Crystal Lakes Elementary School, Boynton Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Crystal Lakes Elementary School

Crystal Lakes Elementary sits on Gateway Boulevard in the western part of Boynton Beach, serving prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Palm Beach County district. The school draws a genuinely mixed student body: white students make up the largest share, followed by Hispanic and Black students, with Asian families and students of two or more races also represented. Roughly a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school closer to the middle of the economic spectrum than many Florida elementaries. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the records we reviewed, so a parent with questions about those specific services would want to ask the school directly.

On the Florida FAST assessments, the academic picture varies by grade and subject in ways worth looking at carefully. Third-grade math stands out as a genuine strength, with a large majority of students scoring proficient. Fifth-grade math is also solid. Fourth-grade math is the outlier and drops noticeably, sitting well below the other math grades; a parent may want to ask the school what explains that gap and what supports are in place. On reading and language arts, proficiency runs in the mid-to-upper range across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with third grade the strongest and a modest step down through the upper grades. Fifth-grade science lands roughly around the sixty-percent mark. Relative to other districts in Palm Beach County, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among that comparison set, which is a reasonable position for an elementary school of this size.

Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible from the records here to say whether performance has been rising or holding steady.

The school sits in a part of Boynton Beach that is growing quickly. This western corridor is where newer single-family construction is adding homes, and that growth context matters for families thinking about housing. Home values in the zip code are above both the Florida median and the national median, and have come down modestly year over year. Monthly mortgage payments at current rates would run well above what a national median income supports, and estimated rents here consume a very substantial share of typical household income. The gap between renting and owning is considerable. Families drawn by newer construction in the western subdivisions will find Crystal Lakes in a logical attendance zone for those neighborhoods.

Boynton Beach itself is a car-dependent city. Daily errands and school drop-off will require a car for most families near Gateway Boulevard, and bike infrastructure is described publicly as minimal. The city's civic energy is concentrated further east, around the Town Square redevelopment near downtown, which brought a new city hall, library, and cultural center in 2020. A large apartment and retail project broke ground there in 2026 under a development agreement with a private firm, with workforce housing included. The western side of the city, where Crystal Lakes sits, is served by the newer Canyon Branch Library at Canyon Town Center, which opened as one of the county's newest branch facilities. Healthcare anchors the employment base citywide, with Baptist Health Bethesda Hospital East as the largest single employer, and many residents commute north toward West Palm Beach.

District-level information on Palm Beach County's strategic priorities or recent programmatic changes was not available from the research conducted, so we left that out rather than speculate.

For a family moving into the western Boynton Beach neighborhoods, Crystal Lakes offers relatively strong math and reading results overall, a racially and economically mixed community, and a location that reflects the city's fastest-growing residential sector. The fourth-grade math dip is a real data point to raise with the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 383%

School 83% · District 64% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 55% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 571%

School 71% · District 59% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 15 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 372%

School 72% · District 57% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 56% · ▲ 13 pts above district

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

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 56% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Science

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 54% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 11 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-income63%Higher-income77%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income65%Higher-income70%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income73%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income71%Higher-income89%18 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income27%Higher-income57%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income51%Higher-income80%29 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income100%Higher-income100%0 pp gap