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What's the one class at HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL every student should take?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
564
Elementary
DISTRICT 791 · STATE 604
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·OSCEOLA·NCES 120147001468
HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
800 W DONEGAN AVE, KISSIMMEE, FL 34741 · (407) 935-3620 · Osceola County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL564 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.7:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 30.7:1 · STATE 17.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
65%
367 students
DISTRICT 52% · STATE 50%
Community
3
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
FAST / B.E.S.T. 2024-25 . % at Level 3 or AboveEnglish Language Arts
30.8%
FL avg 56.7% . -2.0pp since 2023
Math
32.0%
FL avg 58.9% . -1.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 31 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 32 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57 and 59. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 1 points.
Source: FAST / B.E.S.T.. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of FL schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
33.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
48.6%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-15.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 33% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 49% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
564
-313 (-36%) vs 2017
Student : Teacher
15.7:1
was 14.2:1
% White
8%
was 7%
% Hispanic
82%
was 81%
% Black
6%
was 8%
% Asian
4%
was 2%
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
About HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
As an average-sized elementary-level community in KISSIMMEE, Florida, HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL works with 564 students from grades pre-K through 5, part of OSCEOLA.
Within OSCEOLA, which oversees 83 schools and 75,388 students, HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the system.
On demographics, HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL logs that nearly all students (82%) are Hispanic. The remainder is composed of 8% White, 6% Black, 4% Asian. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 56%.
On the resource side, On paper, HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.5:1 average. An estimated 65% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is noticeably above Osceola County's rate of about 52%.
Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL falls in the UNDERPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations residual. Given its student profile, a typical campus would land near 48.6%; this one comes in at 33.0%, -15.6 points off the demographic line.
In the broader community, ACS estimates for Osceola County put median household earnings sit near $72,637, roughly 30% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 11%. Across Osceola County's 88 public schools (combined enrollment of about 74,164 students), HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the mix.
CENTRAL AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL at 4th of 7; the average score across the group is 39.9%.
The school occupies a metropolitan site.
Looking at the recent track record. Over the past 7-year window, the student count fell 36%: 877 students in 2018 compared to 564 in 2025. Class-load math has loosened: from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 15.7:1 in 2025.
On the community side, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Osceola County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
427,415
Census ACS
Median income
$72,637
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
30%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
88
74,164 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in OSCEOLA
- TOHOPEKALIGA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,929 students
- CELEBRATION HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,681 students
- HARMONY HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,673 students
- ST. CLOUD HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,596 students
- POINCIANA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,573 students
- OSCEOLA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,345 students
Other schools in KISSIMMEE
- TOHOPEKALIGA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,929 students
- POINCIANA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,573 students
- OSCEOLA HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,345 students
- GATEWAY HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,882 students
- WESTSIDE K-8 SCHOOLElementary · 1,496 students
- RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL AT TAPESTRYElementary · 1,419 students
Nearby schools
- CENTRAL AVENUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL0.8 mi · 529
- OSCEOLA SCIENCE CHARTER SCHOOL1.0 mi · 1,158
- VICTORY CHARTER SCHOOL1.1 mi · 750
- VICTORY CHARTER SCHOOL K-51.1 mi · 344
- RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL AT TAPESTRY1.1 mi · 1,419
- MAIN STREET HIGH SCHOOL1.2 mi · 398
Frequently asked questions
About HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWhat is the total enrollment at HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 564 students in grades PK-05.
Is HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL an elementary, middle, or high school?
HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many students per teacher at HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Approximately 15.7:1 students per teacher at HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
How diverse is HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL reports a student body of 8% White, 82% Hispanic, 6% Black, 4% Asian, 0% Two or more.
Is HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL public or private?
HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public K-12 school, overseen by OSCEOLA.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.