WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL operates as a large elementary campus in OCALA, Florida, operated by MARION. Current enrollment sits at 908 students spanning grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 50% larger than the typical public school in Florida, which averages around 604 students.

Across the 62 schools in MARION (46,349 students total), WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Looking at the student body, WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL reports that the most-represented group is White (53%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Beyond that, the school shows 25% Hispanic, 14% Black, 6% multiracial. By comparison, Marion County as a whole is about 69% White, so the school skews meaningfully less White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has 60 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 15.1:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.5:1 average. Around 54% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 54.3% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 64.0%.

Zooming out to the county, Marion County reports that the typical household earns roughly $61,010 per year, about 23% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Marion County runs 68 public schools (combined enrollment of about 46,349 students), of which WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one.

HILLCREST is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 4 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ranks 1st on composite proficiency, ahead of the local average of 48.8%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count expanded 4%: 872 students in 2018 compared to 908 in 2025. The White share of enrollment declined from 65% to 53% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 13.4:1 in 2018 to 15.1:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the WARD-HIGHLANDS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.