The top reported proficiency rate is 74% in Math. The lowest is 61% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Kernan Trail Elementary School
Kernan Trail Elementary sits in Jacksonville's Southside, a suburban part of a large, sprawling city that is growing faster than nearly any other metro area in the country. Jacksonville's residential expansion has been concentrated downtown in recent years, but the Southside has long been one of its established suburban corridors, with neighborhood commercial development and access to major highways. Housing near the school, based on current zip-level data, sits below both the Florida state median and the national median, and has dipped modestly year over year. Rents have also pulled back slightly. The rent-to-income picture here reads as relatively affordable by current national standards, which may be part of why the area continues to draw families.
The school serves kindergarten through fifth grade and draws a genuinely mixed student body. White students make up the largest single group, followed by Hispanic and Black students, with meaningful representation from Asian and multiracial students as well. That kind of diversity is not universal across Jacksonville's elementary schools and may matter to families who value it. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, though that share falls below a majority, suggesting a mixed-income community. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs were not available in the data provided, so parents with children in those programs may want to ask the school directly about services and staffing.
On state assessments, Kernan Trail's math results are a clear strength. Across third, fourth, and fifth grades on the FAST Math assessment, a large majority of students reached proficiency in each grade, with third grade performing highest among the three. Fifth-grade science results on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment were similarly strong, with roughly comparable proficiency levels. Reading is the area where parents may want to dig further. ELA proficiency on the FAST assessment, while still reaching more than half of students in each grade, runs meaningfully lower than math across all three tested grades. The gap between math and ELA performance is consistent from third through fifth grade, which is a pattern worth discussing with the school if literacy development is a priority for your child.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or moving in another direction. That is a reasonable question to bring to the school.
Because this is a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school, graduation rate data does not apply. Program offerings were not reported in the data available, so information on enrichment, arts, or intervention programs would need to come from the school directly. The comparison fact-set for Duval County did not produce a usable peer comparison on proficiency or chronic absenteeism, partly because the county's school district structure limited the cohort, so the school's results are presented here on their own terms rather than against a peer group.
District-level changes for Duval County Public Schools were not identified through research before the available sources were exhausted, so recent policy shifts, budget moves, or strategic priorities at the district level are not covered here. Families with questions about district direction would do well to check with Duval County Public Schools directly.
The broader Jacksonville context is one of active growth. The metro is expanding, downtown is undergoing a significant wave of development including a stadium renovation, a University of Florida graduate campus, and several large residential projects, and the city was publicly reported as one of the National Association of Realtors' 2026 housing hot spots. For a family settling into the Southside, the school serves a neighborhood that is well within the city's established suburban fabric, largely car-dependent in the way most of Jacksonville is, but with proximity to retail corridors and employment centers that define this part of the city. The academic picture is strongest in math and science, and ELA is the variable a parent should ask about with specifics in mind.
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