Oceanway School, Jacksonville FL

Original Research by School Decision on Oceanway School

Oceanway School is a public middle school in Jacksonville's northside, serving sixth through eighth graders within Duval County Public Schools. The school draws a racially mixed student body: Black and white students each make up substantial portions of enrollment, with Hispanic students and students of two or more races adding further diversity. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a meaningful share of families are navigating economic constraints. Data on English learner populations and students with IEPs were not available in what we reviewed.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture varies by grade and subject in ways worth a parent's attention. Eighth graders show the strongest math proficiency, reaching well above half of students tested, while sixth grade math and ELA results sit in the low-to-mid forties and seventh grade math proficiency is notably lower, with fewer than a third of students scoring proficient. ELA proficiency across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades clusters in roughly the same range, with modest differences between years. Eighth grade science results on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment are the weakest single figure in the data, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency. These results are below what most families would hope to see as a baseline, and a parent considering Oceanway may want to ask the school directly about what supports are in place, particularly in math across the middle grades and in science by eighth grade. Multi-year trend data was not available, so whether scores have been improving, holding steady, or declining cannot be assessed from what we have.

No information on programs, course offerings, discipline, attendance, or staffing was provided in the data. The school does not serve high school grades, so graduation rate data does not apply here.

The northside Jacksonville zip code where Oceanway sits reflects a housing market that is noticeably more affordable than the Florida state benchmark. Home values in the area have dipped modestly year over year, as has typical rent, and the price-to-income relationship is somewhat more accessible than the national average. Renting and owning are roughly comparable in cost, with mortgage payments running only modestly above typical rent. For families weighing whether to buy in this part of Jacksonville, those numbers suggest the area remains within reach even as broader Jacksonville continues to grow rapidly. The metro overall has been publicly reported as one of the faster-growing in the country, with downtown Jacksonville seeing substantial investment and residential development, though much of that activity is concentrated well south of the northside neighborhoods Oceanway serves.

Jacksonville itself is a sprawling, car-dependent city, and the northside is no exception to that pattern. Walkable commercial life, the riverfront parks, and cultural amenities are largely downtown and in neighborhoods like Riverside and San Marco, which require driving from most of the northside. Major employers across the region include health systems, Amazon's North Jacksonville distribution operations, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, and the county school district itself, giving the broader job market a reasonably varied base.

We looked for recent district-level changes or strategic priorities from Duval County Public Schools but found little that could be confirmed, so that dimension was left out rather than speculated on.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 644%

School 44% · District 47% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 43% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 47% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 641%

School 41% · District 49% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 48% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 843%

School 43% · District 47% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 832%

School 32% · District 37% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▲ 1 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-income36%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income36%Higher-income51%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income40%Higher-income46%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income50%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income19%Higher-income30%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income56%Higher-income61%5 pp gap