Ponce De Leon High School, Ponce De Leon FL

Original Research by School Decision on Ponce De Leon High School

Ponce de Leon High School sits on Ammons Road in the small rural town of Ponce de Leon, in the Florida Panhandle's Holmes County. It serves grades six through twelve, so middle and high school students share a single campus adjacent to the elementary school next door. The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. Enrollment is small for a combined 6-12 building, and a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic character of the surrounding community. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and other students.

On Florida's FAST assessments, the academic picture varies by subject and grade. ELA results are the clearer strength: proficiency climbs through the middle grades, and by eighth grade a strong majority of students are reading at grade level. Eighth-grade science results are similarly solid, with most students reaching proficiency. Math tells a different story. Sixth grade math proficiency is low, a gap that narrows by seventh and eighth grade but remains below where the ELA numbers land. Parents with incoming sixth graders who want to know more about how the school supports students in math would be worth asking directly. No high school state assessment data (such as EOC or Algebra results) appears in the data provided, so the academic picture above grades eight is less clear from what is available here. Trend data across years was not available, so whether these results represent improvement, stability, or decline cannot be said from this data.

No information on AP courses, dual enrollment, or career pathways was available in the data. Given that this is a small rural school covering grades six through twelve, families with college-bound high schoolers should ask the school directly what advanced coursework and post-secondary options are on offer.

One parent-relevant development in the district is worth knowing about. As of early 2025, Holmes District Schools expanded a free, on-campus telehealth program to all of its schools through a partnership with PanCare of Florida. Publicly reported coverage indicates students can see a licensed provider at school during the day for diagnosis, treatment, lab testing, and prescriptions, with parental consent. For families without insurance there is no charge; for insured or Medicaid-covered students, PanCare bills the insurance and covers any copay. In a rural area with limited nearby healthcare, this is a concrete day-to-day benefit for families.

The town itself is a genuinely small agricultural community, organized along U.S. Route 90 with Interstate 10 nearby providing connections east toward Tallahassee and west toward Pensacola. Pine tree farms, poultry operations, and cattle define the local economy, and most employment for adults draws them into nearby towns such as Bonifay, Chipley, and DeFuniak Springs. The civic anchor most visitors recognize is Ponce de Leon Springs State Park, a natural spring with swimming and nature trails located in the town. There is no in-town library branch and no public transit. The built environment is dispersed and car-dependent.

Housing costs here are well below both the Florida statewide median and the national median, and recent trends show modest year-over-year appreciation. The local market runs toward single-family homes on acreage rather than subdivisions, and the town has pursued housing rehabilitation grants rather than new development, which signals the growth trajectory is incremental rather than expansionary.

No chronic absenteeism data, discipline data, graduation rate, or staffing information was available in the data provided. The graduation rate field is missing, which a parent of a high schooler would reasonably want to know; asking the school directly is the practical next step. The school's comparison against Holmes County district peers was not applicable because there is only one district in the county, so no peer-group positioning is possible.

This school fits families rooted in a quiet, rural, agricultural community who want a single campus their children will walk through from middle school to graduation. The small enrollment means students are unlikely to be anonymous, and the telehealth expansion addresses a real gap in a county where healthcare options are limited. The math results in the earlier grades are a genuine soft spot worth exploring further.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=80%Cohort of 30 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

867 schools plotted. 183 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 621%

School 21% · District 49% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 41 pts below state median

Grade 743%

School 43% · District 54% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median

Grade 845%

School 45% · District 32% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 657%

School 57% · District 53% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 762%

School 62% · District 56% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median

Grade 876%

School 76% · District 55% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median

Science

Grade 866%

School 66% · District 47% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median

This schoolHOLMES, 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 6Lower-income42%Higher-income100%58 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income53%Higher-income72%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income70%Higher-income83%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income27%8 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income50%13 pp gap