Julia Landon College Preparatory & Leadership Development S, Jacksonville FL

Original Research by School Decision on Julia Landon College Preparatory & Leadership Development S

Julia Landon College Preparatory and Leadership Development School sits in Jacksonville's 32207 zip code, a middle school serving grades six through eight within Duval County Public Schools. The name signals its intent clearly: this is a college-preparatory program with a leadership development thread woven in, and the academic results back that positioning up.

On Florida's statewide assessments, reading and math proficiency rates across all three grade levels are strong. Sixth-grade math proficiency is exceptionally high, among the strongest results you would expect to see at a Florida middle school. ELA proficiency is consistently solid across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, and eighth-grade ELA is the highest of the three. The one area that reads differently is eighth-grade science, where proficiency drops to roughly the lower end of what you might call "majority proficient" -- still above half of students reaching proficiency, but noticeably weaker than the ELA and math figures. A parent curious about how the school addresses science outcomes would be worth asking directly. Multi-year trend data was not available in what was provided, so it is not possible to say whether these results are stable, improving, or recent.

The student body is racially diverse in composition. White students make up the largest share, Asian students make up a substantial second share -- notably large for a Jacksonville middle school -- and Black and Hispanic students each represent meaningful portions of enrollment. The school draws from across that mix. The share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is low relative to what you typically see in urban public middle schools, which reflects the self-selective nature of a college-preparatory program. Data on students with IEPs or English learner status was not reported, so the profile of how the school serves those populations is a gap in the picture here.

No specific program details were provided in the data, and the district brief search did not turn up confirmed recent changes to the school or to Duval County Public Schools broadly that would be relevant here. The school is a regular public school, not a charter, and magnet status was not indicated in the data.

On housing, the zip code around the school sits below the Florida state median home value by a meaningful margin, and below the national median as well -- making it one of the more accessible entry points in a Jacksonville market that is publicly reported as one of the country's faster-growing metros. Home values in the area have edged slightly lower year over year, and rents have been essentially flat. Jacksonville overall is in the middle of significant downtown investment and population growth, with major mixed-use projects, a stadium renovation, and a University of Florida graduate campus among the publicly reported initiatives underway. The school itself sits in an established residential part of the city, not the downtown core, and Jacksonville's sprawl means most families will drive.

For a family prioritizing high academic expectations and a peer environment built around college preparation at the middle school level, Landon's results make it a school worth taking seriously within Duval County. The science proficiency gap is the one place where a closer look is warranted before drawing conclusions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 693%

School 93% · District 47% · ▲ 46 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 56 pts above county median

Grade 875%

School 75% · District 47% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 34 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 683%

School 83% · District 49% · ▲ 35 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 41 pts above county median

Grade 784%

School 84% · District 48% · ▲ 36 pts above district

▲ 29 pts above state median · ▲ 42 pts above county median

Grade 889%

School 89% · District 47% · ▲ 42 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 47 pts above county median

Science

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 37% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

This schoolDUVAL, 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 6Lower-income63%Higher-income87%25 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income53%Higher-income88%35 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income75%Higher-income91%17 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income75%Higher-income96%22 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income66%Higher-income88%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income50%Higher-income81%31 pp gap