The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 43% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Symmes Elementary School
Symmes Elementary sits on Watson Road in Riverview, a fast-growing unincorporated corner of Hillsborough County southeast of Tampa. It serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Hillsborough County district, with an enrollment that places it on the smaller side for a school covering that grade band.
The student body is racially and ethnically mixed. Hispanic students make up the largest share, followed by white students and then Black students, with smaller Asian and multiracial populations. Close to half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a genuinely economically mixed community. Data on English learners and students with IEPs were not available in this dataset, so families with those needs would want to ask the school directly about support services.
On the Florida FAST assessments, Symmes shows results that are below the midpoint for what parents typically hope to see. In third-grade ELA, just over half of students reached proficiency, which is the strongest reading result across the tested grades. Fourth-grade ELA and third-grade math came in lower, with fewer than half of students at proficiency. Fourth-grade math was the softest mark of the reported grades. Fifth-grade math and ELA both came in near or just below half. The bright spot is fifth-grade science, where the Florida Statewide Science Assessment showed a majority of students at proficiency, matching the fifth-grade ELA result. The sixth-grade math figure was suppressed, likely due to small group size. No multi-year trend data were available, so it is not possible to say whether these numbers are improving, holding, or declining. A parent who wants to understand trajectory would do well to ask the school about growth measures and how individual students are tracked over time.
No program information was included in the data, so details about enrichment, interventions, or extracurricular offerings are not something this profile can speak to. The school is not designated as a magnet or charter; it is a conventional neighborhood public school assigned through Hillsborough County boundaries. Parents should be aware that the district completed a significant boundary rezoning for 2024-2025 that affected a large number of schools countywide, so confirming current assignment zones directly with Hillsborough County Schools is worth doing before making any housing decisions around attendance.
On the housing side, the Riverview zip code has seen home values ease modestly year over year, pulling them slightly below the Florida statewide benchmark and close to the national level. Rents have also softened slightly. The area remains a place where the mortgage cost on a typical home runs meaningfully above what many households would consider easy, and the price-to-income ratio sits well above historical norms nationally. Riverview continues to attract buyers from other states drawn by newer construction and relative affordability compared to Tampa proper, and active development means the neighborhood around Symmes will likely keep adding residents.
Riverview itself has no traditional downtown. Daily life runs along car-dependent highway corridors and through subdivision neighborhoods, with the Alafia River, county parks, and the Riverview Public Library providing the main civic anchors. The walkable Winthrop Town Centre area is the closest thing to a pedestrian hub, but most errands and school drop-offs will involve a car. Growth in the community has consistently outpaced infrastructure, and road and transit improvements are ongoing.
Families who vote on property taxes should know that Hillsborough County voters approved a new school millage in late 2024, running from mid-2025 through mid-2029, directed at raising teacher and support staff pay. That adds to property tax bills for homeowners in the area.
The comparison dataset available for this school covers only Hillsborough County as a single district, so a meaningful side-by-side against neighboring schools was not possible from this data alone. A parent looking to compare Symmes to other elementary schools nearby would need to look at individual school results through the Florida Department of Education directly.
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