The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in English language arts. The lowest is 15% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Elementary School
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Elementary sits on NE 15th Street in Gainesville, a university city in north central Florida where the University of Florida and its affiliated health system shape much of the local economy and civic life. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within Alachua County Public Schools.
The school's enrollment is small relative to many elementary schools in its grade band. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller shares of Hispanic and multiracial students and a very modest white and Asian presence. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the more economically concentrated campuses in the county. Data on English learner and special education rates were not available in the data provided.
State testing results from Florida's FAST assessments and the fifth-grade science exam tell a clear and difficult story. Proficiency rates across reading, math, and science are low in every tested grade, and in math the results in fourth and fifth grade are particularly thin. Placed against the two districts in Alachua County, Rawlings falls in the bottom quartile on the overall proficiency index. These are published state figures, and a parent considering this school should ask the school directly about instructional approaches, intervention structures, and how student progress is tracked year to year.
One recent change is worth understanding in full. Rawlings was selected as part of Florida's Year-Round School Pilot Program and shifted to a year-round calendar starting in July 2024, keeping the same number of instructional days but distributing breaks across the year rather than concentrating them in summer. The intent, publicly reported, was to reduce summer learning loss at schools serving higher-need populations. After roughly a year, however, the Alachua County School Board voted to discontinue the year-round schedule at Rawlings specifically, citing a meaningful enrollment drop and low parent satisfaction. As of the board's April 2025 vote, Rawlings is moving away from that model. Parents should confirm the current calendar directly with the school, as this transition is recent and ongoing.
On the program side, the school offers Fine Arts. The district's voter-renewed One Mill property tax, renewed in November 2024 through 2029, funds art, music, drama, band, counselors, nurses, and librarians across county schools, so those staff and programs remain in place at Rawlings as long as the levy holds.
The housing market in the zip code surrounding the school reflects values well below the Florida statewide median and also below the national median. Home values have dipped modestly year over year, while rents have moved in the opposite direction. Rent-to-income ratios here sit at a relatively accessible level compared to Florida broadly. The neighborhood context is east Gainesville, which is more auto-oriented and less proximate to the walkable downtown and university core than the western and central parts of the city.
Gainesville itself is growing, with new residential construction in the downtown, near the university, and in outlying suburban communities, and the city has shown a clear policy preference for urban infill and density. The county library system operates multiple branches, and the Gainesville Regional Transit System connects neighborhoods across the city. The major employers remain the university, UF Health, and public institutions, which gives the local economy a degree of stability but also means Gainesville's income and poverty distribution is shaped by a large student and service population.
Chronic absenteeism data was not available in what was provided. Trend comparability across years was flagged as uncertain in the state's own data, so year-over-year movement in test results cannot be cleanly characterized here. A parent who wants to understand where Rawlings is headed academically, and what supports are in place for students reading and doing math below grade level, will get the most useful picture by asking the school those questions directly.
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