The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lewis Elementary School
Lewis Elementary sits on Whiteway Drive in Temple Terrace, a Tampa suburb known for its tree-lined streets, Mediterranean Revival architecture along 56th Street, and a residential character shaped by proximity to the University of South Florida and major healthcare employers like AdventHealth and Moffitt Cancer Center. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within Hillsborough County Public Schools.
The school's enrollment is moderate for a PK-5 campus, spread fairly evenly across grade levels. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this in the higher-need range economically. The student body is racially mixed, with Black and Hispanic students together making up a clear majority, white students comprising roughly a fifth, and smaller shares of Asian and multiracial students. Data on English learner counts and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided.
State testing results from Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year paint a picture that warrants honest attention. Proficiency rates in math across the tested grades run in the upper-thirties to low-forties range, meaning fewer than half of students in each grade are reaching the state's proficiency threshold. ELA results are more variable: third grade sits in the upper twenties, fourth grade climbs closer to the mid-forties, and fifth grade lands around forty. Fifth-grade science proficiency comes in at roughly the low thirties. Across all subjects and grades, the school is performing below what most parents would consider a strong baseline, and the pattern is consistent enough that a family considering enrollment should ask the school directly about its academic support structures, intervention programming, and what progress looks like year to year. Trend data across multiple years was not available, so there is no way from the provided information to say whether these numbers reflect improvement, decline, or stability.
No program information was provided for Lewis, so specifics about enrichment, arts, STEM, or other offerings are not available here and would be worth asking the school about directly.
Temple Terrace itself offers some practical advantages for families. The city's parks system is genuinely extensive, with community recreation centers, athletic complexes, neighborhood parks, swimming pools, and riverfront access along the Hillsborough River. The public library is part of the county cooperative. Walkability is described publicly as moderate, with tree-lined residential streets but limited transit, consistent with a suburban layout. The city has spent years working to build a conventional downtown along 56th Street through its Community Redevelopment Agency, and new multifamily housing is coming into that corridor, so the immediate neighborhood context around the school is one of a quiet, established suburb alongside a redevelopment zone that is still taking shape.
Two district-level changes matter for any family evaluating this school. Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024 that adds to homeowner costs annually through 2029, with proceeds directed toward teacher and staff pay supplements. That is a real carrying cost for families buying in the area. The district also completed a major boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year that changed attendance zones for many schools and shifted large numbers of students, so families should confirm that their address reliably feeds to Lewis before making housing decisions around it.
The housing market around the school's zip code shows home values running below the Florida state benchmark and roughly in line with national levels, with modest year-over-year softening. Rents have been essentially flat recently. The estimated monthly mortgage cost, relative to typical income figures, places this market at a price-to-income ratio that is neither particularly affordable nor severely stretched by national standards.
Lewis Elementary is a neighborhood public school in a community with genuine amenities and an economically diverse student population. The academic proficiency data across all tested areas is below where many parents would want to see a school, and a family weighing enrollment should go into that conversation with the school with specific questions about instruction, support, and outcomes.
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