The top reported proficiency rate is 38% in Math. The lowest is 30% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Joseph Stilwell Middle School
Joseph Stilwell Middle School sits on Burma Road in the westside of Jacksonville, serving sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school within Duval County Public Schools. The enrollment is moderate for a middle school of its grade band, and the student body is racially diverse, with Black, white, and Hispanic students each making up meaningful portions of the population. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Stilwell among schools serving a higher-poverty community. Data on English learner populations and students with IEPs were not available in the materials reviewed.
The academic picture from Florida's most recent FAST assessments is mixed and, in several areas, genuinely concerning. Math results vary noticeably across grade levels: eighth-grade math shows a reasonably solid result by comparison, but seventh-grade math proficiency sits quite low, well below what most parents would hope to see at a school-wide level. Sixth-grade math falls in the middle of that range. ELA proficiency across all three grades lands in a similar band, with seventh and eighth grade both coming in below the forty-percent mark and sixth grade just above it. Eighth-grade science proficiency on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment is low, with fewer than a third of tested students reaching the proficient threshold. Parents of students who are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks may want to speak directly with the school about what academic supports are available for students needing additional help, and what acceleration opportunities exist for those who are ready.
Year-over-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to characterize whether results are improving, flat, or declining. Comparison data relative to other districts in Duval County was not applicable at the school level given the size of the county's district pool in this analysis. Graduation rate does not apply here, as Stilwell serves only middle grades.
Program information was not provided in the materials reviewed, so specifics about electives, enrichment, sports, clubs, or any magnet or special programming are a gap worth investigating directly with the school or the Duval district.
The surrounding westside Jacksonville neighborhood is largely car-dependent, consistent with much of the city outside its walkable core neighborhoods. Jacksonville as a whole is one of the faster-growing metro areas in the country, publicly reported sources note, with downtown in particular undergoing substantial residential and commercial development. That growth is concentrated well east of Stilwell's Burma Road location, so families on the westside are likely to experience the city's expansion more indirectly, through a housing market that remains meaningfully more affordable than Florida's statewide median. Home values near the school have declined modestly year-over-year, while rents have held roughly flat, and the local price-to-income ratio sits below what national housing affordability benchmarks suggest is burdensome. For families weighing whether to buy or rent in this part of Jacksonville, the housing market is among the more accessible entry points in the region.
Duval County Public Schools is a large district, one of the largest in Florida by publicly reported accounts, with all the programmatic breadth that can bring. However, a search for recent district-level strategic priorities or parent-relevant policy changes returned nothing confirmable in time for this profile, so that context is absent rather than guessed at.
Stilwell's story at this point is primarily one of academic challenge. The school enrolls a diverse, economically varied student body in a part of Jacksonville that is more removed from the city's current growth surge. The test results as reported indicate that a majority of students across most subjects and grade levels are not yet meeting Florida's proficiency standards, and that pattern holds across ELA and math for all three middle grades. Families for whom academic trajectory is the primary consideration will want to ask the school pointed questions about instructional supports, tutoring access, and how individual student progress is monitored and addressed.
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