Plantation Key School, Tavernier FL

Original Research by School Decision on Plantation Key School

Plantation Key School sits on Lake Road in Tavernier, a working community on the southern tip of Key Largo in the Upper Florida Keys. It serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, meaning students here spend their entire early and middle school years under one roof before moving on to high school. The school is a conventional public school within the Monroe County School District.

The academic picture from Florida's most recent FAST assessments is strong, and worth walking through with some nuance. In the middle grades, both math and ELA results are genuinely impressive: by seventh and eighth grade, the vast majority of students are scoring proficient in reading, and eighth grade math proficiency is particularly high, near the top of what any school would report. Sixth grade results follow a similar pattern in both subjects. The elementary grades tell a somewhat different story. Third and fourth grade math and ELA proficiency rates are solid and above what many Florida schools report, while fifth grade is the one point of relative softness across the board, with math and ELA results lower than the grades on either side of them. Fifth grade science also falls in a similar range. That dip at fifth grade is worth a parent asking the school about directly, since the pattern is consistent rather than isolated. Eighth grade science proficiency is well above the midpoint by any reasonable comparison. Trend data was not available in the underlying data, so it is not possible to say whether these figures represent improvement, decline, or a stable pattern over time.

On demographics, the school's enrollment sits at a size that feels community-scaled for a PK-8 building. The student body is roughly split between white and Hispanic students, with smaller numbers of other groups. About three in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which places the economic need profile in the lower range compared with many Florida schools. Data on English learner and special education populations was not available in the underlying data, so those are gaps a parent should follow up on directly with the school if relevant to their child.

Tavernier itself is a place where the Florida Keys' character shows up in everyday form rather than tourist form. The Overseas Highway runs through it, the Tavernier Towne Shopping Center anchored by a Winn-Dixie functions as the main commercial hub, and Harry Harris Park at the oceanfront is the informal gathering place for residents on weekends. Publicly reported sources describe the community as one where hardware stores outnumber souvenir shops, and the pace is slower than either Key West or Islamorada. The historic building stock here is the largest concentration outside Key West, which gives older neighborhoods a distinct texture. Mariners Hospital, a critical access hospital that is the only facility serving the Upper Keys, is a significant employer. The Monroe County School District and public sector generally round out the employment base, with marine trades and service work filling out the rest.

Housing is the most consequential practical issue for any family considering this address. Home values here are dramatically above both the Florida state median and the national median, running more than double the state figure. The area's affordability pressure is well-documented and publicly reported: hospital nurses, teachers, sheriff's deputies, and service workers are all described as difficult to recruit and retain because of it. The county has recently approved a new workforce housing development on a long-vacant site near mile marker 92, pairing deed-restricted apartments for essential workers with a Publix supermarket, which will represent the most meaningful new housing supply the Upper Keys has seen in some time. That project is still ahead.

On the district side, Monroe County voters renewed two school funding referendums in November 2024, continuing support for teacher pay, a school nurse and a school resource officer at each campus, and building maintenance. The renewals carry no new tax cost and matter to families because district leaders had warned that failure would have meant a substantial loss of positions. Separately, the district adopted a modest property tax rate increase for fiscal year 2025-26, directed toward capital projects including construction, safety upgrades, ADA compliance, and new buses.

Program offerings data was not available for Plantation Key School, so specific enrichment, elective, or support program details are gaps to explore directly with the school. No graduation rate applies here since the school does not serve high school grades.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 64% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 476%

School 76% · District 58% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 53% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 690%

School 90% · District 65% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median

Grade 786%

School 86% · District 60% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 37 pts above state median

Grade 897%

School 97% · District 45% · ▲ 52 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 58% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 471%

School 71% · District 54% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 47% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 689%

School 89% · District 61% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median

Grade 774%

School 74% · District 55% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 53% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median

Science

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 51% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 880%

School 80% · District 52% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

This schoolMONROE, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income47%Higher-income80%33 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income59%Higher-income83%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income38%Higher-income71%32 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income80%Higher-income93%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income89%31 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income78%Higher-income92%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income60%Higher-income83%23 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income50%Higher-income100%50 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income52%Higher-income68%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income76%Higher-income98%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income78%Higher-income92%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income100%Higher-income96%4 pp gap