ask the school directly about what interventions are in place, what support students receive who are behind grade level, and what progress looks like for individual children.
Data on chronic absenteeism and on the shares of students with IEPs or English learner designation were not available in this data set, so it is not possible to characterize attendance patterns or the scale of specialized services the school provides.
The school sits in a neighborhood where housing costs are modestly below the Florida state median and have dipped slightly over the past year, according to current Zillow estimates. Rents in the zip code are also down slightly year over year, making the area somewhat more accessible than much of the Tampa metro, though still a stretch relative to local incomes given current mortgage rates. Renters and buyers alike are in a market that is less pressured than central or south Tampa, but affordability remains real relative to household earnings in this part of the city.
Tampa itself is a large, varied city. The broader community includes a dense downtown with major waterfront development underway, including the Water Street Tampa mixed-use district and the Gasworx project linking Ybor City and the Channel District, both publicly reported as advancing through the late 2020s. Employers across defense, healthcare, and financial services anchor the regional economy. Closer to Twin Lakes, the character of the Habana Avenue corridor is residential and working-class, a different texture than the historic preservation districts or waterfront enclaves that get more attention in Tampa's civic narrative.
Two district-level developments are worth knowing about. Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax referendum in November 2024 that adds to homeowner costs starting in 2025, running through 2029, with the revenue directed toward teacher and staff pay supplements. That is a direct cost for property owners but also a structural investment in teacher compensation in a district that had faced chronic recruitment difficulties, publicly reported at the time of the vote. Separately, the district passed a significant boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year affecting schools and students across the county. Families should verify that Twin Lakes is still their assigned school and that no further boundary changes are pending, since the rezoning process was described as affecting a large number of schools and students.
Because Twin Lakes serves only pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, graduation rate and high school course access measures do not apply here.
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