Royal Palm Charter School, Palm Bay FL

Original Research by School Decision on Royal Palm Charter School

Royal Palm Charter School sits on Babcock Street NE in Palm Bay, Florida, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. As a charter school operating within the Brevard district, it draws from one of the Space Coast's fastest-growing cities, a sprawling, car-dependent residential city built around major arterials and subdivisions rather than any walkable center. The neighborhood directly around the school is part of Palm Bay's northeast quadrant, the more urban-feeling section of a city that is otherwise defined by wide subdivision streets and distance between things.

The school is small relative to what a K-8 span might suggest. Enrollment is modest, with roughly even cohorts across most grade levels, though the fifth grade is noticeably smaller than the others. About half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school in territory where economic need is a real and present factor in the student body. The school's racial and ethnic composition is majority white, with Hispanic and Black students each representing meaningful shares, and students of two or more races adding to the mix. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the records we reviewed; families whose children fall into either of those categories may want to ask the school directly about available supports.

State assessment results from the 2024-25 FAST testing cycle show a school with a pronounced split between its elementary grades and its middle grades. In both math and ELA, third, fourth, and fifth graders are achieving proficiency at rates that fall below what most parents would consider strong, with fifth grade especially low in both subjects. The fifth-grade science result on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment follows a similar pattern. These are soft spots worth understanding, and a parent may want to ask the school what academic supports are in place for students in those grades who are not yet proficient.

The middle school results tell a different story. Sixth graders in particular show high proficiency rates in both math and ELA, well above what the elementary grades produce and substantially stronger by any plain reading of the data. Seventh and eighth graders sustain that improvement, with ELA and math proficiency rates in the solid-to-strong range. The eighth-grade science result lands above the midpoint. Whether the jump from elementary to middle reflects a different instructional approach, a particular cohort, or something about how the school is organized is not something the data alone can answer, but it is a real pattern. A graduation rate does not apply here since the school does not serve high school grades. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, stable, or variable.

The comparison framework for this school relative to others in Brevard County had too few entities in the comparison set to produce a reliable position read, so that benchmark was set aside.

Palm Bay itself is in a period of accelerating growth, with large master-planned developments underway mostly in the southeast quadrant, and publicly reported concerns about school capacity arising from the pace of residential construction. Families considering this school should be aware that the broader district context includes infrastructure and enrollment pressures as the city expands. Housing values in the zip code have edged down slightly year over year while remaining above statewide and national medians, with rents running modestly upward. The local economy leans heavily on aerospace, defense contracting, and engineering employers such as L3Harris and Raytheon, which shapes the kind of households sending children to area schools.

Program details for Royal Palm Charter were not available in the data we reviewed, so specifics about curriculum model, extracurriculars, or any distinctive charter mission could not be described here. Families should consult the school directly to understand what drew other parents to choose it over the neighborhood public school option.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 59% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 17 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 532%

School 32% · District 57% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 72% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 64% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 844%

School 44% · District 41% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 340%

School 40% · District 58% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 58% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 60% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Grade 667%

School 67% · District 70% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 766%

School 66% · District 62% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 59% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 60% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 853%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with 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-income53%Higher-income25%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income59%33 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income50%Higher-income17%33 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income74%Higher-income57%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income64%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income77%Higher-income44%33 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income53%Higher-income31%21 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income59%33 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income22%18 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income79%Higher-income71%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income70%Higher-income55%15 pp gap