The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in English language arts. The lowest is 44% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Baker County Middle School
Baker County Middle School sits on East Jonathan Street in Macclenny, the small county seat of Baker County in northeast Florida, roughly a half-hour west of Jacksonville along the I-10 corridor. It serves fifth through eighth graders and draws from a community that is, by most accounts, working-class and small-town in character, even as residential development pressure from the Jacksonville metro has begun to push at its edges.
The school's student body is predominantly white, with Black students making up a meaningful minority and smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and other students. Roughly half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic profile of Baker County more broadly. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in what was provided. Fifth grade carries only a single student in the enrollment counts, so for practical purposes this is a sixth-through-eighth-grade school.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture varies by grade and subject in ways worth understanding. Sixth-grade math and ELA proficiency rates both sit in the low-to-mid fifties range relative to the state's reported results, which is a middling position statewide. By seventh grade, math proficiency drops notably, and by eighth grade it drops further still, to roughly a third of students meeting the standard. ELA holds steadier across seventh and eighth grades, with roughly half of students scoring proficient at both levels. The eighth-grade Florida Statewide Science Assessment shows less than half of students reaching proficiency. The pattern of math proficiency declining sharply as students move through the grades is worth a conversation with the school, and parents may want to ask specifically what interventions or supports are available for students who fall behind in math by the time they reach seventh or eighth grade. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time.
No comparison data against neighboring districts was usable here because Baker County has only one district, which makes a county-level peer comparison statistically meaningless. A state-level frame is the relevant one, and by that frame the school's results are below the midpoint in most tested categories, with eighth-grade math as the clearest soft spot.
Program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, attendance data, chronic absenteeism figures, and discipline data were not included in what was provided. A graduation rate does not apply here since the school does not serve high school grades. Title I status was not reported. Parents interested in enrichment pathways, student support staffing, or extracurricular programming would need to ask the school directly.
The community itself gives some context for what families are choosing when they choose Macclenny. Publicly reported sources describe a town that is car-dependent in daily life, with a practical historic downtown along Macclenny Avenue and US 90 anchored by the Emily Taber Public Library in a restored courthouse. The largest employer is Northeast Florida State Hospital, a state psychiatric facility, with the school district, healthcare, and retail rounding out the local economy. Housing in the area runs meaningfully below the Florida statewide median, and values have been rising modestly year over year, driven partly by families priced out of Jacksonville seeking more affordable options nearby. Several large residential developments have been proposed or are underway, and publicly reported accounts show residents actively debating how much growth the town can absorb while keeping its rural character.
For a family already living in Baker County, this is the middle school their children will attend by geography. For a family weighing a move to Macclenny partly on school considerations, the ELA picture is unremarkable but stable, the math trajectory across the grade band deserves further inquiry, and the community itself offers affordable housing with a rural feel and a short highway connection to Jacksonville.
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