Best High Schools in Jacksonville, FL

The city of Jacksonville, Florida is home to 38 high schools that span public, public magnet, and public charter institutions, serving students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. These schools are part of the Duval County Public School District, which is ranked 54 out of 67 districts in the state of Florida and has an overall 1-star rating from SchoolDigger.

The top-performing high schools in the area are Paxon School for Advanced Studies and Stanton College Preparatory School, both of which are ranked in the top 100 high schools in Florida and have 5-star ratings from SchoolDigger. Other high-performing magnet schools include Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and Samuel W. Wolfson High School. Charter schools like River City Science Academy and Darnell Cookman Middle/High School also perform well, ranking 68 and 164 respectively out of 844 Florida high schools.

However, the data also reveals significant disparities in educational outcomes across the high schools in Jacksonville. While the district-wide 4-year graduation rate is above the state average at 89.7%, chronic absenteeism is quite high at 31.4%. Test proficiency rates vary widely, with top-performing schools seeing 80-90% proficiency in many subjects, while lower-performing schools struggle to reach 30-40%. Factors like per-student spending and student-teacher ratios do not appear to be the primary drivers of school performance, suggesting systemic challenges that need to be addressed to provide equitable educational opportunities for all students in the Duval County Public School District.