Burns Science and Technology Charter School, Oak Hill FL

Original Research by School Decision on Burns Science and Technology Charter School

Burns Science and Technology Charter School sits on Ridge Road in Oak Hill, a small, semi-rural coastal community at the southern edge of Volusia County. The town borders the Indian River Lagoon and the Canaveral National Seashore, has almost no commercial core, and functions largely as a bedroom community for people commuting north or south along the coast. Life there is oriented around water, fishing, and open land rather than walkable neighborhoods or downtown activity. The school itself spans kindergarten through twelfth grade, which is relatively uncommon for a charter and means a family could, in principle, enroll a child in kindergarten and stay through graduation without changing schools.

Enrollment is substantial for a charter, and the school draws from what appears to be a predominantly local population. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic character of the surrounding area. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students identifying as Hispanic, two or more races, Black, or Asian. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in the records we reviewed, so parents with children who need those services may want to ask the school directly about its capacity and staffing in those areas.

On state assessments, the picture is mixed and worth reading carefully. Science proficiency, tested at fifth and eighth grade, is a genuine strength: both grade levels showed a large majority of students scoring proficient on Florida's Statewide Science Assessment, which fits the school's stated science and technology identity. In eighth-grade ELA and math, proficiency rates are also reasonably strong, and seventh-grade ELA results are solid as well. The weaker spots are in the middle elementary grades. Fifth-grade math and ELA both came in below half of students scoring proficient, and fifth-grade math in particular was the lowest result across all tested subjects and grades. Fourth-grade math and ELA were also in a more modest range. Whether that reflects a temporary cohort effect, instructional gaps, or something else is not something this data can answer, and a parent may want to ask the school about how it tracks and supports students in those transitional grades. Trend data across years was not available, so it is not possible to say whether these numbers have been improving or holding steady.

Because the comparison set for Volusia County contains only one district, the data does not support placing this school's performance against peers in a meaningful way. That comparison is simply not available here.

The school serves grades nine through twelve, but no graduation rate data was present in the records. High school program details, including whether the school offers AP courses, dual enrollment, or career pathways that would be expected from a science and technology focus, were not available. Families with children approaching high school should ask the school directly what the upper-grade pathway looks like, since that information was not accessible to us.

On housing, the Oak Hill zip code shows home values running modestly below the Florida state benchmark and roughly in line with national levels, after a slight year-over-year dip. The area's housing stock includes a notably high share of mobile homes alongside newer construction, and the market spans a wide range. Rental pricing data for the immediate zip was not available.

The Volusia district brief returned no parent-relevant changes before our research budget was exhausted, so we left that section out rather than guess.

For a family already living in Oak Hill or considering it, Burns offers the practical advantage of a single school from kindergarten through graduation in a community with no other nearby alternatives, a science and technology identity that shows up most clearly in its science assessment results, and a small-town coastal setting with a distinctly unhurried character. The elementary math results and the limited visibility into high school programming are the two areas where more direct conversation with the school would be time well spent.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 61% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 62% · ▼ 5 pts below district

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

Grade 544%

School 44% · District 57% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 50% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 761%

School 61% · District 34% · ▲ 27 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 869%

School 69% · District 56% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 361%

School 61% · District 57% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 5 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 55% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 56% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 662%

School 62% · District 53% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 770%

School 70% · District 51% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 874%

School 74% · District 52% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Science

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 62% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Grade 877%

School 77% · District 56% · ▲ 21 pts above district

▲ 31 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

This schoolVOLUSIA, 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 3Lower-income59%Higher-income62%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income48%Higher-income66%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income48%Higher-income59%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income61%Higher-income62%1 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income52%Higher-income76%24 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income82%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income75%Higher-income72%3 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income45%Higher-income63%18 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income57%27 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income50%Higher-income54%4 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income72%Higher-income56%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income66%Higher-income71%5 pp gap