The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in Math. The lowest is 29% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Oscar Patterson Academy
Oscar Patterson Academy sits on Redwood Avenue in Panama City, Florida, serving children from pre-kindergarten through third grade within the Bay County public school district. Because the school stops at third grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and the upper-grade metrics that apply to middle and high schools simply do not apply here.
The student body is racially and ethnically diverse. Black students make up roughly half the enrollment, Hispanic students account for close to a fifth, and white students a similar share, with smaller numbers of students from other backgrounds. A very substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, marking this as a high-poverty school by the standards used across Florida and the nation. Data on English learner rates and students served under individualized education plans were not available in what was provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is mixed and warrants honest attention. Third-grade results in both reading and math sit well below what would be considered proficient for most of the class. Fourth-grade results are meaningfully higher in both subjects, though still below the majority-proficient threshold. The gap between third and fourth grade is notable, and a parent may want to ask the school directly about what is driving that pattern and what supports are in place for students who are not yet reading or computing at grade level. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, stable, or declining. The comparison data for Bay County indicated the cohort of comparable schools was too small to place Oscar Patterson meaningfully against peers in a county-level ranking, so no relative position is stated here.
Panama City itself is a city shaped by its waterfront, its military presence, and an active redevelopment effort still working through recovery from hurricane damage. Tyndall Air Force Base and Naval Support Activity Panama City are the dominant economic forces in the region, and major healthcare systems and Eastern Shipbuilding round out the employment base. The downtown core, along Harrison Avenue by St. Andrews Bay, completed a multi-year streetscape project in late 2025 and hosts the city marina, arts center, restaurants, and civic buildings. A Community Redevelopment Agency is active across four districts, pursuing mixed-use housing and commercial development with public financing tools. Home values in the zip code sit well below both the Florida statewide median and the national median, with values having edged slightly downward year over year. Rents have moved modestly upward. The rent-to-income ratio falls in a relatively affordable range compared to many Florida markets, though conditions shift as development activity continues.
District-level information on Bay's strategic priorities, staffing patterns, or recent policy changes was not confirmed in the research available, so that context is left out rather than approximated.
For a family with a child entering the early grades, Oscar Patterson offers a public pre-K entry point in a diverse, high-need school in a city that is changing. The academic proficiency data as reported are a genuine concern, and a parent would do well to visit the school, ask about reading intervention programs, and understand the school's approach to foundational literacy and numeracy before the third-grade benchmark that Florida ties to reading promotion.
See more original research from School Decision →