Orange County Preparatory Academy Charter, Orlando FL

Original Research by School Decision on Orange County Preparatory Academy Charter

Orange County Preparatory Academy Charter sits on University Boulevard in Orlando, serving kindergarten through eighth grade as an independent charter school within the Orange County district. The school is small relative to the K-8 grade span it covers, with roughly even distribution across grade levels. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic, with meaningful Black and white populations as well. English learner and special education rates were not available in the data provided.

The school's academic results, measured on Florida's FAST assessment, are below the midpoint among Orange County's districts across tested subjects and grades. That gap is worth understanding clearly. In reading and language arts, the picture is uneven across grades: third through fifth grade proficiency rates sit in the low-to-mid forties, sixth grade climbs notably above that range, seventh grade falls back to the mid-forties, and eighth grade drops to roughly a third of students reaching proficiency. Math results run lower still in most grades, with fifth grade the weakest point across all tested years, and seventh grade standing as the strongest, reaching just above half of students proficient. Fifth grade science showed roughly a quarter of students at proficiency. Trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data alone whether scores have been moving in any direction. A parent interested in the school would benefit from asking directly about instructional supports, intervention programs, and what the school is doing to address these gaps.

No program data was available for AP courses, career pathways, or dual enrollment, which would not apply to a K-8 school in any case. Graduation rates are similarly not applicable here. Information on discipline, attendance, and staffing was not reported. The comparison fact-set covers districts in Orange County and places the school's overall proficiency index in the bottom quartile of that set, which includes only a small number of district-level peers, so that position reflects the available comparison points rather than a wide regional field.

On the housing side, the zip code surrounding the school sits in a market where home values are modestly above the Florida state benchmark and slightly above the national average, though values have edged slightly downward year over year. Rents in the area have also pulled back slightly. The estimated monthly carrying cost for a median-priced home at current rates is substantial, and rent-to-income ratios suggest housing costs take a meaningful share of income for families in the area.

Orlando itself is a large, regionally diverse city, and the University Boulevard corridor where this school sits is in East Orlando, a primarily suburban part of the city distinct from the tourist zones to the southwest and the urban core of downtown. Publicly reported sources describe East Orlando as car-dependent, with daily life organized around commercial corridors and residential subdivisions rather than walkable street grids. The broader city is in a sustained development phase, with major projects downtown, a new regional theme park that opened in 2025, and ongoing airport expansion, all of which affect traffic, growth patterns, and the general pace of change in the metro. The district brief for Orange County returned no confirmed parent-relevant changes before the search was exhausted, so that context was left out rather than guessed at.

For a family weighing this school, the clearest picture is of a small, economically diverse charter in a high-growth suburban corridor, with current test scores that sit meaningfully below county-level benchmarks across most grades and subjects. What the school offers in terms of culture, programming, community feel, and specific student support is not answered by this data, and those are the questions most worth asking directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 338%

School 38% · District 63% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

Grade 429%

School 29% · District 64% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 520%

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

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 60% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 39% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 59% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 442%

School 42% · District 59% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 58% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 59% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 748%

School 48% · District 55% · ▼ 7 pts below district

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

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 53% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Science

Grade 525%

School 25% · District 62% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

This schoolORANGE, 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.