The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in English language arts. The lowest is 42% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Yearling Middle School
Yearling Middle School serves sixth through eighth graders in Okeechobee, a small agricultural city anchored by Lake Okeechobee in the county of the same name. It is a regular public school, part of the Okeechobee County School District, drawing from a student body that is predominantly Hispanic and white, with a smaller share of Black students and multiracial students. A substantial majority of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in a high-poverty context for a Florida middle school.
On Florida's FAST assessments, the academic picture is mixed and, in math especially, worth a parent's attention. In sixth grade, roughly four in ten students scored proficient in both ELA and math. By seventh grade, ELA climbed to just under half and math rose to a majority of students, suggesting that the seventh-grade cohort tested here performed meaningfully better than sixth graders did. Eighth grade tells a different story: ELA held near the same level as seventh, but math proficiency dropped well below where it was in sixth grade, meaning fewer than a third of eighth graders scored proficient in math. On the Florida Statewide Science Assessment at eighth grade, a little under half of students scored proficient. Taken together, this is a school where most students across tested grades and subjects are not yet scoring at the proficient level, and the pattern across grades is uneven enough that a parent would benefit from asking the school directly about its math trajectory, particularly heading into eighth grade. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether results are improving, holding steady, or declining.
Comparison proficiency data relative to other districts in Okeechobee County was not applicable here because Okeechobee is the county's only district, so there is no peer set to position this school against. Chronic absenteeism and data on students with IEPs or English learner designations were not reported, which are gaps worth asking about directly.
The broader community context helps a family picture the setting. Okeechobee is a compact, auto-oriented city outside the downtown core, shaped by ranching and agriculture and by Lake Okeechobee's identity as a fishing and recreation destination. The downtown Park Street corridor is locally oriented and walkable, with festivals, a farmers market, and independent shops and restaurants. Schools sit on separated campuses away from that center. The local economy runs on government employment, healthcare, retail, agriculture, trucking, and manufacturing. Housing prices in the area sit noticeably below the Florida state benchmark, making the county relatively accessible for buyers, though prices have been flat year over year.
The district is in the middle of a consequential reorganization tied to a new Okeechobee High School, publicly reported as the largest project of its kind for a rural Florida community. That campus is set to open for the academic year following construction completion, which was on track as of publicly reported milestones in 2025. When it opens, ninth graders will join the full high school campus for the first time rather than attending a separate freshman building. The former freshman campus is slated to become a secondary achievement center, and an existing facility will be converted to an early learning center expanding pre-K access. For families of current Yearling students, the practical takeaway is that the high school their children will enter will be a newly built, reconfigured campus, a shift from what older siblings or neighbors may have experienced.
Program details for Yearling itself were not available in the data, so course offerings, extracurricular programs, staffing, and attendance figures could not be characterized here.
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