Renaissance Charter School at West Palm Beach, West Palm Beach FL

Original Research by School Decision on Renaissance Charter School at West Palm Beach

Renaissance Charter School at West Palm Beach sits on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, a main commercial corridor running through the heart of West Palm Beach, in a city that is simultaneously one of South Florida's most walkable downtowns and one of its fastest-changing housing markets. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade, making it a full K-8 pathway for families who want to keep their child in one building from the start of school through the end of middle school.

The academic results reported on Florida's FAST assessments are genuinely strong, particularly in math. Proficiency rates across grades three through eight are consistently high, holding in the upper range from grade to grade, with a modest dip in seventh grade that a parent might reasonably ask the school about. ELA proficiency is somewhat lower than math across the board but still solid, running from the upper seventies into the low eighties depending on the grade. Science, tested in fifth and eighth grades through Florida's Statewide Science Assessment, comes in meaningfully lower than math or ELA at both tested points, which is worth noting and worth asking the school about directly. Placed against other districts in Palm Beach County, the school's overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint of that comparison set, which is a real position of strength for a school that enrolls the population it does.

Every enrolled student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which means this is a school operating at the intersection of strong academic outcomes and a student body that is largely low-income. The racial composition is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population, a smaller share of white students, and modest representation of other groups. The data does not include figures for students with IEPs or English learners, so those dimensions of the school's support capacity cannot be assessed here.

A graduation rate does not apply to this school because it stops at eighth grade. There are no AP courses or dual-enrollment pathways reported, which is consistent with the K-8 grade band. Program-level detail beyond what the state assessments show was not available in the data provided, so the scope of electives, arts, enrichment, or extracurriculars is a question to put to the school directly.

The surrounding community is West Palm Beach, which in recent years has undergone a downtown transformation from a quiet commercial district into a walkable, amenity-rich urban core. Publicly reported data places the downtown Walk Score in the "Very Walkable" range, with Clematis Street serving as the historic main street. The Brightline intercity rail station and a free downtown circulator add transit options unusual for South Florida. The city is also in an active development boom, with a wave of luxury waterfront towers along Flagler Drive and a large redevelopment project converting a former warehouse district north of downtown. Construction, traffic, and rising costs are the trade-offs publicly noted with that growth.

The housing market near the school reflects that pressure. Home values in the surrounding zip code are running modestly below the Florida state benchmark and have edged down slightly year over year, but the rent burden is high, with rents consuming a very large share of median income by national standards. The gap between renting and owning, in terms of estimated monthly cost, is substantial, which may matter to families weighing neighborhood stability over time.

The Palm Beach County School District research turned up no documented parent-relevant changes in the data provided, so that dimension was left out rather than guessed at.

For a family considering this school, the core picture is a charter that delivers strong measured academic outcomes, particularly in math, across a full elementary-to-middle-school span, serving a student body that is entirely economically disadvantaged by the federal measure. The science results and the absence of detail on special education support are the two areas where a parent would benefit from direct conversation with school staff before enrolling.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 386%

School 86% · District 64% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 488%

School 88% · District 55% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 36 pts above county median

Grade 587%

School 87% · District 59% · ▲ 28 pts above district

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

Grade 688%

School 88% · District 65% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 776%

School 76% · District 42% · ▲ 34 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 65% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 379%

School 79% · District 57% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 29 pts above county median

Grade 482%

School 82% · District 56% · ▲ 26 pts above district

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

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 56% · ▲ 21 pts above district

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

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 62% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 781%

School 81% · District 60% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 877%

School 77% · District 56% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Science

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 54% · ▲ 15 pts above district

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

Grade 870%

School 70% · District 51% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 25 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-income71%Higher-income93%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income78%Higher-income89%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income71%Higher-income85%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income76%Higher-income94%18 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income76%Higher-income86%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income78%Higher-income76%2 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income81%Higher-income95%15 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income86%Higher-income92%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income84%Higher-income91%8 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income83%Higher-income100%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income88%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income82%Higher-income95%13 pp gap