Summary:
The eight schools in Jacksonville's 32206 zip code, all part of the Duval County School District, serve a high-poverty community (65.4% average free/reduced lunch rate) and include three elementary, three middle, and two high schools, revealing a stark performance divide where a few bright spots are overshadowed by a systemic crisis in chronic absenteeism and middle school achievement.
The standout performer is R L Brown Gifted And Talented Academy, the only school to consistently earn a 3-star rating, with 75% of 5th graders proficient in both ELA and Math despite a 58% poverty rate. In contrast, the middle schools Matthew W. Gilbert Middle School and Mattie V Rutherford Alt Educational Center rank in the bottom 10% of Florida middle schools, with proficiency rates often in single digits and chronic absenteeism exceeding 75%. Springfield Middle School is a notable exception, bucking the trend with the lowest economic disadvantage (44%) and absenteeism (23%) among middle schools, and achieving strong results in advanced subjects like Algebra 1 (82% proficient). Andrew Jackson High School shows clear improvement, rising to a 3-star rating with a 99.5% graduation rate and strong end-of-course exam scores in US History (92%) and Biology (82%).
A critical finding is the "middle school cliff," where elementary schools like Long Branch Elementary School achieve 72% Science proficiency, but middle school math scores plummet to as low as 25%. The average chronic absenteeism rate of 48.9% far exceeds the state average, though the Duval Regional Juvenile Detention Center has a rate of just 1.4%, suggesting absenteeism is a systemic issue of engagement rather than an inevitability. Spending shows an inverse relationship with performance, as the highest-spending schools like Andrew A. Robinson Elementary School ($13,381/student) are among the lowest-performing, while the top-ranked high school spends the least ($9,339/student).
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