Fau/slcsd Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Traditi, Port St Lucie FL

Original Research by School Decision on Fau/slcsd Palm Pointe Educational Research School @ Traditi

Palm Pointe Educational Research School at Tradition sits on SW Academic Way in the western reaches of Port St. Lucie, inside the Tradition master-planned community. It serves kindergarten through eighth grade as a charter school. One structural fact parents should know upfront: publicly reported news indicates that as of July 2024, the school ended its formal relationship with Florida Atlantic University and transitioned fully to St. Lucie Public Schools management. The FAU name persists in its official title, and FAU reportedly continues supporting its research component and student-teacher placements, but the school is no longer part of the FAU Lab Schools system. Families enrolling now are entering what is effectively a district-managed charter campus, not an FAU-affiliated one.

On academics, the school uses Florida's FAST assessment across its tested grades. The picture is generally strong, with meaningful variation by grade and subject worth understanding. In math, third and fourth grade proficiency sits comfortably in the mid-to-upper seventies, sixth and eighth grade results are particularly high, and eighth grade reading also comes in well above the state midpoint. Seventh grade math is the clearest outlier, with proficiency well below every other tested grade at this school; the tested group at that grade level is smaller than others, which may reflect program structure, but a parent would reasonably want to ask the school directly about that result. ELA proficiency is consistently solid in the middle grades, and eighth grade science is a genuine strength. Fifth grade math and fifth grade science both land in the low sixties, which is closer to average than the school's upper-grade performance suggests. Overall, the trajectory tends upward as students move through the middle grades, and the high school transition point for eighth graders leaves on a comparatively strong note.

Enrollment is large for a K-8 school, with roughly even distribution across all nine grade levels. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse: white, Hispanic, and Black students each make up meaningful shares, with smaller Asian and multiracial populations. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, so this is a mixed-income community rather than either an affluent enclave or a high-poverty school. Data on English learner rates and students with IEPs was not reported in what was available, so families of children with disabilities or language support needs should ask those questions directly.

The Tradition neighborhood itself shapes what daily life looks like here. Unlike most of Port St. Lucie, which was designed without a walkable center, Tradition was deliberately built around a town square modeled on a mid-century American town, with year-round events and pedestrian-accessible retail and restaurants nearby. The broader city is car-dependent and sprawling, but this corner of it has more neighborhood character than most. Port St. Lucie is one of the fastest-growing cities in Florida, and development in the Tradition and Southern Grove corridors continues at pace, with new residential and commercial projects announced and underway. Housing near the school carries values above both the state and national benchmarks, and rents in the area have been rising, though home values have edged slightly downward year over year, suggesting a modest cooling after years of appreciation.

A graduation rate does not apply here because the school serves only through eighth grade. No AP, dual enrollment, or career pathway data was available in what was provided; those are high school measures and do not apply to this grade band. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether proficiency has risen, fallen, or held steady over time.

The comparison data notes only one district in the St. Lucie County set, which means no meaningful peer comparison is possible for context against neighboring districts.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 376%

School 76% · District 98% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 100% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 98% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 686%

School 86% · District 100% · ▼ 14 pts below district

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

Grade 734%

School 34% · District 100% · ▼ 66 pts below district

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

Grade 881%

School 81% · District 100% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 89% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 94% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 569%

School 69% · District 96% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

Grade 680%

School 80% · District 98% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 95% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 877%

School 77% · District 96% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Science

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 95% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 874%

School 74% · District 99% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

This schoolFAU LAB SCH, 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-income63%Higher-income72%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income57%Higher-income82%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income66%Higher-income72%6 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income78%Higher-income84%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income71%Higher-income75%4 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income68%Higher-income85%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income76%Higher-income76%0 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income65%Higher-income87%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income55%Higher-income67%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income82%Higher-income89%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income17%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income81%Higher-income80%1 pp gap