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What's the best and worst thing about the food at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
438
Elementary
DISTRICT 641 · STATE 604
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·POLK·NCES 120159001763
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
305 1ST AVE NE, MULBERRY, FL 33860 · (863) 701-1061 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL438 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
18.3:1
24 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.3:1 · STATE 17.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
82%
358 students
DISTRICT 65% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 26 | 6% |
| Kindergarten | 56 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 61 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 72 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 89 | 20% |
| Grade 4 | 64 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 70 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (56) is 20% smaller than its 5th grade class (70).
Student demographics
62%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 67% · STATE 70% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). 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
38.8%
FL avg 56.7% . -0.1pp since 2023
Math
37.1%
FL avg 58.9% . +5.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 39 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 37 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57 and 59. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
FAST / B.E.S.T. results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 38.8% | 37.1% |
| 2023-24 | 38.9% | 32.1% |
% at Level 3 or Above, all students and all tested grades.
Source: FAST / B.E.S.T.. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
35.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
40.2%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 36% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 40% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Florida's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (35.5% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 438 | 81.7% | 35.5% |
| NORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OKEECHOBEE | 528 | 78.8% | 45.1% |
| OSCAR J. POPE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LAKELAND | 365 | 80.8% | 48.0% |
| ALTA VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SARASOTA | 453 | 84.3% | 58.9% |
| CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OKEECHOBEE | 571 | 86.0% | 40.2% |
| KATHLEEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LAKELAND | 453 | 78.8% | 41.4% |
Matched among Florida elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Florida | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 35.5% | #1,966 of 2,136 | #79 of 85 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 37.1% | #1,998 of 2,149 ▲ 35 | #75 of 86 ▲ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 38.8% | #1,820 of 2,149 ▼ 131 | #67 of 86 ▼ 4 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 438 | #1,646 of 2,267 | #68 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.3:1 | #1,739 of 2,077 | #58 of 85 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 61.5% | #781 of 2,108 | #56 of 85 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 81.7% | #120 of 2,188 | #8 of 88 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -11.2% | #885 of 1,374 | #19 of 39 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
438
-37 (-8%) vs 2020
-5% since 1990-91, when it was 461
Student : Teacher
18.3:1
was 12.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 438 | 24 | 18.3:1 | 82% (358) |
| 2023-24 | 474 | 29 | 16.3:1 | 81% (385) |
| 2022-23 | 516 | 32 | 16.1:1 | 64% (331) |
| 2020-21 | 475 | 37 | 12.8:1 | 67% (317) |
| 2017-18 | 493 | 38 | 13.0:1 | 67% (329) |
| 2015-16 | 515 | 39 | 13.2:1 | 71% (366) |
| 2010-11 | 436 | 36 | 12.1:1 | 85% (372) |
| 2000-01 | 610 | 35 | 17.4:1 | 73% (448) |
| 1990-91 | 461 | 25 | 18.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is listed by the National Center for Education Statistics as an elementary school in MULBERRY, Florida. Total enrollment is 438 students, and the grades served are pre-K through 5. Elementary schools in Florida have about 604 students on average; enrollment here is 27% lower.
POLK oversees PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and 162 other schools, with 116,552 students in total.
The largest racial or ethnic group at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is Hispanic, with 49% of students. The remaining shares are 36% White, 12% Black, and 3% multiracial. Polk County as a whole is about 29% Hispanic, so the school's share is higher. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL scores 62%.
With 24 full-time-equivalent teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 18.3:1. Elementary schools in Florida average 17.5:1, 0.8 fewer students per teacher than here. Roughly 82% of students come from households that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Polk County average 65%.
After adjusting for student poverty, PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lands between the top and bottom 10% of Florida schools. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 35.5%; the prediction is 40.2%.
American Community Survey estimates for Polk County show that median household income comes to about $65,978, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 24% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 11%. The county's public schools total 172, with about 117,004 students.
About 0.6 miles separate PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL from the closest public school, MULBERRY MIDDLE SCHOOL. A five-mile radius around the school includes 7 other public schools. Nearby schools average 48.5% on proficiency, and PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is below that at 35.5%.
In the federal locale system, PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is coded Suburb: Large, for schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's student count decreased 8% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years. The school's ratio increased from 12.8:1 to 18.3:1 between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
The PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL discussion page is a place for open houses, carpools, and field trips. You can also rate the school on this page.
Polk County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
790,694
Census ACS
Median income
$65,978
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
24%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
172
117,004 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in POLK
- HAINES CITY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,105 students
- DAVENPORT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,731 students
- WINTER HAVEN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,648 students
- RIDGE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,632 students
- GEORGE W. JENKINS SENIOR HIGHHigh · 2,469 students
- BARTOW SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,276 students
Other schools in MULBERRY
- MULBERRY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,451 students
- MULBERRY MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 1,058 students
- WILLOW OAK SCHOOLElementary · 996 students
- RCMA MULBERRY COMMUNITY ACADEMYElementary · 107 students
Other Purcell Elementary schools
2 other US public schools in 3 states are named Purcell Elementary. PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the 2nd largest of the 3.
- Purcell Elementary SchoolABILENE, TX · 537 students
- Purcell Elementary SchoolPurcell, OK · 387 students
Nearby schools
- MULBERRY MIDDLE SCHOOL0.6 mi · 1,058
- MULBERRY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL0.8 mi · 1,451
- JAMES W. SIKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL3.4 mi · 502
- WILLOW OAK SCHOOL3.4 mi · 996
- SCOTT LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL4.3 mi · 735
- RCMA MULBERRY COMMUNITY ACADEMY4.4 mi · 107
Frequently asked questions
About PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWhat is the total enrollment at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 438 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serve?
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
The student-to-teacher ratio at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is approximately 18.3:1 (24 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Student demographics at PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL are roughly 36% White, 49% Hispanic, 12% Black, 0% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL public or private?
PURCELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a public K-12 school, overseen by POLK.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.