The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in Math. The lowest is 54% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Highland Lakes Elementary School
Highland Lakes Elementary sits on Highlands Boulevard in Palm Harbor, a largely built-out suburban community in northern Pinellas County. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within the Pinellas County Schools district.
Palm Harbor itself is a car-dependent unincorporated community, though the compact historic downtown near Alt U.S. 19 offers walkable streets and a quieter, neighborhood-scaled feel. The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail runs through the area for cycling and recreation. Most families live in one of Palm Harbor's many residential subdivisions, from golf and waterfront communities to master-planned East Lake neighborhoods like Ridgemoor and Lansbrook. The housing market here has seen values come down modestly from their recent peak, now sitting below both the state and national benchmarks, with rents also softening year over year. That combination makes the area somewhat more accessible than it was at the height of the market, though carrying costs remain real for buyers at current mortgage rates.
On the academic picture, state FAST assessment results from the most recent school year show a pattern worth examining. Third graders post the strongest results in both reading and math, with math proficiency well above the midpoint and ELA proficiency solid. Moving into fourth and fifth grade, however, both subjects decline noticeably. By fifth grade, fewer than half of students are reading at proficiency, and math results, while somewhat better, also fall off from the third-grade baseline. The fifth-grade science assessment similarly shows roughly half of students at proficiency. Parents with children in the upper elementary grades may want to ask the school directly about how it addresses the apparent softening in the middle and upper grades. Multi-year trend data was not available in the provided information, so it is not possible to characterize whether this is an improving, stable, or declining trajectory.
What the district is doing structurally bears on this question. Pinellas County Schools developed a custom core ELA curriculum aligned to Florida's literacy standards, beginning in kindergarten through second grade and extending a science-of-reading approach with a word-study component into grades three through five. Publicly reported case study materials credit this curriculum shift with contributing to the district earning its first-ever state "A" grade in 2024, with upper elementary grades showing growth outpacing the statewide average in that period. That context suggests the instructional foundation is changing, though how fully it has taken hold at Highland Lakes specifically is something a campus visit or conversation with staff would clarify better than this data can.
The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up the next largest group and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Roughly two-fifths of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a moderately elevated share for this area of Pinellas County. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the records provided.
On resources, Pinellas County voters approved a renewal and expansion of the local-option school property tax in November 2024, doubling the millage rate for the coming years. The funds are directed toward teacher and staff compensation, reading programs, music, art, and technology. For prospective homebuyers in the area, this represents an added property tax cost worth factoring in; for families already enrolled or planning to enroll, it represents a meaningful commitment to program and staffing stability.
The school does not have magnet designation or Title I status in the available data. Program details beyond the core curriculum were not in the provided records, so specialty offerings, after-school programs, or enrichment tracks are not something this account can speak to.
Highland Lakes is a neighborhood elementary in a stable, well-established community. Its early grades show genuine academic strength, and the district's literacy reforms are an active variable in the upper-grade picture. Families of fourth and fifth graders may want to probe that trend more closely.
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