Summary:
The city of Keystone Heights, Florida, is served by three public schools within the highly-rated Clay County School District, including one combined junior/senior high school and two elementary schools, serving a total of 2,462 students.
For parents, the standout school is McRae Elementary School, which consistently outperforms its local counterpart despite having the highest percentage of students on free/reduced lunch. McRae boasts the lowest student-teacher ratio in the city at 11.8:1 and achieves strong test scores, with 89% of 6th graders proficient in math. In contrast, Keystone Heights Elementary is the lowest-performing school, with a declining state ranking and test scores generally below district and state averages. Keystone Heights Junior/Senior High is a solid performer with a 91.2% graduation rate, but it shows inconsistent subject performance—excelling in Civics and 8th Grade Math while struggling in English Language Arts. A major concern at the high school is its chronic absenteeism rate of 39.2%, which is significantly higher than both the district and state averages.
Key takeaways include that McRae Elementary defies socioeconomic expectations by achieving top results despite economic challenges, likely due to its smaller class sizes. Spending per student does not directly correlate with performance, as McRae spends the most ($12,574) and performs best, while Keystone Heights Elementary spends the least ($11,457) and performs worst. The stark contrast between the two elementary schools in the same district suggests that investigating McRae's instructional methods could provide valuable insights for improvement across the area.
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