Osceola County School for the Arts, Kissimmee FL

Original Research by School Decision on Osceola County School for the Arts

Osceola County School for the Arts sits on North Orange Blossom Trail in Kissimmee, serving students from sixth grade through twelfth. It is a public, non-charter school operating within the Osceola district, and its defining feature is that arts integration is the organizing principle of the entire school, not a department tucked inside a conventional program. Students who enroll are choosing a middle-and-high school environment where artistic discipline runs alongside academic coursework.

Academically, the school's state assessment results for the most recently reported year are strong. Across the tested middle grades, ELA proficiency runs in the high eighties to ninety percent range, and math proficiency is similarly elevated, with the eighth grade reaching particularly high levels. Eighth-grade science proficiency is also well above what most Florida schools report. These are genuine strengths on Florida's FAST assessments, and they hold across all three tested grade levels for which results are available. High school grades are not covered by the same state testing framework, so results appear only for grades six through eight; that is not a gap in the school's performance but a feature of how Florida's assessment system is structured. Graduation rate data was not available in the data provided, and program-specific details such as AP access, dual enrollment, or arts concentrations were not available either; a parent interested in the high school pathway should ask the school directly about those offerings.

A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic diversity of Kissimmee and Osceola County broadly. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, reflecting the demographic composition of the surrounding community, with smaller shares of white, Black, and Asian students. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not reported, so it is worth asking the school directly how it serves students who need those supports. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to describe whether proficiency has been climbing or holding steady over time.

The school is located in Kissimmee, a city in active growth. The downtown core, anchored by Broadway and its vintage commercial streetscape, is genuinely walkable and ends at Lake Tohopekaliga, a large lake with a public waterfront park, marina, and a connecting lakefront trail. A SunRail commuter station anchors the downtown, and a planned complete-streets redesign will add bike lanes and wider sidewalks. The western corridor toward the Disney-area tourism strip is a different environment entirely, car-dependent and shaped by hospitality employment. The local economy mixes tourism work, healthcare centered at Osceola Regional Medical Center, and some ranching in the county's southern reaches. Kissimmee is described publicly as one of Central Florida's fastest-growing markets, with new master-planned neighborhoods and commercial development alongside downtown infill.

Home values in the zip code surrounding the school are modestly above the Florida statewide benchmark and also above the national median. Values have dipped slightly year over year, and rents have edged down as well. Renting here consumes a meaningful portion of income, and the gap between renting and carrying a mortgage is not trivial, which matters for families weighing a move. None of this is specific to proximity to the school, since the data reflects the broader zip code.

The Osceola district brief produced no confirmed parent-relevant changes before the research budget was exhausted, so recent district-level policy shifts or initiatives were left out rather than guessed at.

What this school asks of a family is a deliberate choice. Enrollment is an active decision to place a student in an arts-centered environment for all seven years from sixth grade through graduation. The academic results in the tested grades are strong, the community around it is diverse and growing, and the city has real civic life despite its tourist-oriented reputation. The high school program's specific arts pathways and college-preparatory options are the things most worth pressing the school on directly.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 123 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

867 schools plotted. 183 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 49% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

Grade 781%

School 81% · District 38% · ▲ 43 pts above district

▲ 32 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

Grade 896%

School 96% · District 52% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 45 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 690%

School 90% · District 52% · ▲ 38 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 787%

School 87% · District 49% · ▲ 38 pts above district

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

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 49% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

Science

Grade 884%

School 84% · District 43% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 49 pts above county median

This schoolOSCEOLA, 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 6Lower-income84%Higher-income95%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income80%Higher-income93%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income89%Higher-income90%1 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income91%16 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income78%Higher-income83%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income91%Higher-income98%7 pp gap