West Palm Beach's arts magnet is the 7th-best middle school in Florida in U.S. News & World Report's 2027 rankings, the school district said Thursday.

Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach is the seventh-best middle school in Florida, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 rankings. The School District of Palm Beach County announced the result Thursday.

Bak was the highest-ranked middle school in the county. It is one of 12 Palm Beach County schools in the magazine’s top 100 for Florida, and the only one of the 12 inside West Palm Beach city limits.

“We are proud to have six of our elementary schools and six of our middle schools ranked among the top 100,” Superintendent Mike Burke said in the district’s release.

The county’s middle schools in the top 100

School Florida rank
Bak Middle School of the Arts 7
Don Estridge High Tech Middle School 16
Addison Mizner School 30
North Grade K-8 31
Verde K-8 48
West Boynton Middle School 87

The district also named six elementary schools in the top 100. Morikami Park Elementary was the highest, at No. 5.

About Bak

Bak is the district’s arts magnet middle school, at 1725 Echo Lake Drive. It has no attendance zone. Students from anywhere in the county apply through the district’s choice program and need an eligible audition score to enter the lottery.

  • Students: 1,260 on Aug. 24, the district’s 11th-day count, in a building rated for 1,418, according to its enrollment report
  • State grade: an A in 2025-26, with 89% of possible points, and an A in each of the two years before, according to the Florida Department of Education’s 2026 school grades file
  • On grade level in 2025-26: 96% in English language arts and 98% in math, from the same state file

The district’s release did not give Bak’s rank from last year.

What it means for you

Families who want a Bak seat for the 2027-28 school year have until Friday, Dec. 4, to apply. The district is taking choice applications now at mypbchoiceapp.com, and the deadline covers every program, it said in an Oct. 13 release. Bak schedules its own auditions and emails each applicant a date, according to the district’s choice guide.

Our Bak Middle School of the Arts page has the audition areas, bell times and the full state report card. For every public school in the city, see West Palm Beach public schools.