The top reported proficiency rate is 63% in Science. The lowest is 48% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Tarpon Springs Elementary School
Tarpon Springs Elementary sits on Pine Street in one of the more distinctive corners of Florida's Gulf Coast. Tarpon Springs is a mid-sized waterfront city with a Greek-American cultural identity rooted in its sponge-harvesting history, and that identity still shapes daily life through the sponge docks, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and a downtown described publicly as genuinely walkable. Families are reportedly the largest slice of the population, the tourism economy draws roughly a million visitors a year, and major local employers include AdventHealth North Pinellas, Innisbrook Resort, the city itself, and the school system. St. Petersburg College operates a campus in town. Bus service covers most of the city, supplemented by bike lanes, which matters for families without reliable transportation.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and draws a racially and ethnically diverse student body. Hispanic and white students make up the two largest groups, Black students the next largest, and multiracial and Asian students round out the population. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which places this among the higher-need elementary schools in its setting. Data on English learners and students with IEPs were not available in the materials provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, math proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grades sits in a range that runs from the mid-forties to the mid-fifties, with fifth grade performing best. ELA proficiency is clustered around the low fifties across all three grades, fairly consistent by grade level. Fifth-grade science, assessed separately on Florida's Statewide Science Assessment, came in notably higher, with a clear majority of students reaching proficiency. These results put the school in a middle range, not strong by statewide standards but not at the low end either. Parents may want to ask the school directly about reading intervention supports and math enrichment pathways, particularly for students arriving from pre-kindergarten who will spend six years here.
On that front, the parent district context is relevant. Pinellas County Schools publicly reported earning its first-ever state "A" grade in 2024, which the district ties to a custom ELA curriculum built around Florida's B.E.S.T. standards and a science-of-reading approach that begins in kindergarten and runs through fifth grade, with a word-study component for grades three through five. That curriculum is in place district-wide, meaning families at Tarpon Springs Elementary are getting the approach the district credits for recent districtwide gains. The 2024 results in the data here are the first year of that curriculum at scale, so there is limited trend data to judge its effect at this specific school.
In November 2024, voters in Pinellas County publicly renewed and expanded a local-option school property tax, doubling the rate for a multi-year period. The revenue is directed toward teacher and support-staff bonuses and toward reading, music, art, and technology programs. For a prospective homebuyer, that is a real carrying cost increase worth pricing into any purchase decision; for a family already planning to enroll, it is a signal that the community has repeatedly chosen to fund programming beyond the state baseline.
The housing market around the school's zip code shows home values modestly below the statewide benchmark and down slightly year over year, while rents have held roughly flat recently. Estimated monthly mortgage payments on a typical home here would consume a meaningful portion of a median household's income, though rent-to-income ratios sit within a range that remains manageable for renters at median income. Growth and development data for Tarpon Springs was not available in the materials.
Enrollment is what one would expect for a neighborhood elementary school serving pre-K through fifth grade. Multi-year academic trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether scores here are rising, flat, or declining. Chronic absenteeism and discipline data were also absent. A parent considering this school for a child who needs early reading intervention, or one who is academically ahead, would benefit from a direct conversation with school staff about what specific support structures are in place beyond the district's core curriculum.
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