Clay Hill Elementary School, Jacksonville FL

Original Research by School Decision on Clay Hill Elementary School

Clay Hill Elementary sits on County Road 218 in the far western reaches of Jacksonville's mailing address, but it is a Clay County school in a genuinely rural setting rather than anything resembling Jacksonville's suburban core. The surrounding area is quiet and spread out, a long drive from the riverfront districts and employer clusters that define Jacksonville's center. Families considering this school should understand that the context is rural Clay County, not urban Duval.

The school serves prekindergarten through sixth grade, which means it reaches students at an age when foundational literacy and numeracy are being built. Enrollment is small relative to many elementary schools in the region. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is important context for reading the academic numbers alongside the demographic picture. The student body is predominantly white, with small Hispanic, multiracial, and Black populations. IEP and English learner data were not available in the data provided.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is uneven across grades and subjects. In reading, third and fifth grade results sit just above the midpoint, fourth grade is somewhat stronger, and sixth grade reaches into the low-to-mid sixties. Math tells a similar story through most grades, with third and fourth grade results in the upper fifties to low sixties, but fifth grade math proficiency is meaningfully lower, well under half of students reaching proficiency. Sixth grade math is the strongest result in the building, with roughly three-quarters of students proficient. The fifth-grade Florida Science Assessment came in just under half. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, holding, or declining. A parent who wants to understand the trajectory should ask the school directly.

The pattern worth flagging is that fifth grade stands out in both math and ELA as the weakest point in the school. That does not necessarily mean instruction is weaker there, but it is the grade where results dip most noticeably, and a parent with a child at or approaching that grade level may want to ask what supports are in place.

Program information was not available for this school. The district brief search was exhausted without confirming lasting changes in Clay County schools, so that context was left out rather than guessed at.

On housing, the zip code around this school carries home values modestly below the Florida state benchmark and roughly in line with national figures, with values slightly down year over year. Rents in the area reflect a cost structure where renting consumes a meaningful share of a median income, though the rent-versus-mortgage gap suggests buying can be more cost-effective than renting for families who can manage a down payment. The broader Jacksonville metro is publicly reported as one of the faster-growing housing markets in the country, with downtown development especially active, though that activity is geographically remote from this school's corner of the region.

For a family already living in rural western Clay County, this school is the neighborhood elementary. For a family weighing a move, the rural character of the location is the defining feature: very car-dependent, distant from Jacksonville's employment and amenity clusters, and offering a small-school environment with a predominantly white, lower-income student body. The academic results are mixed enough that a conversation with the school about grade-level supports, particularly around fifth grade, would be a reasonable step before enrolling.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 359%

School 59% · District 66% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 63% · ▼ 1 pts below district

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

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 55% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 676%

School 76% · District 77% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 65% · ▼ 9 pts below district

even with state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 466%

School 66% · District 59% · ▲ 7 pts above district

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

Grade 555%

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

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 664%

School 64% · District 67% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 61% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 11 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-income52%Higher-income64%12 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income72%27 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income63%Higher-income67%4 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income58%Higher-income59%1 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income52%31 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income78%3 pp gap