The top reported proficiency rate is 48% in English language arts. The lowest is 45% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Okeeheelee Middle School
Okeeheelee Middle School sits on Pinehurst Drive in Greenacres, a residential city in Palm Beach County that functions more as a working suburb than a destination community. Most of its commercial activity runs along a handful of main corridors, and the city is largely car-dependent, so families getting students to school are nearly always driving. Greenacres itself is seeing real growth pressure: a large-scale redevelopment of a former golf course and at least one other sizable apartment proposal are both in the pipeline, which means the neighborhoods feeding this school may look meaningfully different within a few years.
The school serves grades six through eight as a regular public middle school within the Palm Beach district. Enrollment is substantial for a middle school of this grade band. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals a community with a considerable share of economically challenged households. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with Black students making up the next largest group, and smaller shares of white and other students. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided.
State assessment results from Florida's FAST and Statewide Science Assessment for the 2024-25 school year show a mixed and, in parts, notably uneven picture. ELA proficiency runs roughly around half of students at each grade level, which is close to middling rather than strong. Math tells a more jagged story: sixth graders perform above the school's overall average, eighth graders considerably better than that, but seventh-grade math proficiency sits well below the other two grades. That seventh-grade math gap is sharp enough that a parent whose child will be in that cohort may want to ask the school directly about what is driving the pattern and what supports are in place. Eighth-grade science proficiency lands below half of students tested. When these results are placed against the other districts in Palm Beach County, Okeeheelee's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. The comparison set covers districts in Palm Beach County, so this is a local positioning, not a statewide one.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether results have been improving, holding, or declining.
Program information was not included in the data provided. No magnet designation or special program focus was reported. The district brief search did not return confirmed recent changes specific to Palm Beach district priorities, so that context was left out rather than guessed at.
The housing market around Greenacres shows home values running above the Florida state benchmark and well above national median values, with rents that place a meaningful burden on households relative to typical income levels. Year-over-year, both purchase prices and rents have softened slightly, which runs against the national trend of modest appreciation. For families renting, the cost-to-income ratio is high enough to be a real constraint. The mortgage picture is similarly stretched: the estimated monthly carrying cost for a typical home in this zip code is well above what national median household income would comfortably support, which is the financial context many Okeeheelee families are navigating alongside school choices.
Graduation rate is not applicable here because Okeeheelee serves only middle school grades. Chronic absenteeism data was not available.
The honest picture: this is a large, economically mixed public middle school in a growing suburb whose academic results are below where the county's other districts sit, with a particular soft spot in seventh-grade math that a prospective parent should probe further. The school's broader community has genuine residential character, parks, and a regional recreation anchor in Okeeheelee Park next door, but limited walkability and a workforce that mostly commutes out of the city. Families considering this school alongside others in the Palm Beach district will want to ask specifically about seventh-grade math intervention, course offerings, and any data the school can share on recent trend lines.
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