The top reported proficiency rate is 58% in Science. The lowest is 52% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on James M. Marlowe Elementary School
James M. Marlowe Elementary sits on Cecelia Drive in New Port Richey, a small Gulf Coast city in western Pasco County that is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary school in the Pasco County school district.
The surrounding community has a distinct character: a compact historic downtown along the Pithlachascotee River, walkable near Sims Park and Main Street but car-dependent once you leave that core. Healthcare and public education are the dominant employers locally, with Morton Plant North Bay Hospital downtown and the broader healthcare corridor along State Road 54. The downtown has been on a revitalization track for several years, publicly reported as earning Main Street America accreditation in 2026, and new mixed-use residential construction near the city's edges is expected to add housing supply by 2027. Home values in the zip code are well below Florida's statewide median and have dipped slightly over the past year; rents have similarly softened a bit. The rent-to-income ratio sits at a level that is manageable relative to national norms, and buying still comes in meaningfully cheaper per month than renting at current mortgage rates.
On state assessments, Marlowe's results are a mixed picture. Florida administers the FAST exam and the Statewide Science Assessment, and the school has reported proficiency data across third, fourth, and fifth grade. In reading, proficiency rates across those three grades cluster just above and just below the halfway mark, with no grade standing out as particularly strong. In math, the picture is uneven: fifth graders performed meaningfully better than the state's general midpoint, while fourth grade came in noticeably lower and third grade landed close to even. On the fifth-grade science assessment, results were modestly above that midpoint. A sixth-grade math result was suppressed in the state data, likely due to a small group size. Trend data across years was not available in the underlying source, so it is not possible to say whether these results are improving, holding steady, or declining. A parent wanting to understand trajectory would need to ask the school directly.
The student body is a mid-sized elementary for its grade band. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Marlowe among higher-need elementary schools by that measure. The school serves a predominantly white and Hispanic student population, with smaller shares of Black and multiracial students. Data on English learner enrollment and special education (IEP) rates was not available in the source material.
Because Marlowe stops at fifth grade, there is no graduation rate, and the neighbor comparison framework did not yield a meaningful peer ranking given there is only one district in Pasco County's comparison set.
Two Pasco-wide developments matter for families here. Voters approved a property-tax millage in 2022 to fund non-administrative salaries, and publicly reported results show teacher vacancies dropping sharply since the measure passed; a renewal is headed to the November 2026 ballot, which means a continued property-tax cost for homeowners but also a staffing environment meaningfully better than a few years ago. The countywide "Penny for Pasco" sales tax, renewed in 2022, directs a share of proceeds to the school district for construction, safety, and technology, which matters in a county adding students quickly. The rapid growth is concentrated in eastern Pasco around Wesley Chapel, not in New Port Richey, so Marlowe families are less directly exposed to the rezoning pressures affecting that corridor, though boundary adjustments elsewhere in the district are worth monitoring.
Program information for Marlowe was not available in the source data, so it is not possible to characterize enrichment, intervention, or specialty offerings from this profile alone.
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