Like South Florida, Palmetto itself has changed a great deal in many respects since it was built in 1958. Palmetto serves a diverse population both culturally and socio-economically. The school is 43% white non-Hispanic, 33% Hispanic, 17% black non-Hispanic, and 7% Asian/other. Palmetto is Miami's last white-plurality school.
Palmetto students score higher on both state and national assessments than any other standard (non-magnet) public school in Miami-Dade County. According to Newsweek's List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools (2006), Palmetto is ranked at 67th in the nation, 13th in the state of Florida. This ranking is based on a ratio devised by Jay Mathews, which takes the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students at a school in 2005 and divides it by the number of graduating seniors.
Miami Palmetto has two publications: the newspaper, The Panther, and the yearbook, Palm Echo. The newspaper is published monthly while the yearbook is published annually. The daily morning newscast, WPAW, airs on closed-circuit channel 3.
