Palm Beach Public School, Palm Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Palm Beach Public School

Palm Beach Public School sits on Cocoanut Row in the Town of Palm Beach, a barrier island municipality publicly described as one of the most exclusive communities in the United States. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, so there are no graduation rates or middle and high school metrics to report here; those simply do not apply to this grade band.

The setting shapes the school in ways worth naming plainly. The island's housing market is among the most expensive in the country, with typical home values that dwarf both state and national benchmarks, and rents running well above what most households could absorb, with rent consuming a very high share of the national median income. The school's enrollment is small, roughly in line with what you would expect for an elementary school drawing from a compact, low-density island where year-round families are a minority of residents and seasonal occupancy remains common. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful share given the community's extreme overall wealth; it reflects the island's service-economy workforce and the presence of families across different income brackets within even this unusual zip code.

Demographically, the school is majority white, with Hispanic students making up the next largest group, and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. Data on English learner enrollment and special education identification rates were not available in the provided information.

On the Florida FAST assessments, the most recent results show a school performing solidly above its grade band for most tested grades and subjects. Third-grade reading and math results are strong. Fifth-grade math is similarly strong. The sixth-grade math result, where a small number of students appear to be taking the assessment, was at the ceiling, though the small group size means that figure should be read carefully rather than as a sweeping claim. Fourth-grade reading and math are the softer spots in the profile, sitting at or somewhat below the school's own results for other grades; a parent interested in how fourth-grade support is structured would be reasonable to ask the school about that directly. Fifth-grade science comes in at a solid majority proficient. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint relative to districts in Palm Beach County.

Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this information whether recent results represent improvement, stability, or a shift.

The school is a regular public school within the Palm Beach County district, not a charter and not a magnet. Program-specific offerings were not in the data provided, so specifics about enrichment, arts, or intervention programs were left out rather than guessed. The civil rights data section contained no reported figures, and discipline and attendance information was also absent.

The town itself offers a concentrated civic and cultural environment worth knowing about. The Society of the Four Arts campus, which serves as the island's public library system and hosts arts and education programming, sits near the school. The island is walkable within its grid, with beach access, the Lake Trail along the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Worth Avenue retail and dining core within reach for families on foot. Publicly reported sources note that the original Palm Beach Public School building from the 1920s is now part of the Four Arts campus, a detail that speaks to how much the island's physical fabric has changed around the school over time.

For families already living on the island or considering it, Palm Beach Public School offers a small-enrollment environment in a community with unusually high cultural resources nearby and test results that are, on balance, above the middle of the county comparison. The affordability picture makes clear that this is a school serving a very specific housing market; families weighing a move primarily around the school should weigh housing costs carefully against whatever financial picture they bring.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 375%

School 75% · District 64% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 55% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 59% · ▲ 14 pts above district

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

Grade 6100%

School 100% · District 65% · ▲ 35 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 381%

School 81% · District 57% · ▲ 25 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Grade 467%

School 67% · District 56% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 567%

School 67% · District 56% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 54% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

This schoolPALM BEACH, 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-income57%Higher-income93%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income85%55 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income79%36 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income48%Higher-income89%41 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income21%Higher-income73%52 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income81%22 pp gap