The top reported proficiency rate is 93% in Math. The lowest is 66% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Student Leadership Academy
Student Leadership Academy is a public charter middle school serving grades six through eight in Venice, Florida, operating under the Sarasota County school district. It sits on Field Avenue East, close to the historic island core of Venice rather than in one of the newer suburban communities spreading south toward Wellen Park.
The school's math results on the Florida FAST assessment stand out. Across all three grade levels, proficiency rates are extraordinarily high by any measure, with sixth and seventh graders performing at the very top end of what any school reports statewide, and eighth graders only slightly below that. This is a genuine strength. ELA proficiency is solid but meaningfully lower, running in the low-to-mid seventies across all three grades, which is respectable but worth a family's attention if reading and writing development are a priority. Eighth-grade science proficiency, measured by the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, lands in the upper sixties, a serviceable result but one a parent may want to ask the school about in terms of how it prepares students for high school science sequences. The comparison fact-set for Sarasota County districts was not used for this school because there is only one district in the county, which makes peer positioning across districts inapplicable.
The school enrolls a small number of students spread fairly evenly across the three grades, making it a noticeably intimate setting for a middle school. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students representing the next largest share and smaller numbers of students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting a relatively lower-poverty enrollment compared to many public middle schools. Data on students with IEPs or English learners was not available in the records we reviewed, so families with children in those categories should ask the school directly about its support structures. Discipline, attendance, and staffing data were also not present in the available records.
Because Student Leadership Academy is a charter school, enrollment is by application rather than automatic assignment, meaning families anywhere in the district can seek a seat. Its small size and charter model tend to attract families who are deliberately choosing something different from the conventional district middle school experience, though the specific pedagogy or program focus beyond what the name implies was not detailed in the data available to us.
Venice itself adds a distinctive backdrop. The downtown, built in a 1920s Mediterranean Revival style with palm-lined avenues and walkable streets, functions as a genuine town center with locally owned shops, restaurants, a farmers market, and free concerts at Centennial Park. The Legacy Trail connects downtown to Sarasota and links to waterway trail systems, giving families an unusually active outdoor infrastructure for a Gulf Coast community this size. Major employers in the area include Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which operates a Venice hospital that has been expanding, and manufacturers PGT Innovations and Tervis, both headquartered in North Venice.
The housing market in the Venice zip code has seen home values decline modestly over the past year, pulling back from recent highs, while asking rents have edged upward. Estimated monthly ownership costs remain a stretch relative to national income benchmarks, and the rent-to-income ratio in the area sits at a level that consumes a meaningful share of household budgets. Renters and prospective buyers should factor this in.
At the district level, Sarasota County voters renewed a property tax millage in late 2024 through 2030, with funds directed toward teacher pay, arts, and career programming, and now shared proportionally with charter schools like Student Leadership Academy. The district also approved a structural reorganization in late 2025 that converts several elementary campuses to K-8 schools and adds magnet programs, a change that affects feeder patterns and may shift how families weigh their middle school options going forward.
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