The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in Math. The lowest is 17% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Village of Excellence Academy
Village of Excellence Academy is a small charter elementary school on East Fowler Avenue in Tampa, serving kindergarten through fifth grade within the Hillsborough County school system. Its enrollment is modest for an elementary school, spread fairly evenly across the grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black, with a smaller Hispanic population and very few students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this squarely among schools serving economically disadvantaged families. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available.
Academic performance on Florida's state assessments tells a challenging story. Tested grades in math show proficiency ranging from roughly a quarter to roughly half of students reaching the standard, with third grade performing best and fifth grade among the lower results. In English language arts, the picture is weaker across the board: the fourth grade result was particularly low, and even the strongest grade reached only about a third of students at proficiency. Fifth-grade science results were similarly low. These figures represent small tested groups, so individual year results carry more statistical noise than they would at a larger school, but the pattern is consistent across subjects and grades. There are no multi-year trend data available to assess whether performance is improving, holding, or declining, which is a meaningful gap for a family trying to understand trajectory. A parent would reasonably want to ask the school directly about its instructional approach, what support structures exist for students below grade level, and what progress looks like year over year.
Civil rights data, chronic absenteeism, discipline figures, and staffing information were not available in the data provided. Course access and program offerings were also not reported.
Village of Excellence Academy operates as a charter school, which means it sits outside Hillsborough County's standard attendance zones. Families choose it actively rather than being assigned. It is worth noting that the district recently undertook a significant boundary rezoning affecting many traditional public schools across the county, so families weighing options between charter and district schools may find the district assignment landscape has shifted. The district also passed a property tax referendum in late 2024, running through 2029, designed to raise teacher and support staff pay; publicly reported accounts indicate charter schools receive a share of those funds under state law, which could affect staffing at a school like this one.
The Fowler Avenue address puts the school in north Tampa, a part of the city that sits away from the heavily invested downtown and Water Street corridor. Tampa broadly is a city of distinct neighborhood characters, from the historically preserved streets of Hyde Park and Seminole Heights to the dense corporate core near the river, and north Tampa occupies a different register from those places. Walkability in this part of the city is limited compared to downtown. The housing market near the school shows values meaningfully below the Florida statewide median, and rents have edged slightly lower year over year, making the surrounding area more accessible than many parts of the metro even as mortgage costs remain a real constraint at current rates. Tampa overall is in an active development phase, though employment data showed some softening in early 2026.
For a family considering this school, the most pressing questions are around academic support and whether the school's model is producing measurable improvement for its students over time. The data on hand shows outcomes that are well below state norms, and the absence of trend data makes it hard to know whether the school is closing that gap. A parent may want to look into this further with the school before enrolling.
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