The top reported proficiency rate is 64% in Science. The lowest is 50% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Clay Springs Elementary
Clay Springs Elementary sits on North Wekiwa Springs Road in Apopka, a large and rapidly expanding city in northwest Orange County. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within Orange County Public Schools, the countywide district based in Orlando. The enrollment is substantial for an elementary school of its grade band, spread fairly evenly across grade levels with prekindergarten through fifth grade all represented.
The student body is majority Hispanic, with white students making up roughly a quarter of enrollment and Black students accounting for a meaningful share as well. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community where many households are working-class or economically stretched. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the most recent results show math proficiency hovering around the midpoint across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with fifth grade coming in slightly below half. ELA results follow a similar pattern, with third and fourth grades sitting just above half proficiency and fifth grade falling below. The fifth-grade Florida Statewide Science Assessment is a relative strength, with a clear majority of students reaching proficiency. Still, when the school's overall proficiency index is placed among the districts serving Orange County, Clay Springs lands in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. That is a gap worth a parent's attention, and it would be reasonable to ask the school directly about the supports in place for students who are not yet meeting grade-level expectations, particularly in reading and math at the fifth-grade level. Trend data was not available, so whether scores have been moving in a positive direction cannot be determined from what was provided.
No information about specific programs, enrichment offerings, or instructional approach was included in the data, so those questions are worth raising with the school.
The neighborhood context shapes what families face. Housing near the school sits well above the statewide median home value, and rents in the zip code run high enough that the rent-to-income ratio is a real pressure for renters. Both home values and rents have edged downward year over year, a mild softening in what has been an expensive market. Apopka overall is one of the faster-growing submarkets in metro Orlando, driven heavily by the Kelly Park corridor to the northwest, where thousands of new homes are in various stages of development. That growth is pushing school-age populations upward across the city, and it is worth asking Orange County Public Schools how enrollment pressures are being managed at schools like Clay Springs that are already well-enrolled.
Apopka itself is car-dependent and geographically spread out. Wekiwa Springs State Park and Rock Springs at Kelly Park are nearby natural assets. The North Orange Branch of the Orange County Library System serves the area. Lynx bus service exists but is limited, and daily life around the school relies on driving. The city has a stated goal of improving pedestrian infrastructure, but those changes are concentrated downtown and in newer development nodes rather than broadly across the suburban grid.
The district brief for Orange County Public Schools did not yield confirmed parent-relevant changes in the research conducted, so those were left out rather than guessed at.
For a family weighing Clay Springs, the picture is a diverse, majority-Hispanic school in a community experiencing fast growth and real housing cost pressure. Academic results are around the midpoint or below in ELA and math, with science a relative bright spot. The comparison with other Orange County districts puts the school in the lower tier on proficiency. That context is worth sitting with, and a visit and direct conversation with school staff would give a clearer sense of what supports are available and what direction the school is heading.
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