The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in Math. The lowest is 19% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Barton Elementary School
Barton Elementary sits on Barton Road in Lake Worth Beach, a compact, historically rooted city in Palm Beach County with a bohemian downtown, a walkable commercial core along Lake and Lucerne avenues, and a genuinely diverse, long-established community. The school serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade within Palm Beach County's public school district.
The enrollment is large for an elementary school, and the student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of Black students and smaller numbers from other groups. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this squarely among Palm Beach County's higher-need elementary schools. English learner and special education rates were not reported in the data available here, so a parent curious about those supports would want to ask the school directly.
The academic picture is one a parent should look at carefully. Florida's FAST assessments measure reading and math proficiency by grade level, and Barton's results across the grades tested tell a consistent story: proficiency rates in ELA are low at every grade, ranging from roughly a quarter of third graders to about a third of fourth graders before dipping again in fifth grade. Science proficiency at fifth grade is lower still. Math results are more varied: third and fourth grade proficiency rates sit roughly in the range just below or at half of students, while fifth grade drops noticeably. There is a sixth-grade math data point showing all tested students proficient, but given the tiny number that likely implies, it should be read as a statistical artifact of a very small group rather than a schoolwide signal. Placed relative to other districts in Palm Beach County, Barton's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. That is a factual position, not a verdict, but it is something a parent should go into with eyes open and, if interested, should ask the school about its intervention programs, reading supports, and tutoring resources.
Trend data was not available, so there is no way from this data alone to say whether performance is improving, stable, or declining. A parent wanting to understand trajectory would need to ask the school or district directly.
The neighborhood context matters here. Lake Worth Beach is publicly reported as one of the more walkable cities in the county, with a downtown that mixes independent restaurants, galleries, and small businesses in historic single-story buildings dating largely from the 1920s. Bryant Park on the Lake Worth Lagoon anchors community life, and the city library, Lake Worth Playhouse, and Cultural Council are all clustered nearby. The city has an active Community Redevelopment Agency working on affordable housing, with both smaller scattered-site homeownership projects and larger mixed-use downtown developments in various stages of planning and construction, the latter drawing some public debate. The housing market in the zip code surrounding the school has seen home values tick slightly downward over the past year, roughly in line with the broader Florida trend, while rents have edged up. Affordability is strained: the rent-to-income ratio is high by national standards, and the estimated carrying cost of a typical home in this area is a substantial monthly figure even after a standard down payment.
Pre-kindergarten access is a genuine practical feature here: Barton does enroll pre-K students, which matters for families with younger children looking for a school that can carry them from early childhood through fifth grade in one place.
No program-level detail was reported for Barton, so any enrichment offerings, language programs, or after-school supports would need to be confirmed with the school. District-level strategic changes or initiatives were not surfaced in the research either.
Barton Elementary is a large, economically and racially diverse public elementary school in a community with a strong sense of local identity. Its academic proficiency data is below the midpoint of its county comparison and below Florida norms across most tested grades. A parent considering enrollment would do well to visit, ask what academic supports are in place for students working below grade level, and understand what the school's own data shows about student growth over time.
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