Ocean Studies Charter, Key Largo FL

Original Research by School Decision on Ocean Studies Charter

Ocean Studies Charter is a small K-8 public charter school on the Overseas Highway in Key Largo, serving the northernmost stretch of the Florida Keys. With fewer than two hundred students spread across nine grade levels, each class is small, and the school has the intimate, close-knit character that typically comes with that scale. Because it stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and high school students in the area travel down-island to Coral Shores High School in the Tavernier and Islamorada area.

The school's name points to something about its identity, situated at the edge of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, in a place that calls itself the Diving Capital of the World. Whether the curriculum formally integrates that marine context in a structured way, the data here does not confirm, and families curious about the depth of ocean-themed programming would want to ask the school directly.

On state assessments, the picture is mixed but leans positive, particularly in the upper grades. In eighth grade, math proficiency is especially strong, and ELA results in grades six through eight are consistently solid, with the vast majority of students in those grades meeting the state standard. Fifth grade shows respectable results in both subjects. The softer spots are in fourth grade, where ELA proficiency falls below half of students and math sits around the midpoint, and in third grade ELA, which is below the school's own performance in other grades. Seventh-grade math results are suppressed, meaning the state did not publish them, likely because the group is small enough to trigger privacy rules. Science scores at the tested grades, fifth and eighth, are in reasonable shape, with eighth grade performing noticeably well. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether results are improving, holding, or slipping. A parent would reasonably want to ask the school about what is happening in the fourth-grade cohort specifically.

The student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic share and small proportions of other groups. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is relatively modest compared to many Florida schools, suggesting the population skews toward families with greater economic stability, consistent with the broader housing market in Key Largo. Data on students with IEPs or English learners was not available, so families with those needs would want to ask the school about its support structures.

The community context shapes the experience in ways worth naming plainly. Key Largo has no walkable center; daily life runs along US 1 by mile marker, and the school sits on that highway corridor. Housing here is among the most expensive in Florida, running well above both state and national medians, and the local market has barely moved in the past year. Renting is also costly. Workforce housing pressure is a live issue, with several new affordable and workforce rental projects in various stages of approval near the school's end of the island. Families considering a move here are weighing one of the more financially demanding housing markets in the state, regardless of where children go to school.

At the district level, Monroe County voters in late 2024 renewed two longstanding school funding measures that support teacher pay, school nurses, and school resource officers at every school, as well as facility maintenance, publicly reported as continuing with no new cost to property owners. For the current fiscal year, the district did adopt a modest property tax rate increase, directing the added revenue toward capital projects including construction, safety improvements, and new buses. Both items matter to a homebuying family doing the full financial math.

Comparison data against other districts in Monroe County was not usable here because the county has only one district, making a meaningful peer comparison impossible from available data.

Ocean Studies Charter fits a family that wants a small, place-rooted school environment, is comfortable with a charter model, and can navigate the demanding Key Largo housing market. The upper-grade academic results are genuinely encouraging. The fourth-grade dip in reading and the missing trend data are things a thoughtful parent would want to follow up on directly with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 64% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 453%

School 53% · District 58% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 53% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 65% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median

Grade 891%

School 91% · District 45% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 368%

School 68% · District 58% · ▲ 10 pts above district

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

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 54% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 47% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 686%

School 86% · District 61% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median

Grade 780%

School 80% · District 55% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median

Grade 883%

School 83% · District 53% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median

Science

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 51% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 878%

School 78% · District 52% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

This schoolMONROE, 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.