The top reported proficiency rate is 16% in English language arts. The lowest is 6% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Grand Park Career Center
Grand Park Career Center sits on the west side of Jacksonville, in a part of the city that sits well removed from the suburban commercial hubs and newer development concentrated further south and east. The school is classified as an alternative school serving grades six through twelve, which shapes almost everything a parent needs to understand about it before reading further.
The enrollment is small for a school spanning that many grade levels, and the distribution of students is striking: the middle grades carry only a handful of students while the upper high school grades account for the large majority. This pattern is common in alternative settings that draw older students who are working to re-engage with formal education, recover credits, or find a pathway that a traditional school has not provided. Whether that context fits a family's situation is a practical question about purpose and fit, not a quality judgment.
The student body is predominantly Black, and a large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding neighborhood. Specific data on students with disabilities or English learners was not available in the records reviewed.
State assessment results are available for eighth-grade students in math, ELA, and science, and for seventh grade those results were suppressed, likely due to the very small number of students in that grade. Where results are reported, proficiency rates in all three subjects are quite low. A parent should understand that this is consistent with what alternative schools frequently report: the students they serve often arrive with academic gaps that are the reason they are in an alternative setting in the first place. The state test results here are not a standalone signal about teaching quality; they reflect the incoming reality of the population the school serves. A parent wanting to understand how students progress over time, and what graduation and re-engagement outcomes look like, would be well served asking the school directly, since that data was not available here.
No graduation rate was available in the data, and no program offerings were reported. The district brief for Duval County Public Schools, which oversees Grand Park, returned no confirmed parent-relevant changes after a search, so that section is left blank rather than filled with guesses.
The neighborhood around the school, in the 32209 zip code, has a housing market that sits dramatically below Florida's statewide median and well below national figures, and home values there have declined over the most recent year-over-year period. Rents are modest by Jacksonville standards. For families already living in this part of the city, housing costs are among the lowest in the metro. Publicly reported sources note that Jacksonville broadly is one of the faster-growing metros in the country and is seeing substantial downtown investment, but that growth story is centered on the riverfront and southern and eastern quadrants; the west side neighborhood around the school has a different economic texture.
Jacksonville itself is a sprawling, car-dependent city. Most trips require a car, though the downtown core a few miles east has walkable pockets and public transit access through the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's bus network. The city's major employers span health care systems, logistics and fulfillment, the military, Duval County Public Schools itself, and a growing financial services sector.
For a family whose student needs the structure, pacing, or re-engagement opportunity that an alternative school offers, Grand Park Career Center is the relevant question to explore. The low state test scores and missing program data mean a direct conversation with the school about what it offers, how students progress, and what outcomes it tracks would be essential before drawing any conclusions.
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