Summary:
Zip code 33971 in Lehigh Acres, Florida, is home to two high schools serving grades 9-12: Lehigh Senior High School and Palm Acres Charter High School, both part of the Lee school district, which ranks in the 20th percentile statewide.
The two schools present a stark contrast in performance and student outcomes. Lehigh Senior High School is the clear academic anchor, with a large enrollment of 2,550 students, a graduation rate of 96.5% that exceeds both the district (89.8%) and state (92.2%) averages, and a state ranking in the 34th percentile. In contrast, Palm Acres Charter High School faces severe challenges, including a critically low graduation rate of 19.7%, an extreme chronic absenteeism rate of 88.8%, and a staggering student-teacher ratio of 68.5:1. Despite spending $755 more per student than Lehigh Senior, Palm Acres ranks in the bottom 10th percentile of Florida high schools, with average proficiency around 17% across all tests.
Key takeaways for parents include the dramatic 76.8 percentage point gap in graduation rates between the two schools, with Lehigh Senior outperforming state averages while Palm Acres struggles. Chronic absenteeism is a strong predictor of academic failure, as Palm Acres' 88.8% rate directly correlates with its low graduation rate and single-digit proficiency scores. Lehigh Senior shows relative strength in Biology 1 (67% proficient) and US History (64% proficient), but its Algebra 1 proficiency is only 24%, indicating a need for targeted math support. The gap between these two schools is widening, with Lehigh Senior's ranking stable in the 28th-34th percentile range over three years, while Palm Acres has dropped to the very bottom of state rankings.
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