NCES CCD 2024-25 28 schools FL

Best-Resourced Schools in Clearwater, FL

28 public K-12 schools in Clearwater from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

28
Schools
12,870
Students
38.4/100
Avg Resource Index
14.5:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Clearwater has more public-school enrollment than 86% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Clearwater sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

19 of Clearwater's 28 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 63-point gap between Pinellas Juvenile Det Center and Hospital/Homebound shows the range hidden by Clearwater's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 14%
School count
Top 9%
Resource Index average
39th percentile
Teacher staffing
61st percentile

Clearwater school enrollment varies 62× across entities

Clearwater school enrollment ranges from 25 students (lowest) to 1,543 students (highest), a spread of 1,518 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clearwater reports 55.2% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clearwater operates one school district — a single-district system

Clearwater's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Clearwater student-teacher ratio is 14.5:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Clearwater is typically wider than the Clearwater-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

3 of Clearwater's 28 listed schools are charters

11% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

# School Score
1. Pinellas Juvenile Det Center 63
2. Bayside High School 62
3. Kings Highway Elementary Magnet School 56
4. Chi Chi Rodriquez Academy 50
5. Calvin a. Hunsinger School 48
6. Clearwater Fundamental Middle School 47
7. Plato Academy Clearwater 45
8. Mcmullen-Booth Elementary School 45
9. Sandy Lane Elementary School 42
10. Leila Davis Elementary School 40
11. Belleair Elementary School 40
12. High Point Elementary School 39
13. Skycrest Elementary School 37
14. Athenian Academy 37
15. Paul B. Stephens Ese Center 37
16. Plumb Elementary School 36
17. Pinellas Teleschool 35
18. Countryside High School 33
19. Oak Grove Middle School 33
20. Eisenhower Elementary School 33
21. Clearwater Intermediate 33
22. Belcher Elementary School 32
23. Ponce De Leon Elementary School 31
24. Frontier Elementary School 31
25. Enterprise Charter High School 31
26. Pinellas County Jail 30
27. Clearwater High School 28
28. Hospital/Homebound -

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Clearwater

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Ponce De Leon Elementary School 71.7/100
  2. 2 Frontier Elementary School 69.8/100
  3. 3 Clearwater High School 69.5/100
  4. 4 Eisenhower Elementary School 68.9/100
  5. 5 Clearwater Intermediate 68.7/100

What do families ask about schools in Clearwater?

Which Clearwater school has the highest Resource Investment Index?

Pinellas Juvenile Det Center has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Clearwater schools in this federal-data comparison at 63/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Clearwater, FL?

Clearwater has 28 public schools with a total enrollment of 12,870 students. 3 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.5:1.

Other Cities in Florida

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Florida →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.