Dr Carter G Woodson K-8 School, Tampa FL

Original Research by School Decision on Dr Carter G Woodson K-8 School

Dr. Carter G. Woodson K-8 School sits on Tampa's north side, serving pre-kindergarten through eighth grade as a regular public school within Hillsborough County Schools. Its student body is substantial for a K-8 campus, with a population that is predominantly Black and Hispanic, and a large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting an economically stretched community. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in what we received.

The academic picture from Florida's FAST assessments is one a parent should look at carefully. Proficiency rates in reading and math across the tested grades run well below state midpoints. In the early elementary grades, fewer than one in three students reached proficiency in math, and fewer than one in four reached it in ELA. Science scores at the tested grade levels were also low. The upper grades show a modest relative lift, particularly in sixth and seventh grade ELA and in eighth grade math, but proficiency across the board remains a concern. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether the school is improving, holding steady, or declining. A parent would be well served by asking the school directly about what instructional supports are in place and whether there is a trajectory they can point to. Because this school does not serve high school grades, graduation rate data does not apply here.

Program and course-access information was not provided for Woodson, so details about enrichment offerings, intervention programs, or extracurriculars are not something we can characterize. Discipline and attendance data were similarly absent.

The neighborhood the school draws from sits north of downtown Tampa, a part of the city that does not carry the tree-lined gentrification of Seminole Heights or the affluence of Hyde Park, though it is within the broader Tampa grid that HART bus routes serve. The city itself is in an active development phase, centered downtown and along the river, with Water Street and the Gasworx district drawing investment. That activity has not yet translated into uniform housing affordability: home values in the zip code served by this school have edged downward modestly year over year, and sit below the Florida statewide benchmark, which itself has declined. Rents in the area are essentially flat year over year. The price-to-income ratio nonetheless signals a housing market that is not inexpensive relative to typical household income, and monthly mortgage costs at current rates are a real weight for working families.

Two district-level changes bear noting. Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024 that adds a meaningful per-year cost for homeowners, running through 2029, directed at raising teacher and staff pay. Publicly reported accounts indicate this is the district's response to persistent teacher shortages, and it funds salary supplements for both classroom teachers and support staff. Separately, the district carried out a major boundary rezoning for the current school year, reshuffling assignments across a large number of schools and potentially affecting many students. Families new to the area should confirm their actual zoned school before assuming a specific assignment holds.

The comparison data available was limited to a single Hillsborough County district in the county set, which means a meaningful positional comparison among peers was not possible from this payload.

What Woodson offers is a pre-K through eighth-grade pathway within a large urban public district, in a community where economic pressures are visible in both the student population and the local housing market. The school's academic results as currently reported are low, and a parent considering enrollment would want to have a direct conversation with the school about supports, growth data, and what the experience looks like for a child at each stage of that PK-8 span.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 328%

School 28% · District 58% · ▼ 30 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 419%

School 19% · District 59% · ▼ 40 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 35 pts below county median

Grade 516%

School 16% · District 54% · ▼ 38 pts below district

▼ 39 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 637%

School 37% · District 54% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 36% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 58% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 321%

School 21% · District 53% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 418%

School 18% · District 53% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 53% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 34 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 55% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 18 pts below county median

Grade 739%

School 39% · District 55% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 52% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 50% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 48% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 25 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

This schoolHILLSBOROUGH, 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-income22%Higher-income18%4 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income15%Higher-income33%19 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income21%Higher-income19%1 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income40%6 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income41%Higher-income31%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income38%6 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income28%Higher-income29%1 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income19%Higher-income17%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income14%Higher-income24%10 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income33%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income36%Higher-income31%5 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income45%Higher-income24%22 pp gap