The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in English language arts. The lowest is 7% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Jackie Harris Preparatory Academy
Jackie Harris Preparatory Academy is a charter elementary school in Pensacola serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It carries the designation of an alternative school, which matters for how a parent reads the data here. Alternative schools often serve students with distinct circumstances or needs, and that context shapes what standardized test results mean and what support structures a family should ask about directly.
The school's enrollment is modest for a K-5 building. A very large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school among those serving a high-poverty population. The student body is predominantly Black, with a meaningful Hispanic share and very small representation of other groups. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the information provided.
The Florida FAST assessment results for the most recent school year are low by statewide standards across every tested subject and grade. In ELA, roughly a quarter to a third of students in the tested grades scored proficient, depending on the grade. In math, proficiency rates are much lower, and in fifth-grade science the rate is similarly low. These numbers are well below what is typical across Florida elementary schools. Because this is an alternative school, a single-point proficiency rate does not capture whether individual students are gaining ground from wherever they started, and the data here does not include growth or value-added measures. A parent who wants to understand what academic progress looks like for students at this school would do well to ask the school directly about student growth trajectories over time, since the proficiency snapshot alone does not tell that story.
No program offerings, course access, or disciplinary data were available in the information provided. Staffing and attendance figures were also absent. These are meaningful gaps for a parent trying to assess day-to-day school life, and asking the school directly would fill them.
The school sits along Pensacola Boulevard, on the north side of Pensacola. The broader Pensacola area is a city shaped by the military, healthcare, and higher education, with Naval Air Station Pensacola as a dominant economic force alongside large employers like Navy Federal Credit Union and Baptist Health Care. The downtown core around Palafox Street has been undergoing sustained reinvestment, with new housing and commercial activity, while suburban Escambia County continues to add residential development at a meaningful pace. The housing market near the school's zip code remains well below the Florida statewide median home value, and the rental market has seen moderate year-over-year increases. For families weighing housing costs alongside school choice, the Pensacola area generally offers more affordable entry points than much of the rest of Florida.
At the district level, publicly reported coverage notes that Escambia County voters recently renewed a dedicated half-cent sales tax for school facilities, locking in construction and renovation funding for years ahead. The district has also adopted more restrictive library and instructional materials policies, publicly reported to have resulted in the removal of hundreds of titles, a factor families weigh differently depending on their views about reading access. Separately, a district governance question about whether to return to an elected superintendent is heading back to voters, so the leadership structure of Escambia schools may shift in the coming years.
A multi-year trend comparison for Jackie Harris was not possible with the available data, so whether academic results have been improving, declining, or holding steady cannot be characterized here. The comparison data set for Escambia County contains only one district, which means positioning the school against county peers was not applicable.
For a family considering this school, the most useful next step is a direct conversation with the school about what "alternative" means in its specific context, what student supports are in place, how the school tracks individual progress, and what the day-to-day structure looks like for children in its grade band.
See more original research from School Decision →