Bridgeprep Academy of Tampa, Tampa FL

Original Research by School Decision on Bridgeprep Academy of Tampa

BridgePrep Academy of Tampa is a charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade, located on West Swann Avenue in Tampa's Hyde Park-adjacent corridor. It operates under the Hillsborough County school district's charter authorization but makes its own enrollment and program decisions independently of the district's boundary changes, which is worth noting given that Hillsborough recently rezoned a large number of schools for 2024-2025. Families who chose BridgePrep to avoid those boundary disruptions would not be affected by that rezoning.

The school is small relative to what you might expect for a K-8 program spanning nine grade levels. Enrollment is spread fairly evenly across grades, with the middle grades slightly larger than the elementary ones. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up roughly a quarter, white students a smaller share, and very few Asian or multiracial students. A relatively modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, notably lower than many urban charter schools. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we received, so a parent of a child with identified learning needs would want to ask the school directly about its support capacity.

State testing results from Florida's FAST assessment tell a mixed story. In reading, the school's strongest result was in sixth grade, where a majority of students tested as proficient. Eighth grade reading was also above half. But fifth grade reading and math were the weakest points across the school, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency in each. Math results varied considerably by grade: fourth grade was the strongest, with a solid majority proficient, while fifth grade math was the lowest result in the tested range. The middle grades generally sat in the upper-thirties to mid-forties for math. Science proficiency at both tested grade levels, fifth and eighth, came in below a third of students. Taken together, proficiency is inconsistent across the grade band, with meaningful soft spots in fifth grade and in science schoolwide. A parent would want to ask the school what it is doing specifically in those transition years and in science instruction.

No multi-year trend data was available in what we received, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, stability, or decline from prior years.

BridgePrep does not serve high school grades, so graduation rate does not apply here. Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, and career pathway data were not provided, which is expected given the K-8 grade band.

The school sits in a zip code where the housing market is well above the Florida state median and well above the national median. Rents in the area are also at the higher end. The neighborhood around West Swann Avenue is close to Hyde Park, one of Tampa's established historic residential districts with walkable streets, tree canopy, and proximity to Bayshore Boulevard. It is a dense, urban setting rather than a suburban campus, which shapes the daily feel of drop-off and pickup. Tampa as a city is in an active growth phase downtown, with major mixed-use development underway at Water Street and the Gasworx district, and a transit network run by HART connecting the urban core. The area around the school is walkable by Tampa standards.

Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024 that takes effect in mid-2025 and runs through 2029. Publicly reported, charter schools receive a share of those funds under state law, so BridgePrep may benefit from the teacher pay supplements tied to that levy. Homeowners in the county will see the added levy on their tax bills.

The comparison data for proficiency could not be meaningfully positioned against other county districts because there is only one district in Hillsborough County, which makes peer comparison within that framework uninformative here.

BridgePrep Academy of Tampa fits a family looking for a small, urban, K-8 charter option in central Tampa with a majority-Hispanic student body. The academic picture warrants closer conversation with the school, particularly about fifth grade performance and science outcomes across the building.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 58% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 458%

School 58% · District 59% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 522%

School 22% · District 54% · ▼ 32 pts below district

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

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 54% · ▼ 28 pts below district

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

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 36% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 58% · ▼ 13 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 53% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 53% · ▼ 11 pts below district

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

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 53% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 55% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 55% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 52%

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Science

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 50% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 48% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

This schoolHILLSBOROUGH, 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

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income31%Higher-income50%19 pp gap