Turie T. Small Elementary School, Daytona Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Turie T. Small Elementary School

Turie T. Small Elementary sits on South Street in Daytona Beach, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a traditional public school within the Volusia County district. The school is relatively small for its grade band, and the student body is predominantly Black, with Hispanic and multiracial children making up most of the remaining enrollment. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school among the highest-need settings economically. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we received.

State assessment results, reported through Florida's FAST and Statewide Science assessments, tell a clear story: proficiency rates are well below state norms across all tested grades and subjects. In reading and math, third and fourth graders are performing at levels where fewer than a third of students are reaching the proficiency bar, with fifth graders showing modestly higher rates in both areas. Science results for fifth grade land in a similar range. These are figures a parent should take seriously, and it would be worth asking the school directly what instructional supports are in place and how students' individual progress is tracked over time. No multi-year trend data was available in the records we reviewed, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, holding steady, or declining.

No program offerings were listed in the data. We looked for information about before- and after-school programs, enrichment, or specialized instructional models but found nothing to report rather than guess.

The surrounding neighborhood is the urban core of Daytona Beach, a coastal city whose economy runs heavily on tourism, hospitality, and retail, alongside several larger anchors including major healthcare systems, insurance and corporate headquarters, and higher education institutions such as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Bethune-Cookman University. The downtown along Beach Street and the Halifax River has a genuine walkable feel, with civic institutions, parks, and restaurants clustered near the water, though much of the broader city is car-dependent. Votran, the county's public bus system, provides fixed-route service with downtown Daytona Beach as a central hub, though some routes are being shifted to an on-demand model starting in 2026.

The housing market near the school is notably more affordable than Florida as a whole. Home values in the zip code have dipped year over year, sitting well below the state median, and monthly rents are also below what is typical statewide. Rent-to-income ratios still run at a level that represents a real cost burden for lower-income households. The city as a whole has been through a period of strong growth, concentrated along corridors north of the urban core, with that pace now moderating.

The Volusia district brief returned no confirmed information on recent parent-relevant changes, so we left that out rather than speculate.

For a family weighing this school, the picture is one of a high-need community school with state test results that are substantially below proficiency benchmarks across the board. The school is embedded in a city with a range of civic resources and real economic activity, but the immediate neighborhood reflects significant economic stress. A parent enrolling here would want to have a direct conversation with school leadership about how reading development is supported in the early grades and what the trajectory looks like for children who enter below grade level.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 61% · ▼ 36 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 62% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 57% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 57% · ▼ 38 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 55% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

Grade 537%

School 37% · District 56% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Science

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 62% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

This schoolVOLUSIA, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income70%37 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income90%48 pp gap