Jacksonville Classical Academy, Jacksonville FL

Original Research by School Decision on Jacksonville Classical Academy

Jacksonville Classical Academy is a K-12 charter school located on Forest Street in Jacksonville's 32204 zip code, a zip that sits near the historic Riverside and Avondale neighborhoods on the west side of the urban core. It draws students from across the city into a single campus rather than a defined attendance zone, which is typical of charter schools in Florida.

The school's enrollment skews heavily toward the younger grades. Kindergarten through second grade together account for a large share of total students, and enrollment thins noticeably by the middle grades, with the seventh grade being particularly sparse. Ninth grade is the highest grade currently populated, and tenth through twelfth grades show no enrollment at all. The school describes itself as serving kindergarten through twelfth grade, but in practice it has not yet reached a full high school program. Parents considering this school for a child who is already in the upper-middle or high school years should ask directly about the current grade configuration and the timeline for completing the K-12 buildout.

The student body is racially and ethnically mixed, with white students making up roughly the largest group, Black students the second largest, and Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students also represented. A meaningful share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a student body that spans a real economic range rather than serving a narrow demographic slice. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in what we reviewed.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the picture is uneven but generally solid in the elementary years. ELA proficiency runs comfortably above half across third through seventh grades, with fourth and fifth grade performing particularly well. Math results follow a similar pattern in the lower grades, with third and fourth grade coming in strong, though fifth grade drops noticeably before results recover in seventh and eighth grade, where math proficiency is genuinely strong. The eighth grade ELA result is the outlier that stands out most, falling well below the results in every other tested grade; a parent may want to ask the school directly about what is driving that and how it is being addressed. Science proficiency at fifth grade is solid; the eighth grade science result is softer. Because the school is still building toward a full high school program, there are no graduation rate data, and high school course access information was not available in what we reviewed.

Trend data was not available. The comparison framework in the data we received noted that the county comparison set was too small to produce a meaningful relative ranking, so we are not placing the school against Duval County peers on that measure.

Jacksonville itself is a large, sprawling city undergoing a genuine downtown revival. The school's Forest Street address places it close to the Riverside and Avondale districts, which are among the city's most walkable pockets, with preserved early-twentieth-century homes, local restaurants and shops along King Street, and the Saturday Riverside Arts Market. Most of Jacksonville remains car-dependent, but this part of the city is an exception to that pattern. The broader metro is growing quickly, publicly reported as one of the faster-growing metros in the country and named a 2026 housing hot spot, with downtown residential construction accelerating across multiple major projects. Housing values in the zip code have edged downward over the past year, while rents have moved in the opposite direction. Prices sit below the Florida statewide benchmark, which reflects Jacksonville's historically relative affordability compared to the state's coastal metros. The Duval district brief did not surface lasting parent-relevant district-level policy changes within our research budget, so we left that section out rather than guess.

The school will fit families drawn to a classical charter model in a racially and economically mixed setting, with strong elementary performance and a campus that is still expanding toward a full K-12 program. Families with children already in ninth grade or above should confirm the current grade offerings before enrolling.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 364%

School 64% · District 59% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 60% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 545%

School 45% · District 54% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Grade 656%

School 56% · District 47% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 43% · ▲ 30 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 37 pts above county median

Grade 879%

School 79% · District 47% · ▲ 32 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 38 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 367%

School 67% · District 51% · ▲ 16 pts above district

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

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 50% · ▲ 25 pts above district

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

Grade 577%

School 77% · District 50% · ▲ 28 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 32 pts above county median

Grade 672%

School 72% · District 49% · ▲ 24 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 773%

School 73% · District 48% · ▲ 25 pts above district

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

Grade 848%

School 48% · District 47% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 560%

School 60% · District 52% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 846%

School 46% · District 37% · ▲ 9 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 15 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 3Lower-income44%Higher-income79%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income48%Higher-income85%38 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income73%Higher-income80%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income80%21 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income68%Higher-income76%8 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income20%Higher-income79%59 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income41%Higher-income75%34 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income77%48 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income24%Higher-income56%32 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income55%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income60%Higher-income84%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income60%Higher-income100%40 pp gap