MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY

Set in HOMESTEAD, Florida, MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY is a mid-sized K-5 school, run under MIAMI-DADE. It serves 643 students across grades pre-K through 8.

MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY is one of 527 schools operated by MIAMI-DADE, a district that educates 335,685 students overall.

Demographically, MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY logs that 52% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 45% Hispanic, 2% White. By comparison, Miami-Dade County as a whole is about 15% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, The school employs 47 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 13.7:1. The state averages around 17.5:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 72% of students at MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is above Miami-Dade County's rate of about 48%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 45.1% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 40.0%.

In the broader community, Miami-Dade County reports that median household earnings sit near $71,753, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 11% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Miami-Dade County's 561 public schools (combined enrollment of about 335,817 students), MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: CHAPMAN PARTNERSHIP EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER SOUTH, around 0.1 miles off. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, MANDARIN LAKES K-8 ACADEMY comes 6th of 6 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 60.1%.

Geographically, the school is in an outer-ring area.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 35%: 985 students in 2018 compared to 643 in 2025. The Black share of enrollment expanded from 39% to 52% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 14.9:1 in 2018 to 13.7:1 today.

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