The top reported proficiency rate is 37% in Math. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Longwood Elementary School
Longwood Elementary sits on Holly Avenue in Shalimar, a small residential town pressed against Choctawhatchee Bay and its bayous in Okaloosa County. The school serves children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Okaloosa County School District, a district that has publicly reported earning a top state rating every year since Florida began issuing school grades, one of only three districts in the state to hold that distinction. For a family considering this particular school, understanding the gap between district-level performance and what the state assessment data shows at Longwood is the central thing.
Florida's FAST assessments in the most recent year show that fewer than half of Longwood's tested students reached proficiency in math at any of the three tested grade levels, and the picture in reading is similar, with proficiency rates running in roughly the same lower range across third, fourth, and fifth grades. Fifth-grade science results were lower still. These numbers sit where they sit, and parents who want to understand what's driving them, whether it's student population characteristics, instructional program, staffing, or something else, would be well served by a direct conversation with the school. Trend data was not available in what we reviewed, so it is not possible to say whether results have been improving, holding, or moving the other way.
The student body is mid-sized for a standalone elementary. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects real economic need in the community. The school draws a genuinely mixed population by race and ethnicity, with Hispanic students forming the largest group, white students the next largest, and meaningful shares of Black students and students of two or more races. Data on English learners and students with IEPs was not reported in the records available to us, so we left that out rather than guess.
Shalimar itself is a very small, largely built-out town with an overwhelmingly residential character. Most families own rather than rent. The local economy orbits nearby Eglin Air Force Base, and the mix of active-duty military, defense contractors, and professional workers shapes a population that publicly reported sources describe as skewing toward young professionals and retirees alongside military families. There is almost no commercial core in Shalimar proper; the Eglin Parkway corridor handles what retail and services exist, and Fort Walton Beach and Destin are close by for everything else. Recreation centers on the water, with boating, kayaking, and paddleboarding on the bay and bayous, plus parks and walking trails.
Home prices in the area around the school are well above the statewide median and have edged upward over the past year, though they remain roughly in line with the national picture. Rents have dipped slightly. The area is largely car-dependent, and no fixed-route public transit serving Shalimar was identified.
The district recently completed a classroom addition at Longwood Elementary as part of a voter-approved half-cent sales tax capital improvement program, publicly reported to cover renovated classrooms, technology upgrades, and facility repairs across nearly every school in the county. The district has also broken ground on its first new school in many years, a K-8 campus in Crestview, and has approved major additions elsewhere to address overcrowding that affects most schools countywide. These investments represent a meaningful shift in the physical condition of district facilities.
For a family choosing this school, the honest picture is a neighborhood elementary in a quiet, military-adjacent residential community, operating in a highly regarded district, but with state assessment results that sit below the levels many parents look for and below what the district's overall standing might lead them to expect. The school and district are worth a direct conversation about what support is in place for students and what the trajectory looks like.
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