NCES CCD 2024-25 11 schools FL

Best-Resourced Schools in Palm Harbor, FL

Compiled from official source data by .

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

PlainSchools home → About this data
11
Schools
8,578
Students
40.6/100
Avg Resource Index
14.9:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Palm Harbor has more public-school enrollment than 76% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Palm Harbor 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

6 of Palm Harbor's 11 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 16-point gap between Highland Lakes Elementary School and Palm Harbor University High shows the range hidden by Palm Harbor'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 24%
School count
Top 35%
Resource Index average
48th percentile
Teacher staffing
55th percentile

Palm Harbor University High accounts for 28.1% of all Palm Harbor public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Palm Harbor-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Palm Harbor school enrollment varies 7.0× across entities

Palm Harbor school enrollment ranges from 343 students (lowest) to 2,413 students (highest), a spread of 2,070 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

Palm Harbor operates one school district — a single-district system

Palm Harbor'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

Palm Harbor student-teacher ratio is 14.9:1 — 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 Palm Harbor is typically wider than the Palm Harbor-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Highland Lakes Elementary School 47
2. Elisa Nelson Elementary 47
3. Cypress Woods Elementary School 44
4. Plato Academy Palm Harbor Charter School 44
5. Ozona Elementary School 42
6. Curlew Creek Elementary School 42
7. Palm Harbor Middle School 41
8. Sutherland Elementary School 41
9. Lake St. George Elementary School 37
10. Palm Harbor University High 31
11. Joseph L. Carwise Middle School 31

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Palm Harbor

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 Curlew Creek Elementary School 55.9/100
  2. 2 Joseph L. Carwise Middle School 51.9/100
  3. 3 Lake St. George Elementary School 49.7/100
  4. 4 Highland Lakes Elementary School 46.7/100
  5. 5 Palm Harbor University High 42.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Palm Harbor?

Which Palm Harbor school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Highland Lakes Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Palm Harbor schools in this federal-data comparison at 47/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Palm Harbor, FL? ▼

Palm Harbor has 11 public schools with a total enrollment of 8,578 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.9:1.

Other Cities in Florida

Miami
286 schools
Orlando
208 schools
Jacksonville
197 schools
Tampa
170 schools
Lakeland
60 schools
Pensacola
58 schools

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.