The top reported proficiency rate is 67% in Science. The lowest is 51% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Rufus E. Payne Elementary School
Rufus E. Payne Elementary sits on Hema Road in Jacksonville's 32209 zip code, a neighborhood on the city's northwest side that sits well outside the downtown core and the newer suburban growth corridors. The school serves prekindergarten through fifth grade as a regular Duval County public school, and its enrollment is small for an elementary serving that full grade band.
The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a very small representation of Hispanic, white, and multiracial students. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, one of the higher economic need concentrations you would find among Duval County schools. IEP and English learner rates were not available in the data.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the most recent results show a meaningful split between math and reading. Math proficiency climbs across the tested grades, from the lower third of the grade band up through fifth grade, where results land above the state midpoint. That upward trajectory in math is the clearest academic strength visible in this data. Science proficiency for fifth graders sits in a similar range, also above the midpoint statewide. ELA tells a different story. Third- and fourth-grade reading proficiency falls below the halfway mark, and while fifth grade is higher, it still lags behind the math results at the same grade level. The gap between math and reading at Payne is wide enough that a parent whose child is working on literacy skills would want to ask the school directly about its reading intervention approach and what support structures are in place. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement or a plateau.
No program offerings were reported in the data, so it is not possible to describe enrichment tracks, arts programs, or after-school pathways. Discipline, attendance, and chronic absenteeism data were also absent. Those are meaningful gaps for a family trying to understand the day-to-day environment, and a school visit or direct conversation with staff would fill them.
The comparison data for Duval County flagged that the county has only two districts, which made formal proficiency benchmarking against peer districts unavailable. The school belongs to Duval County Public Schools, one of the largest districts in Florida, publicly reported as a major employer in the region and as home to a mix of neighborhood schools, magnets, and specialty programs across the city.
The 32209 zip code housing market is a significant piece of context. Home values here are dramatically below both the Florida and national medians, and they have declined over the past year. Rents are well below the Jacksonville metro average. This is one of the more affordable pockets of an already relatively affordable city, and for families weighing cost of housing against school access, that affordability can matter. Jacksonville as a whole is publicly reported as one of the faster-growing metro areas in the country, with substantial downtown investment underway, but that growth is concentrated in the urban core, Southbank, and suburban corridors rather than in the northwest neighborhoods where Payne is located.
Jacksonville is a sprawling, largely car-dependent city. The 32209 area is not one of the walkable neighborhoods, and access to the civic amenities of downtown, the riverfront parks, libraries, and the arts district, requires a drive. Major employers such as Baptist Health, the Naval Air Station, and Duval County Public Schools itself anchor the regional job market, and the broader economy includes health care, logistics, financial services, and a growing presence in technology.
For a family zoned to Payne, the math trajectory is encouraging, and the school's small size means students are unlikely to be lost in a crowd. The reading performance across the lower grades is the area that warrants closer attention, and the absence of program data means there is more to learn before forming a full picture of what the school offers beyond its test results.
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