Story ideas
8 story ideas, each grounded in a measurement on the Miami-Dade tables or in one of the committed analysis packets, with the numbers as measured, the pages that carry them, and what reporting would close the piece. Easy stories are mostly what the data shows; hard ones need interviews or records the district has not published.
The 2026 closure lists
- easy31 of the district's 54 emptiest schools are on no closure list, and 12 listed schools are at least half full
Utilization is the strongest single predictor of appearing on the board's 2026 closure, consolidation, review and reassessment lists: schools under half of permanent capacity are flagged at 7 times the rate of the rest (…
Enrollment decline
- easySix years after the pandemic, two in three district-run schools are at least 10% smaller and one in seven has lost a third
The pandemic did not cause a one-time drop that stabilised. Among the 325 district-run schools open in both 2019-20 and 2025-26, total enrollment fell 15.3% and the median school lost 16.7%. Sixty-three percent lost at l…
District vs charter
- easyDistrict-run enrollment fell by 60,000 in nine years while charter enrollment rose by 24,000
Between October 2016 and October 2025, enrollment in Miami-Dade's district-run regular schools fell from 291,298 to 231,607, a fifth. Charter schools grew from 62,902 to 86,913 over the same years, and their share of all…
Small schools and cost
- mediumMiami-Dade's small elementary schools spend more per student; a median-based benchmark gap totals $20 million
Smaller schools have higher reported per-pupil spending. In 2024-25 the 26 district-run elementary schools with fewer than 300 students spent a median $16,893 per pupil at the school level, against $14,051 at schools of …
What families and staff say
- mediumHow school survey responses relate to later enrollment change
The district surveys students, parents and staff every spring. The analysis asks whether school-level survey measures are associated with subsequent enrollment change after adjusting for utilization, school grade, level …
Methodology and data quality
- hardAdjusting test scores for who enrols makes them agree less, not more, with Florida's own growth measure
The pre-registered P2 check asks whether adjusted achievement correlates with Florida learning gains at least as strongly as raw achievement. The linked residual analysis reports the result for each fit. This is an empir…
- easyThe federal chronic absenteeism number for Miami-Dade elementary schools is lower than the state's because it leaves out pre-kindergarten
Reporters comparing Florida's chronic absenteeism figures with the U.S. Department of Education's will find the federal counts lower at most elementary schools. The two are the same submission: at the schools with no pre…
- easyFour in ten of Miami-Dade's charter schools skip the district's climate survey, so sector comparisons of school climate are not like for like
The district's spring climate survey reaches nearly every district-run school but only part of the charter sector. Among active regular schools with students in grades 4 and up, 310 of 314 district-run schools have a 202…