The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in Math. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on James Elementary School
James Elementary sits on Ellicott Street in the 33610 zip code of east Tampa, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is a regular public school in the Hillsborough County School District and draws from a neighborhood where the housing market sits below Florida and national benchmarks, with both home values and rents having dipped modestly year over year. The area is neither remote nor a walkable urban core; east Tampa is a residential part of a large city with uneven pedestrian access and its civic anchors clustered well to the west.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a meaningful Hispanic presence and a small white population. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, making this one of the higher-poverty elementary schools in the area. Data on English learner rates and IEP rates were not reported in what we received, so families with children in those programs may want to ask the school directly about support services and staffing.
Enrollment is modest for a school serving this grade band, spread fairly evenly across the grades from pre-K through fifth. The school is not designated as a charter or magnet school.
On Florida's FAST assessments, proficiency rates across third, fourth, and fifth grade in both English language arts and math are low, running well below what most families would hope to see. Science results for fifth graders, tested under the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, follow a similar pattern. Across all tested subjects and grades, the share of students scoring proficient is in roughly the low-to-mid twenties at the high end and lower in some grades. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether results are improving, holding, or declining. A parent would be well-served to ask the school about its instructional model, what interventions are in place for students below grade level, and how they communicate progress with families.
No program information was available in what we received, meaning we cannot speak to any enrichment, arts, STEM, or after-school offerings the school may provide. The comparison framework for placing this school against county neighbors was also not applicable here, as Hillsborough County has only one district and the proficiency comparison set requires multiple districts to be meaningful.
At the district level, two recent changes are worth knowing. Hillsborough County voters approved a property tax referendum in late 2024 that adds to homeowner costs annually through mid-2029, with funds directed toward teacher and support staff pay. That means a direct, ongoing cost for families who own homes in the area, though the intention is to address teacher shortages and improve staffing stability. The district also completed a large-scale boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year that shifted thousands of students to different schools. Families new to the area should confirm their assigned school directly with the district, as boundaries have been recently redrawn.
Tampa itself is a large, economically active city anchored by healthcare, defense, higher education, and financial services. The downtown core is undergoing visible development through projects like Water Street Tampa and Gasworx, though those are geographically distant from east Tampa and represent a different neighborhood reality than the one immediately around this school. Housing in the school's zip code is considerably more affordable than the city's showcase districts, which matters for families weighing whether the area is accessible.
For a family considering James Elementary, the central question is how the school is addressing its academic gaps and what support it provides for students who arrive behind grade level. The proficiency data is a genuine concern and warrants direct conversation with school leadership before enrollment.
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