The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Math. The lowest is 36% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Clifford O Taylor/kirklane Elementary
Clifford O. Taylor/Kirklane Elementary sits on Purdy Lane in Palm Springs, a dense, family-oriented village in eastern Palm Beach County that is publicly reported as the first municipality in the county to reach a Hispanic/Latino majority. The school is a regular public elementary serving prekindergarten through fifth grade within the Palm Beach County School District, which maintains its district headquarters at the Fulton-Holland Educational Services Center right in the village.
The school's student body is large for an elementary campus and reflects the community around it. Hispanic students make up the clear majority of enrollment, with Black and white students each present in smaller shares. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this in the higher end of economic need among elementary schools. Data on English learner rates and students with individualized education programs were not available in what was provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture in math shows declining proficiency across the tested grades, with third graders performing at a middling level and fourth and fifth graders falling below that. ELA proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grade is below the midpoint at every tested level. Fifth-grade science similarly shows less than half of students reaching proficiency. A sixth-grade math figure appears in the data and is strikingly high, but given that this is a PK-5 school, that data point almost certainly reflects a very small group and should not be read as representative of the school's broader math program. Taken together, and measured against districts in Palm Beach County, the school's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. Parents who want to understand what the school is doing to address these gaps would do well to ask directly, as trend data across years was not available to show whether results are improving, holding, or declining.
No information on program offerings, course access, chronic absenteeism, or discipline was included in the data provided, so those dimensions cannot be characterized here.
The surrounding village of Palm Springs is a dense, predominantly residential community that is notably diverse and multigenerational. Publicly reported descriptions emphasize quiet streets, well-kept homes, and a neighborhood feel. Commercial life runs along major county corridors, Congress Avenue and Lake Worth Road being the main ones, and the village is car-dependent rather than walkable. Palm Tran buses connect residents to the broader county and to Tri-Rail. The village has nine parks, including Sago Palm Park with lakefront access and a fishing pier, and the library functions as an active community hub. Civic infrastructure is compact enough that the library, park, and police headquarters are grouped within walking distance of one another.
Housing near the school is priced below the Florida statewide benchmark and has seen a modest year-over-year decline. Rents have also edged down slightly but remain high relative to income in the area, with the rent-to-income burden well above what housing analysts generally consider affordable. For buyers, the monthly carrying cost on a typical home in this zip code, at current mortgage rates, is substantial relative to median household income. Families considering the area as renters or buyers should weigh that affordability pressure carefully.
The village is actively redeveloping its two commercial corridors through a Community Redevelopment Agency, with goals around infrastructure, streetscapes, and workforce housing. New projects are mostly infill: small mixed-use buildings, townhomes, and conversions. The area is growing incrementally rather than through large-scale development.
The district brief for Palm Beach County did not yield confirmed recent changes in time for inclusion here, so district-level strategic priorities or new initiatives are not characterized.
For a family choosing a school on academic outcomes, the FAST proficiency data warrants a direct conversation with the school about instructional supports, intervention programs, and what progress has looked like over recent years. For a family already rooted in Palm Springs and looking for context on their neighborhood school, this is a large campus serving a community that mirrors the village itself, diverse, economically working, and family-centered.
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