Joseph Williams Elementary School, Gainesville FL

Original Research by School Decision on Joseph Williams Elementary School

Joseph Williams Elementary sits on the southeast side of Gainesville, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Alachua County district. The school's enrollment is on the smaller side for an elementary, and its student population is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, and white students, along with smaller Hispanic and other groups. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which tells you this is a high-poverty school by any standard measure. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed.

The academic picture, drawn from Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, shows proficiency rates that are substantially below state norms across every tested grade and subject. In reading, third through fifth graders are proficient at rates that put most well below a third of students meeting the bar; math results are similarly low across all three tested grades, and fifth-grade science follows the same pattern. Placed against districts in Alachua County, the school's overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile of that comparison set. These are not numbers that can be softened, and a parent considering this school should ask the school directly about what academic supports are in place, how intervention is structured, and what the trajectory looks like over time. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, stable, or declining.

No program information was available in the data we reviewed, so it is not possible to say what enrichment, specialist, or after-school offerings the school carries. What is known is that the Alachua County district renewed its One Mill property tax in late 2024, publicly reported to fund art, music, drama, band and chorus teachers, librarians, school nurses, and counselors across county schools. That tax runs through mid-2029 and is what keeps many of those staff positions funded districtwide, including at schools like Joseph Williams.

The neighborhood around the school sits in a zip code where home values are well below both Florida's statewide median and the national median, making this one of the more affordable pockets of Gainesville. Rents in the area run at a level that lands rent-to-income in a range generally considered manageable. Gainesville broadly is a university-anchored city whose economy is dominated by the University of Florida, UF Health, and a cluster of healthcare and research employers. The city is growing, with active infill development downtown and new housing coming in several parts of the metro, though the growth is uneven across neighborhoods.

Chronic absenteeism data was not available for this school, which is a gap worth noting given that absenteeism tends to track closely with academic outcomes in high-poverty settings.

For a family whose child will attend Joseph Williams, the clearest questions to bring to the school are how it identifies and supports students who are behind grade level, what the instructional model looks like in the early grades, and how families can stay connected to their child's progress. The academic results as reported are a real concern, and the school itself is the right place to understand what is being done about them.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 55% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 58% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 50% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 54% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 45 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 55% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 52% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Science

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 47% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

This schoolALACHUA, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income11%Higher-income47%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income19%Higher-income61%42 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income18%Higher-income78%60 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income15%Higher-income47%31 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income10%Higher-income61%51 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income9%Higher-income78%69 pp gap