The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Science. The lowest is 47% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Dillard Street Elementary
Dillard Street Elementary sits on North Dillard Street in Winter Garden's historic core, a few blocks from the Plant Street district that defines the town's identity. Winter Garden is a former citrus community that has become the commercial and cultural anchor of West Orange County, publicly reported as one of Central Florida's fastest-growing areas. The downtown retains its brick-paved, walkable character, with the Garden Theatre, a year-round Saturday Farmers Market, and the 22-mile West Orange Trail all nearby. Beyond that core, the city fans out into car-dependent master-planned subdivisions, particularly in the Horizon West corridor south of the main highway, where most of the region's recent population growth has landed. Dillard Street Elementary is, geographically and culturally, a downtown school rather than a Horizon West school.
The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade, which means a graduation rate does not apply here. State testing covers grades three through five, and Florida's FAST assessments and the fifth-grade science exam give a clear picture of where students are performing.
In reading and math, proficiency rates across the tested grades sit roughly in the mid-to-upper-forty-percent range for most cohorts, with fourth-grade ELA running a bit higher. Science at fifth grade comes in noticeably higher than the ELA and math results. Placed against other districts in Orange County, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile relative to that comparison set. This is a meaningful gap, and parents who want to understand what's driving it and what the school is doing about it should ask directly. The data doesn't tell us whether recent instructional investments or staffing changes are moving results; the Orange County district brief search returned no confirmed strategic changes to report, so that question is best put to the school itself.
About half of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which makes Dillard Street one of the more economically mixed elementary schools in a city where home values run well above both the state and national medians. The student population is racially diverse, with Hispanic, white, and Black students each making up a meaningful share of enrollment. The overall enrollment is modest for an elementary serving seven grade levels. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the records we reviewed.
Program-level details were not available in the data provided. Whether the school runs any enrichment programs, specific instructional models, or intervention supports for students performing below grade level is worth asking about directly.
Housing near the school reflects Winter Garden's broader market, which has cooled slightly on a year-over-year basis but remains priced well above Florida's statewide median. Renting is also expensive relative to income by national standards, and rent has ticked upward over the past year. Families considering proximity to Dillard Street should expect a competitive and stretched housing market; the homes closest to downtown carry a premium tied to walkability and the historic district's appeal.
Winter Garden's growth context matters for school planning. Population expansion has been intense enough that Orange County Public Schools has had to open new campuses in the Horizon West area to absorb it. Dillard Street, rooted in the older part of the city, serves a neighborhood with a different demographic character than those newer subdivisions. Parents relocating to the broader Winter Garden area should confirm which school their specific address feeds into, because assignment boundaries in a fast-growing district can shift.
The honest picture here is a school in a lively, well-situated town where academic proficiency results are below the midpoint of what's seen across Orange County districts. For a family whose child needs stronger academic outcomes, this is worth probing further. For a family already in the neighborhood, committed to the historic-core community, and interested in engaging with the school on its approach to improvement, the context and setting are real assets even where the test results leave questions open.
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