The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Science. The lowest is 64% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Walden Lake Elementary School
Walden Lake Elementary sits on Turkey Creek Road in Plant City, a Hillsborough County community about 25 miles east of Tampa along the I-4 corridor. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within the Hillsborough district, and its enrollment puts it on the larger end for a school of its grade band. Just under half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making it a moderately mixed economic environment. The student body is majority white with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on English learner and special education populations was not reported in what we received, so parents with children in those categories may want to ask the school directly about services.
On state assessments, Walden Lake shows solid results across the board. In the most recent FAST testing cycle, proficiency in math runs from the mid-sixties to the low seventies depending on grade, with fifth grade performing best. ELA proficiency is somewhat lower, ranging from the low sixties to the mid-sixties across tested grades. Fifth-grade science results land just below the math high, comfortably above the two-thirds mark. Taken together, these are results that sit in a range most Florida parents would read as reasonably strong, though a majority-proficient school is not a uniformly proficient one, and families should ask about how the school supports students who are not yet meeting the standard. Multi-year trend data was not available in what we received, so it is not possible to say whether these numbers are rising, holding, or slipping.
The school operates without magnet or charter designation, and no program or course-access data was included in the data we have. Because it serves only elementary grades, there is no graduation rate and no AP or dual-enrollment data to discuss here; those measures simply do not apply.
The comparison framework for Hillsborough County's schools currently contains only a single district entry, so a meaningful peer comparison of proficiency across county schools was not possible from this data set.
Plant City itself gives the school a particular context worth understanding. The city retains an agricultural identity rooted in strawberry farming and logistics work, with South Florida Baptist Hospital, produce shippers, and distribution centers among the larger employers publicly reported as anchoring the economy. Downtown has a walkable historic core with brick streets and a linear park that hosts regular community events, though daily life for most families extends well beyond that footprint. The city is on a clear growth trajectory, with new single-family subdivisions being delivered by multiple builders and a comprehensive plan update underway to manage the expansion. That growth matters for school families: Hillsborough district approved a significant rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year, changing boundaries for a large number of schools and affecting thousands of students district-wide. It is worth confirming Walden Lake's current zone and whether any further boundary adjustments are planned.
On housing, the zip code surrounding the school shows home values running close to the state median, with values softening modestly year over year. Rents have moved slightly upward. The price-to-income ratio nationally suggests buyers are stretching, and the estimated monthly carrying cost on a typical home here is substantial at current mortgage rates. Homeowners also now carry the cost of a one-mill property tax levy that Hillsborough voters approved in November 2024, running through mid-2029, which was designed to raise teacher and staff pay and address teacher shortages publicly reported as a district-wide concern.
For a family weighing this school, Walden Lake offers above-average proficiency in a growing, community-rooted part of Plant City. The unknowns around English learner services, special education supports, and program specifics are real gaps that a school visit or direct conversation with staff would help fill.
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