The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 31% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Richardson Sixth Grade Academy
Richardson Sixth Grade Academy sits on SE Pennsylvania Street in Lake City, serving every sixth grader who feeds into its building as their single year before moving on to middle school. Because it serves only one grade, the enrollment picture is a single cohort at a time, and the school is a mid-sized building by the standards of that narrow purpose.
Lake City is the seat of Columbia County and the commercial and governmental anchor for a largely rural stretch of North Florida. Publicly reported sources describe it as a small-town, Southern place with a walkable historic downtown centered on Marion Avenue and Lake DeSoto, while the broader city spreads outward along highway corridors near I-75. Major employers include a regional hospital, Florida Gateway College, a large highway-construction firm, and various government and retail employers. Home values here sit well below both the state and national median, and recent data suggest modest upward movement in prices. Rents, by the same data, are relatively affordable relative to income. The district recently passed a half-cent sales surtax by a narrow margin to fund school construction and renovation, including a plan to consolidate four older elementary campuses into two new ones. Parents considering this area should know that building conditions and school attendance boundaries are actively shifting as that plan unfolds.
On the academic side, the school reports FAST assessment results for sixth-grade English language arts and math from the most recent school year. In both subjects, the school sits in the range where a slim majority of students tested at proficiency, with ELA and math results close to each other. Those results are within striking distance of the state midpoint rather than clearly above or below it. A parent who wants to understand how those numbers compare to other schools across Florida, or whether they represent an improvement over prior years, should ask the school directly, because trend data was not available in what we reviewed, and the comparison framework covers only the single district in Columbia County, which limits the context we can offer.
The school's student population reflects a community with real economic strain. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The racial and ethnic composition is majority white, with Black and Hispanic students making up a meaningful share of the student body. IEP and English learner counts were not available in the data provided, so a parent with a child who has special education needs or is an English learner should ask the school directly about its staffing and support for those populations.
One data artifact worth naming: the science result that appears in the record is from a substantially earlier school year, tied to the school's prior identity as Richardson Middle School, which served grades through eighth. That figure does not reflect the current school's program or current students and should be set aside entirely when evaluating this building.
Extracurricular offerings at this single-grade campus are modest but present. Publicly reported program listings show a small sports menu that includes basketball, cheerleading, soccer, and volleyball, along with a yearbook club. For a school serving only one grade, this is a reasonable range, though families who expect a wide activities slate will likely find it expands considerably once their child moves to the next campus.
The district has also adopted a parent-choice process for library and media materials aligned to Florida state law, which gives families a formal role in determining what reading resources their student accesses. Families who consider library access or reading selection a central concern should ask the district and school how that process works in practice at this building.
Attendance data, chronic absenteeism rates, and discipline figures were not available in the data we reviewed. Those are gaps worth raising with the school before enrollment.
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