Original Research by School Decision on International Studies Virtual Academy
International Studies Virtual Academy is a Miami-Dade charter school serving grades six through twelve, with a registered address in Miami's northeast corridor near North Bay Village. The school operates as a virtual setting, which shapes almost everything about what it offers and who it fits.
Enrollment is very small, to a degree that makes this one of the smallest schools of its grade band in the data. Students are concentrated in the upper grades, with the middle school years nearly unpopulated. That distribution is worth understanding before a family commits: a seventh or eighth grader would have almost no same-grade peers. The school draws predominantly Hispanic students, with a smaller share of white students and very few students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is quite low, suggesting the population skews toward families with more economic stability relative to many Miami-Dade schools.
State testing results for FAST ELA, FAST Math, and the statewide science assessment were suppressed across the grades tested, meaning the state did not publish those figures, likely because the school's enrollment is too small to report without privacy concerns. A parent should not read that suppression as a negative result; it simply means no comparative academic picture is available from the state assessment. No multi-year trend data exists either. Comparisons relative to other districts in Miami-Dade County were also not applicable, for the same reason. A parent wanting a performance picture would need to ask the school directly for any available outcome data.
No program details were provided in the data, so we cannot characterize course offerings, AP access, dual enrollment, or any career-technical pathway. That is a meaningful gap for a school serving through twelfth grade, and a family weighing this school against alternatives would want specifics from the school about what the high school curriculum actually includes and how students access college-level coursework in a virtual format.
No graduation rate data was available.
The school sits within Miami-Dade County Public Schools' charter landscape. The district is navigating a period of real turbulence: publicly reported enrollment has declined sharply, and district leadership proposed closing or combining up to nine schools heading into the next school year, with restructured grade configurations possible across all three regional zones. Families considering any school in the district, including charters, should watch how boundary and assignment decisions unfold. A voter-approved property tax running through 2027 continues to fund teacher compensation and school safety staffing, which is a direct cost to Miami-area homeowners.
Miami itself is a large, dense urban environment with strong walkability in many neighborhoods and an extensive transit network, including the free Metromover downtown and the Metrorail system connecting across the county. The county-level housing market shows home values below the statewide median and trending downward year over year, while rents remain high relative to income, with rent consuming a substantial share of a typical household's budget. That affordability pressure is a real part of the context for families relocating to or within the area.
The virtual structure of International Studies Virtual Academy means the physical Miami environment is less directly relevant to a student's daily school experience than it would be for a campus-based school. For families seeking flexibility, a small peer group, or a school that can accommodate schedules outside the traditional model, a virtual charter of this size and type may fit. Families who want a richer extracurricular environment, documented academic outcomes, or a broad set of on-site course options will find the data thin here and should press the school directly with those questions.
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