Original Research by School Decision on Pace Center for Girls Inc.
PACE Center for Girls in Wilton Manors is a Florida alternative school serving middle and high school grades, operating under the Broward County district umbrella. The school's purpose is specific and intentional: it is part of the statewide PACE network, which publicly reported provides trauma-informed, girl-centered programming for young women who have become involved with the juvenile justice system or are at risk of doing so, often alongside academic credit recovery and wraparound social services. Understanding that mission context is essential to reading everything else about this school.
Enrollment is small, serving a modest number of students spread across grades six through twelve. The racial and ethnic composition reflects Broward County's diversity broadly, with Black students making up the largest share, followed by Hispanic and white students. The free-and-reduced-price lunch data as reported here shows a relatively modest share formally qualifying, though that figure may not fully capture the economic circumstances of a student population that alternative schools like this one often serve. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed.
State assessment results were not available for this school. That gap is worth naming rather than leaving ambiguous. Alternative schools serving students in crisis or credit-recovery situations often operate outside standard testing reporting, or serve students whose academic trajectories don't align with grade-level assessments in the ways that produce comparable school-level proficiency data. A parent or guardian asking about academic outcomes should ask PACE directly about how they measure and report student progress, credit attainment, and the pathways students take after leaving the program. The comparison metrics relative to districts in Broward County were not applicable for the same reason.
No graduation rate data was available for this school. Again, for an alternative school of this type, that absence is not inherently a red flag but it is a gap a family should follow up on directly, asking how the school tracks students who complete or transition out and what credential attainment looks like.
The school sits in Wilton Manors, a compact, nearly fully built-out city just north of Fort Lauderdale, publicly reported as a roughly two-square-mile enclave known as the "Island City." The Wilton Drive corridor runs through the heart of the community and carries restaurants, bars, retail, and nightlife alongside civic anchors including City Hall and Hagen Park. The city has a well-documented LGBTQ+ identity and is described as tight-knit and walkable. Housing in the immediate area has softened modestly in value recently and sits close to the statewide median, though rental costs relative to income reflect the broader South Florida affordability strain. Several mixed-use residential projects have been approved along nearby corridors, including Andrews Avenue where PACE is located, and residents have publicly expressed some ambivalence about what intensified development might mean for the city's character.
PACE Center for Girls is not a neighborhood school in any conventional sense, and the standard framework for evaluating schools, test scores, course breadth, AP offerings, graduation rates compared to peers, does not apply here in the same way. The relevant questions for a family are whether a young woman in their life needs the kind of structured, therapeutic, re-engagement environment this school is designed to provide, and whether PACE's model and Broward location are the right fit for her specific situation. Program details, social services coordination, and transition planning are the things worth exploring directly with the school.
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