Located in ORLANDO, FL. Serving grades KG through 05.
Hillcrest Elementary sits on East Concord Street in Orlando's inner core, a short distance from downtown and the tree-lined residential neighborhoods that surround it. The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within Orange County Public Schools.
The academic picture here is strong. Florida's FAST assessments, which test grades three through five in reading and math, show Hillcrest performing well above what most Florida elementary schools produce. In reading, third graders score at a high proficiency level, fourth graders even higher, and fifth graders solidly above the midpoint. Math results follow a similar arc, with fourth grade reaching especially strong marks and third and fifth grades holding firm. Fifth-grade science results on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment are also solid. When Hillcrest's overall proficiency index is placed against the other districts in Orange County, the school lands in the top quartile, and the gap between Hillcrest and the county median is wide. These are genuinely strong numbers for a Florida elementary school, and parents weighing academic trajectory have real, concrete evidence to work with.
The student body is moderately sized for a K-5 school, with the largest cohorts in the younger grades and a gradual taper toward fifth grade, a pattern worth noticing if you're enrolling a kindergartner and thinking about the school over time. The school draws a racially and ethnically diverse group: white students make up the largest share, followed by Hispanic, Black, Asian, and multiracial students, in that order. A relatively small share of students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Hillcrest on the lower end of economic need among Florida public elementary schools. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed, so a parent with specific questions about language support or special education services would do well to ask the school directly.
The school carries no magnet designation and is a standard neighborhood public school. Its Title I status was not reported in the data available to us. Civil-rights outcome data was not part of what we could review.
The neighborhood around the school reflects the character of Orlando's inner ring. This part of the city blends older residential streets with proximity to downtown's parks, restaurants, cultural venues, and civic institutions. Publicly reported sources describe the area around Park Lake Highland and nearby neighborhoods as genuinely walkable by Orlando standards, with access to the Orlando Urban Trail and a street environment distinct from the car-dependent sprawl of the outer city. The local housing market is priced above the Florida state median and meaningfully above the national median, with rents also running high relative to typical incomes; the rent-to-income burden in this zip code is well above what most financial guidance would call comfortable. Home values have edged slightly downward year over year while rents have ticked up, a combination that makes the entry calculation for buying here worth running carefully.
Orlando itself is in an active development period, publicly reported sources note, with major mixed-use projects reshaping the downtown core, continued airport expansion, and Epic Universe opening in 2025. That growth backdrop tends to keep housing demand elevated in neighborhoods like this one.
Multi-year trend data for Hillcrest's test scores was not available, so it is not possible to say whether the school's strong current results represent a climb, a plateau, or a long-standing pattern. Program-specific offerings, staffing ratios, and attendance data were also absent from what we reviewed. We searched for parent-relevant changes at the district level but could not confirm specific lasting changes before our research concluded, so that piece is left out rather than guessed at.
What the data does show is an inner-city Orlando elementary school with academic results that stand out clearly within Orange County, a diverse and economically mixed student population that skews toward lower economic need relative to Florida norms, and a neighborhood context that carries genuine urban character without being remote from the city's resources.
Percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards, by grade.
Officially reported figures, 2024-25.
All reported measures, by topic.