Grove Park Elementary School, Orange Park FL

Original Research by School Decision on Grove Park Elementary School

Grove Park Elementary sits on Miller Street in Orange Park, a small incorporated town on the western shore of the St. Johns River in northeastern Clay County, roughly a short drive south of downtown Jacksonville. The town is a classic suburban bedroom community, built primarily around single-family homes, with busy commercial corridors on Blanding Boulevard and US 17 and a regional retail anchor at Orange Park Mall. The area is largely car-oriented, and publicly reported accounts describe the built environment as difficult to navigate on foot, though a town square planning effort is underway to address that. For families considering the area, housing values here sit below the statewide median, and rents have edged up modestly over the past year while home prices have dipped slightly. That combination, alongside reasonable price-to-income ratios by national standards, makes the neighborhood broadly accessible relative to much of Florida.

The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade, which means a graduation rate does not apply. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making Grove Park one of the higher-need elementary campuses in its context. The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, with Black students making up the largest share, followed by white and Hispanic students. Data on English learner rates and special education participation were not available in what was provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is uneven and worth a careful look. In ELA, proficiency in the tested grades runs from the upper thirties to the lower sixties, with stronger results at sixth grade and weaker results in the third and fourth grade bands. Math follows a similar pattern in most grades, with third and fourth grade results sitting right around half of students reaching proficiency and fifth grade results notably lower. The sixth grade math result stands out as considerably stronger, well above the lower grades. The statewide science assessment at fifth grade shows fewer than half of students reaching proficiency. What these numbers don't tell you is how much growth students are making year to year, because trend data was not available, and multi-year comparability for Florida's current assessment system carries uncertainty. A parent who wants to understand whether students are progressing meaningfully would do well to ask the school directly about its growth measures and any targeted supports in place, particularly at the grades where proficiency is lower.

The comparison data available for Clay County contains only one district, so a county-level peer comparison against other districts was not possible from the provided information.

Program details for Grove Park were not included in what was provided, so specifics on enrichment, intervention services, or any specialty offerings are not something this account can address. The Clay County district brief search was exhausted without returning confirmed parent-relevant changes, so district-level developments were left out rather than guessed at.

What the data describes is a neighborhood elementary school serving a predominantly economically disadvantaged community in a stable, largely built-out suburban town. Academic results in the middle elementary grades are a soft spot, and families who want to understand the school's trajectory and support systems would benefit from a direct conversation with school staff before drawing conclusions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 351%

School 51% · District 66% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 63% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 55% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 681%

School 81% · District 77% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 65% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 59% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 56% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 67% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 61% · ▼ 23 pts below district

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

This schoolCLAY, 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-income35%Higher-income73%38 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income40%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income40%Higher-income60%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income65%Higher-income56%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income45%Higher-income82%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income15%Higher-income50%36 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income85%Higher-income72%12 pp gap