Port Malabar Elementary School, Palm Bay FL

Original Research by School Decision on Port Malabar Elementary School

Port Malabar Elementary sits on Pioneer Avenue NE in the northeastern quadrant of Palm Bay, the largest city by land area in Brevard County. It serves children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, which means its older students stay through a year that, in many Florida districts, belongs to middle school. State testing data from the most recent year covers grades three through six in English language arts and math, and fifth grade in science.

On those assessments, the picture is mixed but consistent enough to name clearly. In ELA, proficiency rates in the tested grades run roughly from just above half to a bit higher in sixth grade, which performs measurably better than the grades below it. Math follows a similar arc: grades three through five land in the mid-forties range, while sixth grade comes in above half. Fifth-grade science sits just above half. None of these results are cause for alarm, but they also sit below what a family might hope to see heading into middle school, and a parent who wants to understand how a child performing below grade level is being supported should ask the school directly about its intervention approach and how progress is tracked across grades.

A substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic profile of the surrounding neighborhood rather than anything about the school's quality. The student body is racially diverse, with white, Hispanic, and Black students each making up a meaningful portion of enrollment, and a notable share of students identifying as two or more races. Data on English learner and special education populations was not available in the materials provided, so families of children with IEPs or language needs would want to ask the school about those supports directly.

No information about specific programs, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism was included in the available data.

Port Malabar is in the Brevard district. The district brief search did not surface confirmed parent-relevant changes before its budget was exhausted, so district-level context is thin here.

The surrounding neighborhood is part of the original Port Malabar residential plat, Palm Bay's founding subdivision, laid out decades ago by a development company that shaped much of the city's early growth. That northeastern section is the city's more established and somewhat denser quadrant compared to the sprawling new subdivisions pushing into the southeast. The broader city is car-dependent, with streets built around subdivision access rather than a walkable grid. Home values in the zip code have pulled back modestly from recent peaks and now sit below both the state median and the national median, making this one of the more accessible parts of the Space Coast for buyers. Rents have been essentially flat over the past year. The local economy draws on defense and aerospace firms, with L3Harris and Raytheon among the publicly reported major employers in the metro.

Palm Bay as a whole is growing at a pace that has drawn attention statewide, with large master-planned developments in the southern and eastern parts of the city adding thousands of homes. Publicly reported coverage of development proposals has flagged school capacity as one of the city's growth concerns, though that pressure appears concentrated in the newer growth areas rather than in the established northeastern neighborhoods where Port Malabar sits. Families thinking about stability of enrollment and school resources over a five- to seven-year horizon may want to follow how Brevard addresses capacity countywide.

The comparison data for this school relative to other districts in Brevard County could not be computed because the county has too few districts for a meaningful cohort, so no positioning against neighbors is available.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 59% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 60% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 57% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 72% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 58% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 58% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 60% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 70% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 60% · ▼ 9 pts below district

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

This schoolBREVARD, 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 3Lower-income50%Higher-income60%10 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income52%Higher-income50%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income42%Higher-income61%19 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income60%Higher-income66%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income41%Higher-income64%23 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income38%Higher-income59%21 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income53%13 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income73%27 pp gap