Keys Gate Charter School, Homestead FL

Original Research by School Decision on Keys Gate Charter School

Keys Gate Charter School sits in southeastern Homestead, a fast-growing corner of Miami-Dade County where new townhome and single-family communities have spread outward from a historic downtown core toward the edges of the Everglades. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade, making it one of the larger K-8 charter options in the area, and its enrollment is substantial for that grade band. It operates as a public charter school within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, so families choose it rather than being assigned to it.

The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up a meaningful secondary share and smaller populations of white and Asian students. A large share of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school firmly in a high-need economic context. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed, so parents of children who may need those supports should ask the school directly about the depth and staffing of those programs.

On Florida's state assessments, results vary by grade and subject, and parents should look at the grade-level picture rather than a single headline. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates across grades run from the upper thirties to the mid-fifties, with the strongest results in the third and eighth grades. Math tells a more uneven story: third and seventh graders show proficiency rates in the upper fifties, which is a relative bright spot, while fourth and fifth grade math results drop considerably lower. Science proficiency at the two tested grades, fifth and eighth, sits in the low-to-mid thirties range. Across the board, these results sit below what many parents might hope for, and a family weighing this school should ask how the school tracks individual student progress and what academic supports are in place between grades where the numbers dip. Trend data was not available in what we reviewed, so it is not possible to say whether results have been improving or declining.

No AP, dual enrollment, or career pathway programs were listed in the data, which is consistent with a K-8 school that does not serve high school grades. The graduation rate metric does not apply here for the same reason. The school does offer a range of sports, publicly reported as including football, basketball for both boys and girls, soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball, track and field, cross country, cheerleading, bowling, golf, and wrestling, a notably broad athletics slate for an elementary and middle school.

The neighborhood around the school is car-dependent, consistent with how most of southern Homestead is built. Housing in the zip code has softened over the past year, with both home values and rents declining modestly, though prices remain well above state and national medians in absolute terms. The price-to-income ratio in this area is stretched, and rent consumes a high share of typical household income. For families considering buying near the school, that context is worth weighing carefully alongside mortgage costs at current rates.

At the district level, Miami-Dade is managing a meaningful enrollment decline that has prompted proposals to close or consolidate a number of schools, primarily in the traditional public system. As a charter school, Keys Gate is somewhat insulated from boundary-driven reassignment, but families should still confirm the school's enrollment stability and charter renewal status directly. The district also passed a property-tax referendum that funds teacher pay and school safety, an ongoing cost for homeowners that is set to expire in 2027 unless renewed. A statewide cell phone policy is also in development; the district had taken an education-first approach rather than an outright ban, but state legislation is moving toward a full-day prohibition, and how that plays out will affect daily classroom life here as it will everywhere in Florida.

Comparative proficiency data against other districts in Miami-Dade County was not applicable given how few districts the county contains, so no peer ranking is available.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 69% · ▼ 10 pts below district

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

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 68% · ▼ 33 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 32 pts below county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 62% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 648%

School 48% · District 64% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 759%

School 59% · District 54% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 60% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 350%

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

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 59% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 544%

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

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 63% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 62% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 60% · ▼ 6 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 56% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 46% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolMIAMI-DADE, 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-income48%Higher-income59%11 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income33%Higher-income60%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income52%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income37%Higher-income49%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income50%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income53%Higher-income56%3 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income55%Higher-income71%17 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income52%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income36%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income44%Higher-income64%20 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income58%Higher-income60%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income37%Higher-income46%9 pp gap