Summary:
This analysis examines three elementary schools in the Jackson district in Florida, serving grades PK-8, where the district itself holds a 2-star rating and ranks 48th out of 70 districts statewide.
Sneads Elementary School is the clear standout, achieving a 4-star rating and ranking in the 75th percentile statewide despite the district's low performance. It excels in Math, with 86% of 3rd graders and 67% of 4th graders proficient, and also posts strong ELA scores. Remarkably, Sneads achieves these results with the lowest spending per student ($9,757) and the highest student-teacher ratio (15.1) in the district. In contrast, Cottondale Elementary School is the lowest-performing school, dropping to a 1-star rating (24th percentile) in the 2025-2026 school year, consistently underperforming state averages. Marianna K-8 School, the largest school with 1,685 students, shows mixed results: it excels in Algebra 1 (80%) and Civics (79%) but struggles with a "middle school slump" in Math, where proficiency drops from 68% in 4th grade to 38% in 8th grade.
A critical, shared problem across all three schools is chronic absenteeism, with rates ranging from 38.8% at Marianna K-8 to 43.1% at Sneads, all well above the state average of 31.4%. All schools also serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, with free/reduced lunch rates between 52% and 57%. The data clearly shows that higher spending does not guarantee better performance, as Sneads outperforms its peers with fewer resources, while Cottondale's decline from a 2-star to a 1-star rating highlights a troubling trend within the same district.
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