20 public K-12 schools in Palm Bay from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Palm Bay has more public-school enrollment than 91% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Palm Bay 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.
13 of Palm Bay's 20 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.
6 of 20 listed Palm Bay campuses are reported as charters, so district-run and charter records occupy substantial shares of the same city view. They may follow different governance, enrollment, and program structures even when their mailing city matches. The 23-point gap between Royal Palm Charter School and Southwest Middle School should be read within that context, not as a single-system league table. Check charter status and district affiliation before comparing two nearby schools, and verify current admissions rules with the operator.
Palm Bay school enrollment ranges from 339 students (lowest) to 2,122 students (highest), a spread of 1,783 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. 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
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
Palm Bay'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
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 Palm Bay is typically wider than the Palm Bay-aggregate figure suggests.
30% 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. | Royal Palm Charter School | 52 |
| 2. | Lockmar Elementary School | 50 |
| 3. | Odyssey Preparatory Charter Academy | 47 |
| 4. | Pineapple Cove Classical Academy | 46 |
| 5. | Palm Bay Academy Charter School | 41 |
| 6. | Columbia Elementary School | 40 |
| 7. | Sunrise Elementary School | 37 |
| 8. | Discovery Elementary School | 37 |
| 9. | Christa Mcauliffe Elementary School | 36 |
| 10. | John F. Turner Senior Elementary School | 36 |
| 11. | Heritage High School | 35 |
| 12. | Westside Elementary School | 35 |
| 13. | Bayside High School | 34 |
| 14. | Pineapple Cove Classical Academy at Lockmar | 33 |
| 15. | Riviera Elementary School | 33 |
| 16. | Jupiter Elementary School | 32 |
| 17. | Port Malabar Elementary School | 32 |
| 18. | Palm Bay Elementary School | 31 |
| 19. | Odyssey Charter School | 30 |
| 20. | Southwest Middle School | 29 |
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.
Royal Palm Charter School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Palm Bay schools in this federal-data comparison at 52/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Palm Bay has 20 public schools with a total enrollment of 17,746 students. 6 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 18:1.
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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.
