Baker School, Baker FL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Baker School

Baker School sits in an unincorporated rural crossroads community in the western Florida Panhandle, a dozen or so miles from Crestview. It is the only school in Baker, serving students from prekindergarten straight through twelfth grade on a single campus on 14th Street. That structure means a child who starts here in kindergarten can, in principle, walk through graduation without ever switching buildings or communities. For families who value that kind of continuity in a small-town, everyone-knows-everyone environment, it is a defining feature of the place.

The community itself is agricultural and equestrian in character, organized around state highways rather than sidewalks, with forests and waterways as its backdrop. There is no downtown in the incorporated sense; civic life clusters around Baker School, the county recreation area and its riding arenas, Baker Park, and the Baker Block Museum. Most residents commute out of Baker for work, with the armed forces at Eglin Air Force Base anchoring employment across Okaloosa County. The commute pattern matters because it shapes who lives here: people who want rural land, low density, and equestrian space, and are willing to drive for jobs and services.

The school's enrollment is substantial for a rural PK-12 campus. A large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is context worth having when reading the test scores. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students identifying as two or more races, Hispanic, and Black. Data on English learners and students with IEPs were not available in what was provided.

On the Florida FAST assessments in the most recent school year, Baker School's results are mixed. In the elementary grades, math proficiency runs in the low-to-mid sixties and above, with third and fourth grade math results standing out as the strongest reading in the data. ELA proficiency across elementary grades sits in the high fifties to low sixties. Science at the tested fifth grade comes in around the mid-fifties. These figures are in the range you would see at many rural Florida schools serving populations with similar economic profiles, but they are not particularly strong against the broader state distribution, and parents of children in these grades may want to ask the school directly about how it targets foundational literacy and numeracy. The middle grades tell a more uneven story: eighth grade math proficiency drops noticeably, falling well below every other grade tested in the building, while eighth grade ELA is the highest ELA result in the data. That eighth grade math gap is worth raising with the school. Science proficiency at eighth grade is in the high fifties, roughly comparable to fifth grade. Trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these patterns have improved, worsened, or held steady.

Comparison against other districts in Okaloosa County was not computed because there is only one district in the county comparison set, so no relative positioning is available from that source.

On the district side, several things directly affect Baker School. Okaloosa County School District has publicly reported earning Florida's top district grade every year since the state began issuing them, one of a very small number of Florida districts to sustain that. The district's graduation rate, as publicly reported, is high. And the district recently approved a major construction program, the first new school construction in the county in some time, which specifically includes a classroom addition at Baker School. That addition is a response to overcrowding, as publicly reported nearly every school in the county is at or over capacity. A proposed residential development across from the Baker campus was reported to be raising community concern about road infrastructure, fire services, and school capacity, so growth is a live issue in the immediate neighborhood. A voter-approved half-cent sales tax is also funding capital improvements across the district, with oversight by a citizens' committee.

Home values in the Baker area are below the Florida statewide benchmark and roughly in line with the national figure, and the area has been seeing steady real estate activity, including new construction from regional builders. The market skews toward single-family homes, farms, and larger land tracts, consistent with the equestrian and rural character of the place. Rental cost data was not available for this ZIP code.

Program offerings at Baker School were not available in what was provided, so AP access, dual enrollment, career pathways, and extracurriculars are gaps that a family should ask the school about directly.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 90 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 370%

School 70% · District 66% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 472%

School 72% · District 68% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 65% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▲ 9 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 663%

School 63% · District 65% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 77% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 56% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 59% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 63% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 61% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 666%

School 66% · District 68% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 758%

School 58% · District 64% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 64% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 555%

School 55% · District 61% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 859%

School 59% · District 63% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

This schoolOKALOOSA, 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-income58%Higher-income70%12 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income53%Higher-income76%22 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income49%Higher-income67%18 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income61%Higher-income74%13 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income48%Higher-income73%25 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income76%Higher-income69%7 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income67%Higher-income76%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income64%Higher-income88%24 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income71%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income59%Higher-income70%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income60%Higher-income72%13 pp gap