Fort Braden School, Tallahassee FL

Original Research by School Decision on Fort Braden School

Fort Braden School sits on Blountstown Highway on the western edge of Tallahassee, well outside the city's downtown core and the university neighborhoods that define much of the capital's character. It is a traditional public school in Leon County Schools serving prekindergarten through eighth grade, so it functions as a combined elementary and middle school for the families in that corridor. There is no graduation rate to report, as the school does not serve high school grades.

The academic picture that emerges from Florida's FAST assessments is a candid one, and parents should look at it directly. Across tested grades, math proficiency is low, running from roughly a fifth of students in third grade to nearly half in seventh grade, with eighth grade falling back toward the lower end. ELA results follow a similar arc, with third and fourth grade proficiency rates in roughly the same range as math, and modest improvement in the upper middle school grades, where roughly two in five eighth graders tested proficient. Science results, measured in fifth and eighth grade, are also thin, with the eighth-grade science figure particularly low. When all tested subjects and grades are combined into an overall proficiency index, Fort Braden places in the bottom quartile relative to the other districts in Leon County. That is the comparison set the data supports. Parents who want to understand the school's plan for addressing these gaps would be well served asking the school directly.

A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which means the school is working with a population that research consistently associates with greater academic need and more demand on support resources. Information on English learner counts and students served under individualized education programs was not available in the data. The student body is primarily white, with Hispanic students making up a substantial share and Black students a smaller but present portion of the enrollment. The school is mid-sized for a PK-8 setting.

The housing market around this part of Tallahassee differs noticeably from the city's more central zip codes. Home values in the school's zip code are well below both the Florida state median and the national median, and rents in the area are on the lower end of the Tallahassee market as well. Year-over-year home values have been roughly flat. For a buyer, the price-to-income ratio here looks more accessible than in many Florida markets, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost sits below what renters pay in many comparable settings, which makes this corridor relatively attainable.

Tallahassee more broadly is a capital city shaped by state government, Florida State University, Florida A&M University, and a healthcare sector anchored by Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. Publicly reported information describes the metro as on a modest growth path, with planners actively working to permit denser housing to meet demand. The western edge of the city, where Fort Braden is located, is quieter and more rural in character than neighborhoods like Midtown or CollegeTown near the universities. Families who want proximity to those amenities would be driving a meaningful distance. StarMetro, the city-run bus system, serves the broader area but is concentrated on downtown and university corridors. No parent-relevant district policy changes, such as referendum results, curriculum shifts, or school boundary adjustments, were confirmed from reliable sources in the research conducted here, so those were left out rather than guessed at.

Fort Braden is the neighborhood school for families west of the city who want a single building their children can attend from pre-K through eighth grade. The academic results as they currently stand are a real consideration, and a parent weighing this school would reasonably want to ask what interventions are in place, what progress looks like at the grade their child will enter, and how the school communicates with families about student-level growth.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 63% · ▼ 43 pts below district

▼ 43 pts below state median · ▼ 38 pts below county median

Grade 430%

School 30% · District 61% · ▼ 31 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 56% · ▼ 30 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 633%

School 33% · District 59% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 747%

School 47% · District 55% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 46% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 326%

School 26% · District 57% · ▼ 31 pts below district

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

Grade 420%

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

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

Grade 534%

School 34% · District 54% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Grade 640%

School 40% · District 58% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 735%

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

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 841%

School 41% · District 54% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Science

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 51% · ▼ 27 pts below district

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

Grade 85%

School 5% · District 41% · ▼ 36 pts below district

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

This schoolLEON, 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-income24%Higher-income29%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income19%Higher-income25%6 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income35%Higher-income32%4 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income48%Higher-income31%17 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income27%Higher-income46%19 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income36%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income23%Higher-income16%7 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income32%Higher-income25%7 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income23%Higher-income30%7 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income39%Higher-income28%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income43%Higher-income53%10 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income25%Higher-income24%1 pp gap