J.l. Wilkinson Elementary School, Middleburg FL

Original Research by School Decision on J.l. Wilkinson Elementary School

J.L. Wilkinson Elementary sits on County Road 218 in Middleburg, an unincorporated corner of Clay County that reads as suburban-rural rather than small-town proper. Middleburg is a car-oriented place where Blanding Boulevard handles most daily errands and Jacksonville's metro growth is visibly pressing in. The First Coast Expressway is being extended through the area, new subdivisions are rising along the main corridors, and a commercial development recently opened with restaurants and retail. Families who land here are typically commuters, with regional hospitals, Clay Electric Cooperative, and the Naval Air Station Jacksonville all within reach. The community's social identity, publicly reported as tight-knit and rooted in Black Creek and Friday-night football, coexists with that suburban growth pressure.

The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, which means a graduation rate does not apply here. Discipline, attendance, and staffing data were not available in what was provided.

A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a meaningful piece of context for reading the academic results. On Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, the picture varies sharply by grade. Third grade showed solid ELA performance and a reasonably strong math showing. Sixth grade posted the strongest results in both math and ELA by a notable margin. The middle grades, fourth and fifth, lagged behind in both subjects, with fifth-grade math and ELA both coming in well below the third and sixth grade marks. Fifth-grade science sat just above the midpoint of the tested scale. A parent who wants to understand what's driving the dip in the middle grades, and what the school is doing about it, would do well to ask directly. The gap between third, sixth, and the intervening grades is worth a conversation with school staff, since a single year's snapshot doesn't explain the pattern.

Trend data were not available, so it isn't possible to say whether these results represent movement in any direction.

The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school serving this grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up the next largest group and smaller shares of students identifying as two or more races or other backgrounds. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs were not reported in the materials available here.

On housing, the Middleburg zip code shows home values running somewhat below the statewide median and meaningfully below the national median, though both have been drifting in recent months. Rents have ticked up slightly year over year. Estimated monthly mortgage costs at current rates reflect a market that is more accessible than many Florida metros but still a stretch at a national income benchmark. For families weighing where to plant roots as the expressway extension reshapes commute options, the area's relative affordability compared to closer-in Jacksonville neighborhoods is a live variable.

No information was available on the Clay school district's current strategic priorities or planned changes. That search ran without finding confirmed developments, so that context was left out rather than invented.

What Wilkinson offers is a neighborhood public elementary in a growing, car-dependent community with an outdoor and waterfront recreational culture. The academic data are uneven across grades, and a family placing a child here in the middle elementary years would be right to ask the school specific questions about fourth and fifth grade support before drawing conclusions from the state test results alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 66% · ▼ 3 pts below district

even with state median · even with county median

Grade 439%

School 39% · District 63% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 535%

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

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 680%

School 80% · District 77% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 65% · ▼ 12 pts below district

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

Grade 444%

School 44% · District 59% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 56% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 661%

School 61% · District 67% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Science

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 61% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 7 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-income54%Higher-income52%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income54%13 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income53%18 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income68%9 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income61%Higher-income70%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income41%Higher-income33%8 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income31%Higher-income53%22 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income78%Higher-income86%8 pp gap