The top reported proficiency rate is 44% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Franklin Middle Magnet School
Franklin Middle Magnet School sits on East 21st Avenue in Tampa's 33605 zip code, a part of the city that sits east of Ybor City and outside the more affluent corridors of South Tampa and Hyde Park. The school serves sixth through eighth grade as a regular public school within Hillsborough County, and its magnet designation in the name is not confirmed by the data available here, so parents should verify the school's current program focus directly with the district.
The student body is small for a middle school, enrolling roughly the count of students spread across three grade levels. Demographically, Black students make up the largest share, followed by Hispanic students, with a smaller share of white students and very small counts of other groups. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school among those serving a substantial economically disadvantaged population. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not available in the data provided.
On Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent school year, academic proficiency results are low and worth a close look. In ELA, roughly half of sixth graders scored proficient, but that figure drops meaningfully in seventh grade and drops again in eighth grade. Math tells a similar story: sixth-grade proficiency is relatively stronger, but seventh and eighth-grade results fall well below what most families would hope to see. The eighth-grade science assessment showed a similar pattern. These are not edge cases within the data; the pattern is consistent across grades and subjects. Parents who want to understand what's driving these results and what the school is doing to address them would be well served by asking the school directly about instructional supports, intervention programs, and progress trends. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether scores are improving, declining, or holding steady.
No information was available on course access, programs, staffing ratios, or chronic absenteeism, which are all things a parent visiting the school would want to ask about. No graduation rate applies here, as this is a middle school.
The comparison framework for this school notes only one district in Hillsborough County, so no meaningful peer comparison across county districts could be constructed from that set.
The housing market immediately around the school reflects pricing that is meaningfully below both the Florida state median and the national median, with home values that have dipped year over year. Rents have edged upward over the same period. The broader affordability picture, with current mortgage rates near where they have been for the past year, makes ownership a stretch relative to income in this area, though the local price point is lower than in many Tampa neighborhoods. Tampa overall is in an active development phase downtown and in adjacent districts like Ybor City and the Channel District, with the Gasworx mixed-use project and Water Street Tampa adding residential and commercial density nearby. That investment is gradually shifting what the surrounding neighborhoods look and feel like, though the pace and reach of that change varies block by block.
On the district side, Hillsborough County voters approved a one-mill property tax referendum in late 2024, publicly reported as a meaningful per-household annual cost increase for homeowners, running through mid-2029, with proceeds directed toward teacher and staff compensation. The district also completed a major boundary rezoning for the 2024-2025 school year, affecting a large number of schools and potentially shifting students' assignments across the county. Families newer to the area should confirm current attendance boundaries directly with the district, since those lines have recently shifted.
For a family weighing Franklin Middle, the honest picture from the available data is a school with real academic challenges at the seventh- and eighth-grade levels in particular, serving a diverse, largely lower-income community in an evolving part of east Tampa. The school's name carries a magnet designation that the data does not elaborate on, and understanding what that means for admission, programming, and student selection is a logical first question for any parent considering it.
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