Gove Elementary School, Belle Glade FL

Original Research by School Decision on Gove Elementary School

Gove Elementary School sits on SE Avenue G in Belle Glade, a small agricultural city on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee in far western Palm Beach County. The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade, which is a wider span than many elementary schools and means it carries students through what would elsewhere be a middle-school transition year.

Belle Glade's character is working-class and rural. The local economy runs on sugarcane, celery, sweet corn, and other field crops, and a large share of residents are farmworkers, many born outside the United States. Most households rent. Public anchors include a county library branch that also serves as a civic center for the western part of the county, a lakefront campground and marina on Lake Okeechobee, and the Dolly Hand Cultural Arts Center. The Palm Beach State College campus sits on the city's edge. Day-to-day travel is car-dependent, though the downtown core has sidewalks and neighborhood parks. Development in Belle Glade trends toward downtown rehabilitation and affordable housing rather than rapid residential growth, with a newer industrial investment in precast manufacturing representing one of the more visible economic additions.

Housing near the school is priced well below both the Florida state median and the national median, which makes it among the more accessible entry points in Palm Beach County for buyers. That affordability comes with a rent-to-income ratio that is still stretched, reflecting local incomes rather than high rents. Rental cost data for the immediate zip code was not available.

The student body at Gove is large for a single elementary campus. The overwhelming majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school firmly in a high-poverty context. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial share of Black students and smaller numbers of white and other students. English learner and special education rates were not available in the data provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, proficiency in reading and math across the tested grades from third through sixth runs below the midpoint in most grades. Third- and fourth-grade ELA results are in the lower range, and math at fourth grade is similarly low. Fifth-grade ELA and math are somewhat higher, and sixth-grade scores in both subjects are the strongest in the building, reaching above half of students. Fifth-grade science results sit below the halfway mark. Placed against the other districts in Palm Beach County, the school's overall proficiency index lands in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible from this data alone to say whether results are improving, holding, or declining. Parents who want to understand the school's trajectory and what support structures are in place for students reading below grade level would do well to ask the school directly about its intervention model and instructional supports.

A graduation rate does not apply here because the school ends at sixth grade. Chronic absenteeism data was not reported. Program offerings beyond the standard curriculum were not available in the data.

The Palm Beach district brief was searched but did not surface specific recent changes or strategic priorities relevant to Gove or the Belle Glade schools, so that context was left out rather than guessed at.

What this school represents, plainly, is a high-poverty neighborhood elementary in a small agricultural community where most families have limited economic options and where tested proficiency lags behind the broader county. The sixth-grade scores suggest some students are building skills as they move through the building, which is a thread worth asking teachers and administrators to explain. The community around the school is tight-knit by most accounts, and the school is the primary public educational institution for young children in this part of the Glades.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 343%

School 43% · District 64% · ▼ 21 pts below district

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

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 55% · ▼ 23 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 59% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 65% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 34 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 57% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 56% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 56% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 62% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 54% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below 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-income28%Higher-income37%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income43%15 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income36%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income54%Higher-income69%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income42%Higher-income47%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income30%Higher-income42%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income53%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income57%Higher-income77%20 pp gap