Keystone Heights Elementary, Keystone Heights FL

Original Research by School Decision on Keystone Heights Elementary

Keystone Heights Elementary sits on a campus off Pecan Street in Keystone Heights, a small lakeside town at the southern end of Clay County. The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade, making it the entry point and primary academic home for children in this community for most of their elementary years before they move on to the junior-senior high school a short distance away.

The student body is a meaningful size for a rural elementary in this grade band. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic profile of the town itself. Keystone Heights draws working families and retirees, with most employed adults commuting out to Gainesville or Jacksonville rather than working locally. The racial composition is predominantly white, with smaller Hispanic, multiracial, and Black populations. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in what we reviewed.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the school's results vary noticeably by grade and subject. Third and sixth grade math proficiency rates sit at the stronger end of what the school posted, while fourth and fifth grade math come in softer, with fifth grade math just above half of students reaching proficiency. ELA results show a wider spread: third and sixth grade are the relative high points, while fourth grade ELA is the clearest soft spot, with fewer than half of students scoring proficient. Fifth grade ELA lands in the middle of that range. Fifth grade science proficiency came in just above half. A parent would reasonably want to ask the school directly about its reading intervention and math progression plans for the middle elementary grades, particularly fourth and fifth, where the numbers pull below what many families would hope to see. Trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, holding, or declining.

The school is a regular public school in the Clay County district. No magnet designation, no charter status. Title I status was not listed in the data. Program-specific information, such as gifted services, arts programming, or after-school offerings, was not available in what we reviewed, so families should ask the school directly about those.

Housing context matters here. Home values in the Keystone Heights zip code sit below the Florida state average, and the gap is meaningful. Publicly reported real estate sources describe the area as more affordable than Gainesville or Jacksonville, with a mix of ranch and Craftsman homes on larger lots and some lakefront properties at higher price points. New construction is reportedly active in the broader market area, and the town has seen modest population growth recently while holding onto its quiet, spread-out character. Rents, where available, would likely reflect the same relative affordability. For a family choosing where to buy relative to a school, the cost-of-living picture here is generally more accessible than in nearby metros, though mortgage rates at their current levels apply universally.

Keystone Heights itself offers a low-density, car-dependent lifestyle. Lakes, a city beach, parks, and a state park just north of town on SR 21 give it an outdoor orientation. The public library branch is open into evening hours on weekdays. There is not much of a walkable commercial core, and most daily errands and employment require driving. The school's campus is separate from the small downtown cluster of civic buildings along the main state road.

Clay County district-level changes were searched but reliable confirmed updates were not found in time to include here, so that layer of context is missing. Families tracking district policy shifts, curriculum changes, or capital projects would want to check with the district directly.

For a family in or moving to Keystone Heights, this school is the neighborhood option and the community anchor. The academic results are uneven across grades, with real gaps worth probing, particularly in the middle elementary years. The setting is genuinely small-town, the housing is comparatively affordable, and the school's place in the community is as the one elementary serving this rural corner of Clay County.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 66% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 63% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 55% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 673%

School 73% · District 77% · ▼ 4 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 365%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 443%

School 43% · District 59% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 56% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 668%

School 68% · District 67% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Science

Grade 554%

School 54% · District 61% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 5 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-income57%Higher-income84%27 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income39%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income70%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income63%Higher-income76%13 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income66%Higher-income90%24 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income59%Higher-income58%0 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income46%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income69%Higher-income81%12 pp gap