The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in Math. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Excelsior Prep Charter School
Excelsior Prep Charter School is a small public charter elementary school in Tampa, serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the University Square area of the city. The school's enrollment is small for its grade band, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic and Black, with nearly all students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. That economic profile is important context for reading everything else about the school.
On Florida's state assessments, proficiency rates across tested grades and subjects sit below what most families might hope for. In math, third graders who reach proficiency represent roughly a third of tested students, fourth graders do somewhat better and are closer to the midpoint, and fifth graders fall back below that. In ELA, the pattern is similar and generally weaker: third grade proficiency is well below a third, fourth grade climbs to around the midpoint, and fifth grade falls short of that. Fifth grade science proficiency is low, with only about one in five students reaching that threshold. These results are worth a direct conversation with school leadership about what instructional supports are in place and whether trajectory data is available, because trend information was not available in this data set and a single year of results does not capture whether the school is moving students forward year over year.
IEP and English learner data were not reported in the available data, so how the school serves students with disabilities or students acquiring English cannot be assessed here.
Program information was not provided, so the data does not describe any particular academic model, enrichment offerings, or extended supports the school may offer. Families drawn to a charter school often want to understand what distinguishes its approach; a school visit or conversation with the administration would be the right way to get that picture.
The comparison framework for Hillsborough County is limited because only one district operates in the county's comparison set, so a meaningful peer-district ranking on proficiency is not available.
On the housing side, the zip code where the school sits carries home values that are meaningfully below the Florida statewide benchmark and modestly below the national figure, and have dipped slightly over the past year. Rents are also slightly softer year over year. For a family considering a move to this part of Tampa, the area is more accessible on both the purchase and rental side than many Tampa neighborhoods, though mortgage affordability relative to income remains a stretch at current rates, as it does in most of the country right now.
Tampa itself is a city with distinct neighborhoods that read quite differently from one another. The University Square area is not the downtown waterfront or the historic bungalow streets of Hyde Park and Seminole Heights; it is a more utilitarian, accessible part of the city with proximity to USF and its surrounding institutions. Publicly reported sources describe Tampa as being in an active development phase centered on downtown and the Water Street district, with additional large mixed-use projects in progress near Ybor City, though that growth is concentrated well south of the school's location. The broader district, Hillsborough County Schools, passed a property tax millage in late 2024 to fund teacher pay supplements, with the levy running through mid-2029. Under state law, charter schools receive a share of that funding, which may affect staffing at Excelsior Prep. The district also carried out a significant boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year affecting many traditional public schools, though as a charter, Excelsior Prep operates outside that boundary system and enrolls students who choose it rather than those assigned to it.
For a family weighing this school, the honest picture is a small, high-poverty charter in a competitive urban landscape where current test scores are below state norms across the board. Whether the school's model, culture, or specific programming justifies that choice depends on information the available data does not fully supply.
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