Bella Citta, Bartow FL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Bella Citta

Bella Citta is a regular public school in Bartow, Florida, serving children from pre-kindergarten through seventh grade. It sits on South Floral Avenue and is part of Polk County Public Schools. Because the school tops out at seventh grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and AP or dual-enrollment pathways are not applicable here.

The student body is sizeable for a school covering this grade range. Hispanic students make up by far the largest share of enrollment, with Black and white students each representing meaningful portions of the population. Roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places economic need at the center of the school's context. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the academic picture is mixed and parents will want to look into it carefully. Third-grade math stands out as a relative bright spot, with a majority of students reaching proficiency. From fourth grade onward, however, math proficiency drops and stays well below half of students through seventh grade. ELA follows a similar arc: third grade shows the strongest result but still below a majority, and scores decline or stay flat across the upper grades. Fifth-grade science and eighth-grade science results, where reported, are also well below half proficiency. The data does not include prior-year results, so it is not possible to say whether these numbers reflect a trend up or down. A parent considering Bella Citta would reasonably want to ask the school directly what interventions are in place for students not yet meeting proficiency, particularly in math across the middle grades.

The comparison data for Polk County districts did not yield a usable proficiency-index comparison because the available cohort was too small to apply the measure reliably, so no relative positioning against other county schools is available.

Bartow itself gives Bella Citta a particular setting worth understanding. It is the Polk County seat, a small city with a historic downtown built around the courthouse square, Victorian and Craftsman homes on its older streets, and newer subdivisions spreading outward on the edges. The city is publicly reported to be in an active growth phase, with large planned developments in the pipeline and ongoing debates about housing capacity and infrastructure. The Polk County School Board is the city's single largest employer, so the district and the community are closely intertwined. The Fort Fraser Trail connects Bartow to Lakeland, the public library on South Broadway runs children's and teen programming, and the Citrus Connection provides bus service for families without cars.

No program-specific information was available for Bella Citta itself, such as enrichment tracks, after-school offerings, or extracurriculars. No district-level strategic priority changes were confirmed from available research before the search budget was reached, so that piece was left out rather than guessed at.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 53% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 438%

School 38% · District 53% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 46% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 632%

School 32% · District 50% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 33% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 830%

School 30% · District 37% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 50% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 47% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 47% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 646%

School 46% · District 53% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 46% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 835%

School 35% · District 44% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 45% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 831%

School 31% · District 36% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolPOLK, 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-income50%Higher-income53%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income37%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income43%Higher-income43%0 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income51%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income38%Higher-income36%2 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income30%Higher-income38%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income64%Higher-income66%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income43%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income35%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income30%Higher-income34%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income27%Higher-income31%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income23%Higher-income34%11 pp gap