The top reported proficiency rate is 84% in Science. The lowest is 71% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on San Jose Elementary School
San Jose Elementary sits on San Helen Drive in Dunedin, a small Gulf Coast city on the western edge of Pinellas County with one of the more genuinely walkable downtowns in Florida. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public elementary within Pinellas County Schools. Because it does not reach the tested middle or high school grades, there is no graduation rate here, and that absence reflects the grade band rather than any gap in outcomes.
The academic picture from Florida's most recent FAST assessments is largely strong. Third-grade reading proficiency is particularly high, and fifth-grade science results are the standout figure in the data set, placing well above what many parents would expect at the elementary level. Math proficiency across third, fourth, and fifth grades runs solidly in the upper-two-thirds range, with fifth grade coming in slightly below the other two years. Fourth-grade reading is the one softer spot, coming in noticeably below both the third- and fifth-grade reading results; a parent may want to ask the school about what drives that variation and how the fourth-grade literacy program is structured. The data do not include prior-year scores, so trend direction cannot be established.
Enrollment is on the smaller side for an elementary school serving this grade span. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting meaningful economic diversity within what is otherwise a higher-cost housing market. The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic and Black students making up the next largest groups and a smaller multiracial population. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs were not available in the data provided.
One district-level development worth knowing: Pinellas County Schools publicly reported earning its first-ever "A" from the Florida Department of Education in 2024, which the district attributed in part to rolling out a custom core ELA curriculum built around the science of reading. That curriculum shift, which began in the early elementary grades, is the kind of foundational change that touches San Jose Elementary directly. The district also passed a voter-approved local school property tax renewal and expansion in late 2024 that supports teacher and staff bonuses and sustains programs in reading, music, art, and technology. For a family buying into Dunedin, this is a real ongoing cost, and it is also a stabilizing funding source for the programs San Jose families access.
The housing market around the school reflects Dunedin's reputation. Home values in this zip code sit above the Florida statewide median and have dipped slightly over the past year, while rents have edged upward. Dunedin carries a lifestyle premium, particularly for properties near the Main Street corridor and the Edgewater Drive waterfront, where bungalows, renovated cottages, and Craftsman homes draw retirees and buyers seeking walkability. Neighborhoods closer to schools like San Jose tend toward the residential, tree-canopied blocks of mid-century construction that surround the downtown core. The Pinellas Trail runs through the city and connects Dunedin north to Tarpon Springs and south toward St. Petersburg, and Pioneer Park hosts a weekly farmers market. Major employers serving the local workforce were not identified in the data.
The comparison data available through the county framework could not be used to position San Jose against other schools because there is only one district in the county comparison set, making relative ranking inapplicable. No discipline data, chronic absenteeism figures, or staffing ratios were available. No special programs were listed in the data.
For a family with children entering elementary school, San Jose offers genuinely solid academic results in most tested areas, a neighborhood setting in a town with real civic life, and the backing of a district that has recently invested in early literacy in a structured, publicly documented way. The fourth-grade reading dip and the absence of several data points are worth following up on directly with the school.
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