The top reported proficiency rate is 54% in Science. The lowest is 48% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Oak Grove Middle School
Oak Grove Middle School sits on South Belcher Road in Clearwater, serving sixth through eighth graders as a regular public school within Pinellas County Schools. It draws from a genuinely diverse student body: the largest share of students identify as Hispanic, followed by white and Black students, with smaller multiracial and Asian populations. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school firmly in higher-economic-need territory. Data on English learner and special education populations were not available in the materials we reviewed, so parents with students in those programs may want to ask the school directly.
On Florida's FAST assessments for the 2024-25 school year, Oak Grove's results are mixed and worth examining grade by grade. Math proficiency in sixth grade sits in the upper half of the scale; eighth grade is similar, and both are solid relative to what many Florida middle schools post. Seventh-grade math, however, is noticeably lower, falling well below both the sixth and eighth grade figures at Oak Grove and below the midpoint statewide. That seventh-grade dip is the clearest soft spot in the academic profile, and a parent may want to ask the school what it attributes that gap to and what support is in place for students who are behind the curve in that year. ELA proficiency runs below the math numbers across all three grades, hovering around or just under half of students reaching proficiency in sixth and eighth grade, with seventh landing just above half. Eighth-grade science proficiency, measured on the Florida Statewide Science Assessment, comes in just above half of tested students. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say from this data whether these numbers are improving, stable, or declining. Comparison positioning among county districts also could not be computed because Pinellas is a single countywide district, which makes school-to-school comparison the more relevant lens; the county-level comparison set was not applicable here for that reason.
No program offerings data was included in the materials, so this narrative cannot speak to electives, clubs, sports, or specialized pathways at Oak Grove. Parents interested in what academic enrichment or extracurricular programming is available should check directly with the school or the Pinellas County Schools website.
The district context matters here. Pinellas voters in late 2024 publicly approved a renewed and expanded local-option school property tax, roughly doubling the prior rate for a multi-year term. Proceeds fund teacher and support staff bonuses and preserve reading, music, art, and technology programs. For a prospective homebuyer, this represents a real ongoing property tax cost; for a family already in the attendance zone, it is a stabilizer for programs and staffing. Separately, Pinellas has publicly rolled out a custom ELA curriculum built around the science of reading and Florida's B.E.S.T. standards, an approach that reportedly contributed to the district earning its first-ever state "A" grade in 2024. Whether that early-literacy push has yet translated into stronger middle school reading outcomes is not clear from this data, but it frames where the district is investing.
The surrounding Clearwater community is a mid-sized city with a mixed character: a waterfront downtown undergoing its most active redevelopment in decades, with a major civic park, new hotel, apartment tower, and city hall all under construction or recently completed along the Cleveland Street and Coachman Park corridor. Most of the residential neighborhoods surrounding Oak Grove, including the South Belcher Road area, are more car-oriented and suburban. Home values in the relevant zip code have softened modestly year over year and sit roughly in line with the state median, with rents pulling back slightly as well. Renters face a cost that consumes a meaningful share of the median household income by standard affordability benchmarks.
For families zoned to Oak Grove, this is a racially and economically diverse middle school with a community that is visibly changing around it. The academic picture has real strengths in eighth-grade math and science and genuine questions in seventh-grade math and ELA across all grades. A parent whose child is on a strong math track will want to understand how the school bridges the seventh-grade dip; a parent whose child is developing reading skills may want to ask specifically how the district's elementary literacy investments translate into middle school support.
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