Summary:
Zip code 33781 in Pinellas Park, Florida, is home to a single middle school, Pinellas Park Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with a total enrollment of 999 students. The school is part of the Pinellas County school district, a highly-rated district ranked in the 79th percentile statewide. However, the school itself has seen a concerning decline in its overall state ranking over the past three years, dropping from the 39th percentile to the 26th percentile and falling from a 2-star to a 1-star rating.
The most striking feature of Pinellas Park Middle School is the extreme disparity in its math programs. On one hand, the school is a powerhouse in advanced mathematics, with 100% of students scoring proficient on the Geometry EOC exam in both recent school years—far exceeding district and state averages. Performance in Algebra 1 is also very strong at 82% proficiency. On the other hand, the school has a critical weakness in 7th-grade math, where only 9% of students were proficient on the FAST exam, a staggering 44 percentage points below the state average. This suggests a "barbell effect" where resources are heavily focused on advanced tracks, potentially leaving the general 7th-grade math population underserved.
Beyond math, the school underperforms in other core subjects, with Civics and 8th Grade Science proficiency rates below both district and state averages. The school also faces significant challenges with chronic absenteeism, which stands at 33.8%—higher than the district and state averages. With a student-teacher ratio of 18.5:1 and 58.66% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, the school spends $9,779 per student. The inconsistent year-over-year test scores and declining ranking indicate a lack of stable, school-wide instructional strategies, making it a school with clear strengths in advanced math but significant areas needing urgent improvement.
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