Schools in Zip Code 32435

In zip code 32435 (Defuniak Springs, FL), there are three schools serving grades PK-12 within the highly-rated Walton County School District, presenting a stark contrast between two strong traditional public schools and a struggling charter school.

Walton Middle School is the standout performer, earning a 4-star rating and consistently exceeding district and state averages, particularly in advanced math where 95% of students were proficient in Geometry. West Defuniak Elementary School is also a solid 4-star school, though it shows some inconsistency, such as 4th-grade ELA proficiency (60%) lagging behind 3rd and 5th grades (both 75%). In contrast, Walton Academy Inc., a charter school serving grades 5-12, is severely underperforming with a 1-star rating, alarmingly low test scores (e.g., 0% proficient in 7th-grade Math), and a 56.7% graduation rate compared to the district's 97.5%.

The most critical differentiator is chronic absenteeism: Walton Academy has a catastrophic rate of 89.4%, meaning nearly 9 out of 10 students are chronically absent, compared to 21.5% and 24.4% at the other two schools. Notably, per-student spending is nearly identical across all three schools (ranging from $14,548 to $14,761), indicating that funding is not the root cause of the performance gap. All three schools serve a high percentage of students from low-income families, with free/reduced lunch rates between 70% and 81%, and the student-teacher ratio is much higher at Walton Academy (26:1) compared to the elementary (14:1) and middle school (15:1).