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What do you wish you knew before starting at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
908
Elementary
DISTRICT 625 · STATE 604
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MARION·NCES 120126001264
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
537 SE 36TH AVE, OCALA, FL 34471 · (352) 671-6810 · Marion County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL908 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.1:1
60 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.5:1 · STATE 17.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
54%
487 students
DISTRICT 57% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 38 | 4% |
| Kindergarten | 115 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 143 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 139 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 173 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 150 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 150 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (115) is 23% smaller than its 5th grade class (150).
Student demographics
63%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 69% · STATE 70% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
FAST / B.E.S.T. 2024-25 . % at Level 3 or AboveEnglish Language Arts
63.1%
FL avg 56.7% . +6.2pp since 2023
Math
73.1%
FL avg 58.9% . +5.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the FAST / B.E.S.T., Florida's statewide test, about 63 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 73 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Florida schools, those numbers are about 57 and 59. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
FAST / B.E.S.T. results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 63.1% | 73.1% |
| 2023-24 | 57.0% | 67.7% |
% at Level 3 or Above, all students and all tested grades.
Source: FAST / B.E.S.T.. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
64.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
54.3%
based on FL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+9.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 64% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 54% typical for Florida schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Florida's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL's state test result (64.0% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL this school | 908 | 53.6% | 64.0% |
| TREADWAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEESBURG | 836 | 57.2% | 54.5% |
| ANTIOCH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CRESTVIEW | 931 | 50.4% | 69.9% |
| TYNES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MIDDLEBURG | 1,047 | 54.6% | 62.7% |
| LIBERTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PORT CHARLOTTE | 764 | 55.2% | 58.9% |
| SUNRISE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PALM BAY | 907 | 49.7% | 56.6% |
Matched among Florida elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Florida | In Marion County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 64.0% | #684 of 2,136 | #5 of 32 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 73.1% | #529 of 2,149 ▲ 92 | #5 of 32 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 63.1% | #701 of 2,149 ▲ 152 | #5 of 32 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 908 | #296 of 2,267 | #6 of 36 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.1:1 | #745 of 2,077 | #7 of 33 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 63.2% | #680 of 2,108 | #20 of 33 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 53.6% | #1,145 of 2,188 | #26 of 33 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +4.1% | #471 of 621 | #16 of 19 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
908
+140 (+18%) vs 2020
+9% since 1990-91, when it was 836
Student : Teacher
15.1:1
was 14.8:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 908 | 60 | 15.1:1 | 54% (487) |
| 2023-24 | 911 | 59 | 15.4:1 | 56% (512) |
| 2022-23 | 959 | 55 | 17.4:1 | 59% (567) |
| 2020-21 | 768 | 52 | 14.8:1 | 50% (381) |
| 2017-18 | 872 | 65 | 13.4:1 | 59% (514) |
| 2015-16 | 847 | 63 | 13.4:1 | 61% (514) |
| 2010-11 | 759 | 61 | 12.4:1 | 60% (456) |
| 2000-01 | 784 | 48 | 16.3:1 | 44% (342) |
| 1990-91 | 836 | 51 | 16.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
About WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL runs as a high-enrollment elementary school in OCALA, Florida. It has an enrollment of 908 students in pre-K through 5. On average, elementary schools in Florida enroll around 604, and this school is 50% bigger than that mark.
MARION has 62 schools and 46,349 students, and WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of those schools.
More than half of enrollment at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is White: 53%. Enrollment also includes 25% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 6% multiracial. The school's White share is 16 points below the 69% share among Marion County residents. The diversity index for WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is 63%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
On staff are 60 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 15.1:1. Elementary schools in Florida have an average ratio of 17.5:1. About 54% of students at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Marion County average a similar 57%.
After adjusting for student poverty, WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lands between the top and bottom 10% of Florida schools. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 64.0%; the prediction is 54.3%.
The county, Marion County, is where the school is located. The median household earns about $61,010 a year, 23% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Counting WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Marion County has 68 public schools.
HILLCREST sits about 0.8 miles from WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. On state test proficiency, WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks 1st in a group of 4 nearby schools.
The school's locale code, City: Small, means it is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
In 2020-21, WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolled 768 students. By 2024-25, that number had grown to 908.
This page is set up for the WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL community to discuss homework, tutoring, and testing dates. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Marion County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
400,078
Census ACS
Median income
$61,010
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
23%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
68
46,349 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in MARION
- WEST PORT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,022 students
- FOREST HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,387 students
- BELLEVIEW HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,904 students
- VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,684 students
- BELLEVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOLMiddle · 1,600 students
- DUNNELLON HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,562 students
Other schools in OCALA
- WEST PORT HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 3,022 students
- FOREST HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 2,387 students
- VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,684 students
- LAKE WEIR HIGH SCHOOLHigh · 1,447 students
- SUNRISE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLElementary · 1,402 students
- HORIZON ACADEMY AT MARION OAKSMiddle · 1,260 students
Nearby schools
- HILLCREST0.8 mi · 162
- OCALI CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL1.3 mi · 194
- MAPLEWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL1.4 mi · 819
- SILVER RIVER MENTORING AND INSTRUCTION1.5 mi · 186
- NEW LEAF CENTER1.8 mi · 123
- STUDENT SERVICES/ESE1.8 mi · 7
Frequently asked questions
About WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWhat is the total enrollment at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL enrolls approximately 908 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serve?
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
Approximately 15.1:1 students per teacher at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
What is the racial breakdown of students at WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
At WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, the student body is approximately 53% White, 25% Hispanic, 14% Black, 1% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Who oversees WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is overseen by MARION in Marion County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.