Jay High School, Jay FL - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Jay High School

Jay High School sits in the Florida Panhandle town of Jay, a small rural community in northwest Santa Rosa County surrounded by farmland and pine forests. The school serves grades seven through twelve, making it the upper-school anchor for a town with only two schools total. Enrollment is modest for a combined middle-high configuration, spread fairly evenly across six grade levels. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small Hispanic and multiracial populations and essentially no other racial or ethnic representation. A majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this in the range of a higher-poverty rural school by Florida standards.

On the most recent Florida state assessments, seventh graders tested just above the midpoint in both math and ELA, while eighth graders came in just below the midpoint in both subjects. Eighth-grade science proficiency was lower still, sitting well below half. These figures are not strong by statewide standards, and a parent who wants to understand how they compare within Santa Rosa County should know that the comparison framework only covers one district in the county, so a meaningful peer-group ranking was not available from this data. The school's results should be read against the statewide distribution, where they fall in the lower-middle range. Multi-year trend data was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these outcomes represent improvement, decline, or stability. State assessments cover only seventh and eighth grade here because Florida's FAST and statewide science assessments apply to those tested grades; high school EOC and other results were not included in this data set.

No graduation rate was reported in the data provided. A parent interested in that figure would want to ask the school or the Santa Rosa district directly.

Program information was not available in this data, and the district brief search returned no confirmed parent-relevant changes. IEP and English-learner rates were also missing. Those are meaningful gaps for families whose children receive special services, and asking the school directly would be worthwhile.

The housing market around Jay is noticeably more affordable than the Florida state benchmark. Home values in the area have edged up modestly year over year, and the price-to-income ratio sits well below the national figure, which gives this a different financial profile from coastal or suburban Florida. Rental cost data was not available for this zip code. The town itself is genuinely rural and car-dependent, with a single traffic light and one grocery store. Larger shopping and services require a drive to Pace, Milton, or Pensacola. Publicly reported sources describe Jay as a "distant rural" school setting, which matches the everyday texture: dispersed homes, state highways connecting to larger towns, no fixed-route public transit.

The town's population has edged slightly downward over recent census cycles, though regional reporting frames northern Santa Rosa County as an area where growth is beginning to arrive. The most concrete expression of local investment is Bray-Hendricks Park, a roughly 26-acre sports complex that broke ground in early 2025 on a substantial multi-million-dollar renovation funded through a combination of state, county, town, and grant sources. New home construction within Jay's town limits remains limited.

For a family weighing this school, the relevant picture is a small rural campus in a tight-knit agricultural community, with academic proficiency results that sit in the lower-middle range statewide and some data gaps worth clarifying with the school. The setting and community character are what they are, a place where nearly everyone knows everyone and the pace of life reflects that.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=95%Cohort of 65 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

867 schools plotted. 183 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 753%

School 53% · District 57% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 849%

School 49% · District 73% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 752%

School 52% · District 61% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 63% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Science

Grade 842%

School 42% · District 58% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

This schoolSANTA ROSA, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 7Lower-income50%Higher-income56%6 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income38%Higher-income58%20 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income46%Higher-income67%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income35%Higher-income68%33 pp gap