Bayshore Elementary School, North Ft Myers FL

Original Research by School Decision on Bayshore Elementary School

Bayshore Elementary sits on Williams Road in North Fort Myers, a sprawling unincorporated area on the north bank of the Caloosahatchee River that reads more as a patchwork of residential corridors than a single community. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within the Lee County School District. Enrollment puts it in a mid-sized range for its grade band.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic population and small representations of other groups. Close to half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that reflects North Fort Myers's mix of working families, lower-income neighborhoods, and the economic diversity that runs through the area's manufactured-home parks alongside newer single-family developments. Data on English learner and special education populations were not available in the data provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments, Bayshore's results show a clear pattern worth understanding. In math, third graders scored just above half proficient, while fourth and fifth graders performed considerably better, with fifth grade reaching the highest mark of the tested grades. A sixth-grade cohort also appears in the data, though the school's listed grade band stops at fifth; that data point is present but its context is not explained, and a parent might want to confirm directly with the school. In ELA, third-grade proficiency came in just under half, with fourth and fifth grades posting the same rate, modestly above half. Sixth-grade ELA sits just above half. On the statewide science assessment given at fifth grade, roughly half of students scored proficient. Taken together, upper-elementary grades are outperforming the earlier grades, particularly in math, but reading proficiency across all grades sits in a range where families may want to ask the school about its literacy supports and intervention programs. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data alone whether these results are improving, flat, or declining.

No program information was provided, so details about enrichment, language support, or specialty offerings cannot be characterized here.

The broader community context shapes daily life in practical ways. North Fort Myers is car-dependent, organized around U.S. 41 rather than any walkable center, and the nearest genuinely urban environment is across the Caloosahatchee in downtown Fort Myers. The area is actively developing after years of stagnation, with new apartment communities and gated single-family neighborhoods coming online along the main corridors, and county officials have described these as catalyst investments meant to lift the area. Home values in the zip code have come down year over year and sit below the Florida state benchmark, making the area more accessible to buyers than much of Southwest Florida, though affordability relative to local incomes still requires attention. Rents have also softened modestly. Both directions of recent price movement matter for families deciding whether to buy.

At the district level, two changes are immediately relevant for families. Lee County adopted a Proximity Plan that assigns elementary students to schools closer to home and limits busing to students within the designated proximity zone; families living within roughly two miles of their assigned school are not provided district transportation. This means the address a family chooses matters more than it once did. The district also recently shifted to an elected, partisan superintendent, a governance change that altered how district leadership is selected and accountable to the public. A voter-approved sales tax has funded capital improvements including safety infrastructure across the district, but it is set to expire in 2028, and district leaders have publicly raised questions about what happens to construction, technology, and security funding if it is not renewed.

A comparison of Bayshore's proficiency against other Lee County districts was not possible because the county comparison set contained only a single district, making a meaningful peer comparison unavailable.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 351%

School 51% · District 56% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 57% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 580%

School 80% · District 48% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 671%

School 71% · District 54% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 348%

School 48% · District 48%

▼ 8 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 50% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 44% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 651%

School 51% · District 54% · ▼ 3 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 45% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

This schoolLEE, 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-income42%Higher-income54%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income51%Higher-income65%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income66%17 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income47%Higher-income55%8 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income33%Higher-income67%35 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income56%Higher-income75%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income75%Higher-income83%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income60%Higher-income82%22 pp gap