The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in Math. The lowest is 60% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cracker Trail Elementary School
Cracker Trail Elementary sits on Sparta Road in Sebring, serving kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Highlands County district. The enrollment is substantial for an elementary school of this type, with classes spread fairly evenly across the six grade levels, and a large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, meaning this is a school with a significant economically disadvantaged population. The student body is predominantly white, with a sizable Hispanic population and smaller shares of Black and multiracial students. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs were not available in the materials reviewed.
On Florida's FAST assessments, Cracker Trail's tested grades show math proficiency running from the low-to-mid sixties in fourth and fifth grade up to the high sixties in third grade. ELA results cluster in the upper fifties and low sixties across grades three through five. Fifth-grade science, measured on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, lands around the sixty percent mark. These results sit roughly in a range where a majority of students are meeting state proficiency standards, though a meaningful portion are not. The comparison data could not be used to position this school relative to neighboring districts because Highlands County has only one district in the county set, which made peer comparison inapplicable. Parents who want deeper context on how these results compare to other schools in the district or state can ask the school directly, and the data sections on this page show the specific figures.
Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to characterize whether proficiency has been rising, holding steady, or declining.
Sebring itself gives the school a particular community backdrop. It is a small central-Florida city built around a circular downtown plan, with a compact walkable core near Circle Park and Lake Jackson, though daily life beyond that downtown hub runs on cars along US Highway 27. The largest employer in the county is the school district itself, followed by healthcare systems and retail. Sebring has been in a growth phase, with residential construction accelerating and property values rising faster than the Florida norm in recent years, though home prices here remain below the state average. The area hosted HGTV's "Hometown Takeover" in spring 2025, publicly reported as part of the city's renewed attention. Housing affordability is meaningfully better than Florida's statewide typical, though it is stretched against local incomes.
At the district level, two developments are worth a parent's attention. Highlands County voters approved a half-cent sales tax dedicated to student safety and academic achievement, overseen by a citizen advisory committee that meets regularly and reports on how the funds are used. That provides a local revenue stream that does not depend on state allocation. At the same time, the district has publicly reported significant ongoing budget pressure driven by state funding being redirected to private-school voucher programs statewide, and the superintendent has proposed eliminating a substantial number of district-level positions to address a projected shortfall. For a school like Cracker Trail, which serves a high proportion of economically disadvantaged students, families may want to ask how those budget pressures are affecting staffing, support services, and programming at the school level.
Program information for Cracker Trail was not included in the data provided, so extracurricular offerings, enrichment programs, and instructional approaches could not be described here. IEP and English learner rates were also missing, which leaves the picture of student support services incomplete. Those are reasonable questions to bring directly to the school.
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