The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Math. The lowest is 38% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on William H. Bashaw Elementary
William H. Bashaw Elementary sits in eastern Bradenton, Florida, serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the Manatee County School District. The school's enrollment places it on the larger side for an elementary, with students spread relatively evenly across grade levels. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of its surrounding neighborhood. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with Hispanic, white, and Black students each representing meaningful shares of the population, and a smaller multiracial group rounding out the mix. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed.
On Florida's FAST assessments, proficiency rates across tested grades in both math and ELA sit below the midpoint of what state averages typically look like for elementary schools. In reading, roughly a third to just under half of students in the tested grades scored proficient, with fifth grade performing somewhat better than third and fourth. Math results follow a similar pattern across third through fifth grade, with performance in the lower third of the range. Fifth-grade science proficiency, measured by the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, lands in a comparable range. A parent who wants to understand how these results compare to other schools in Manatee County, or what the school is doing to move them, would do well to ask the school directly. There is one anomaly in the data worth flagging: a sixth-grade math result appears in the records, though Bashaw serves only through fifth grade. That figure likely reflects a data artifact rather than an actual sixth-grade cohort, and it is not treated as representative here.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from this data to say whether performance has been moving up, down, or holding steady in recent years.
The school is a traditional public school, not a charter, and carries no magnet designation in the data. No information on specific program offerings, attendance rates, or chronic absenteeism was available.
The broader context matters for families thinking about this school. Manatee County voters renewed a one-mill property tax referendum in late 2024, publicly reported as supporting teacher salary supplements, extended instructional time, STEM and career/technical programs, early literacy work, and school safety investments. That renewal has a direct effect on what resources schools like Bashaw can draw on. The district also recently redrew elementary attendance zones in response to rapid districtwide enrollment growth, so families should confirm current zone assignments before making housing decisions, since boundaries have shifted.
Housing near the school, in the zip code where Bashaw is located, has been declining modestly year over year in both home values and rents, making it one of the more accessible entry points in a metro area that has seen significant construction and migration pressure. Home values in this area run somewhat below both the Florida state median and the national median, while rent carries a relatively high cost burden as a share of income. Buying, by these measures, runs meaningfully above what most income-to-price ratios would suggest is comfortable, a pattern common across the broader Sarasota-Bradenton market.
Bradenton itself is a mid-sized city with a compact, walkable downtown along the Manatee River, home to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature, ArtCenter Manatee, the Manatee Performing Arts Center, and the Riverwalk park, which publicly reported sources describe as stretching along the river with an amphitheater, skate park, and public art throughout. Major employers include the school district itself, Tropicana's main production facility, Bealls, and the IMG sports academy. Beyond downtown, the city is largely auto-oriented, and public transit via Manatee County Area Transit runs on weekdays and Saturdays, with fare-free fixed routes under a pilot program that has been in effect.
Bashaw's test scores are an honest signal that academic outcomes here are a work in progress. Families whose children may need additional support should ask the school what intervention programs are in place and how students are being tracked toward grade-level reading and math. The community context and the district's renewed funding commitment provide some basis for that conversation.
See more original research from School Decision →