The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in Math. The lowest is 50% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Port Charlotte Middle School
Port Charlotte Middle School serves grades six through eight in Port Charlotte, an unincorporated, car-dependent community on Florida's Gulf Coast in Charlotte County. The school sits within Charlotte County Public Schools, a district that publicly reported earning its highest state grade in over a decade for the 2024-25 school year, with no low-rated schools in the county. That district-level trajectory matters as context for reading this school's own numbers.
On Florida's FAST assessments for 2024-25, proficiency at Port Charlotte Middle sits in a middle range across all three grade levels and subjects. Sixth graders score somewhat above the school's own average in both math and ELA, seventh graders perform a bit stronger in math and comparable in ELA, and eighth grade trails the others in both subjects. The eighth-grade science result on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment sits at roughly the midpoint of passing. None of these figures stand out as strong, and a parent wanting to understand how individual grade-level results compare to state averages would want to ask the school directly, since multi-year trend data was not available and the comparison framework against other Charlotte County districts is not applicable here, as the county has only one district. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, particularly around supports available for students who arrive below grade level.
A substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure commonly used to gauge economic need, and it reflects a population that is meaningfully more economically mixed than a typical suburban middle school might suggest. The student makeup is majority white, with Hispanic students forming the next largest group, followed by Black students and smaller multiracial, Asian, and other communities. Data on English learner populations and students with IEPs was not available in the dataset.
One piece of context that parents considering this school should weigh carefully: the building itself was severely damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Publicly reported coverage from Gulfshore Business described the school board weighing a range of reconstruction options, with costs running from a partial rebuild to a full replacement, and a temporary roof that was not designed to be permanent. The long-term capital situation for the facility has been an active question for the district, and families would be right to ask where that planning currently stands.
The broader Port Charlotte community is growing quickly. The Murdock area, which serves as the county's primary commercial and civic hub, is in the middle of significant redevelopment, including large residential projects and a planned entertainment district. The county has been adding housing at a notable pace and is forecast to continue doing so through the end of the decade. Home values near the school have declined meaningfully over the past year and sit well below the Florida state median, making the area relatively more accessible to buyers compared to much of coastal Florida, though renting carries its own cost burden relative to local incomes. The community is almost entirely car-dependent, with civic and recreational life distributed across campuses and corridors rather than concentrated in a walkable center.
Sustaining the school's staffing and programs, as with others in the district, depends in part on a local property tax levy that voters approved in 2022 and that is expected to return to the ballot in 2026. That levy funds teacher salaries, arts programming, and school security beyond what the state provides, so its renewal is a practical question for families planning to stay in the area over the next several years.
For a family moving to Port Charlotte, this is the neighborhood public middle school for much of the community, a mid-sized school by grade band serving a diverse, economically mixed group of students. Academic results are moderate, the facility situation is a real and ongoing question, and the district's overall direction is one of measured improvement. Those are the honest terms of the choice.
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