Summary
Bayside High School in Palm Bay, FL, serves 2,122 students in grades 9-12 and is part of the Brevard district, which ranks 24th out of 70 districts in Florida. Nearly half of its students (47.69%) qualify for free or reduced lunch, and the school has experienced a notable decline in its state ranking over the past decade, dropping from a consistent 3-star level to a 2-star level since the 2020-2021 school year.
The most significant differentiator for Bayside is its severe underperformance in math, with only 33% of students proficient in Algebra 1 and 43% in Geometry, far below district averages of 61% and 56% respectively. This contrasts sharply with nearby high-performing schools like West Shore Junior/Senior High School (99th percentile) and Satellite Senior High School (85th percentile). However, Bayside shows a bright spot in Biology, with 72% proficiency close to state averages, and English Language Arts scores (61% for 10th graders) match the state average exactly. The school also struggles with high chronic absenteeism at 28.9%, significantly higher than the district average of 21.1% and far exceeding Satellite High's 15.9% and West Shore's 5.6%.
Despite these challenges, Bayside's graduation rate jumped to 90.5% in the 2024-2025 school year, a recovery from the previous three years when it hovered between 80% and 83%. This paradox suggests effective strategies for ensuring course completion, even as standardized test proficiency lags. Notably, Bayside's per-student spending of $9,186 is the lowest among comparable Brevard schools, and its student-to-teacher ratio of 22.3:1 is higher than many peers. A direct comparison with Heritage High School, just 5.56 miles away, reveals that Heritage outperforms Bayside in nearly every metric despite having a higher percentage of students on free/reduced lunch (57.65%), including a higher state ranking (52nd percentile), higher graduation rate (94.1%), and lower chronic absenteeism (18.9%).
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