Don Estridge High Tech Middle School, Boca Raton FL

Original Research by School Decision on Don Estridge High Tech Middle School

Don Estridge High Tech Middle School sits on the northwest edge of Boca Raton, a city publicly reported as one of the wealthiest in Florida, home to corporate headquarters like Office Depot and ADT, and anchored by Florida Atlantic University. The housing market around the school reflects that wealth directly: home values here run well above both the Florida and national medians, and rents consume a substantial share of a typical household's income. For families considering a move to attend this school, the cost of living in this zip code is a real variable.

The school serves grades six through eight as a regular Palm Beach County public school with a technology focus baked into its name. Enrollment is large for a middle school, spread roughly evenly across all three grades. The student body is majority white, with Hispanic and Black students each representing meaningful shares, and Asian students a smaller but present group. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a figure well below what you'd see at many Florida middle schools. Data on English learners and students with IEPs were not available in the records we reviewed, so families of students with those designations may want to ask the school directly about support services.

Academic performance on Florida's FAST assessments is one of the clearest strengths here. In reading and language arts, proficiency rates across all three grade levels are exceptionally high, with sixth and seventh graders performing especially well. Math tells a similar story: sixth grade comes in very strong, seventh grade is solid, and eighth grade math proficiency reaches near the top of what any school reports. Eighth grade science proficiency, measured on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, matches the school's reading results. Taken together, the overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places Don Estridge well above the midpoint relative to districts in Palm Beach County, and the school's numbers sit near the top of that comparison set.

Trend data across years was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results have been climbing, holding steady, or recently shifted. The FAST assessment itself has undergone changes in Florida in recent years, which limits direct year-over-year comparisons.

A graduation rate does not apply here because the school stops at eighth grade, and no high school students are enrolled to track toward a diploma.

Discipline data, chronic absenteeism figures, and course access details were not in the records reviewed. For a school with "High Tech" in its name, parents naturally want to know what that means concretely in terms of courses, technology integration, or career pathways, and the data provided does not describe the program specifically. The school's website would be the right place to get that picture.

The district brief for Palm Beach County schools produced no confirmed parent-relevant changes before the search concluded, so we left that section out rather than guess.

For a family moving into Boca Raton, the broader setting offers beaches, the Mizner Park cultural district with galleries and theaters, and proximity to a major research university. The commercial character of the city, with its financial services, life sciences, and technology employers, aligns at least in spirit with a school that positions itself around technology. The housing costs are the honest counterweight to all of that.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 687%

School 87% · District 65% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 774%

School 74% · District 42% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 897%

School 97% · District 65% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 46 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 690%

School 90% · District 62% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 790%

School 90% · District 60% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 887%

School 87% · District 56% · ▲ 31 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 31 pts above county median

Science

Grade 887%

School 87% · District 51% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 41 pts above state median · ▲ 42 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 6Lower-income82%Higher-income92%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income84%Higher-income92%7 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income70%Higher-income92%21 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income81%Higher-income89%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income77%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income94%Higher-income98%5 pp gap