Of the 53,272 Marion County School District students who took part in the ELA section of the 2023-24 FAST, 36.2% met the testing standard while 8.6% exceeded expectations, according to the Florida Department of Education.
The number of Marion County School District students who succeeded on the test grew by 11% from the previous school year.
Marion County School District’s proficiency level in ELA stood at 44.8% in the 2023-24 school year, 8% lower than the state’s average of 52.8%.
During the 2023-24 school year, St. Johns County School District students fared the best on the ELA portion of the FAST, with 72.5% of them succeeding. Meanwhile Jefferson County School District and Gadsden County School District students did worst on ELA, with 30.9% of the students passing the test.
There were 24,383 students enrolled in Marion County School District schools in the 2023-24 school year.
Florida ranks near the bottom nationwide in academic recovery since the pandemic, according to the 2025 Education Recovery Scorecard. The state placed 36th in math and 45th in reading recovery between 2019 and 2024, with the lowest reading gains in the nation from 2022 to 2024. Students remain more than half a grade behind in math and nearly a full grade behind in reading, with no district returning to its 2019 reading levels.
| School Year | Students who met standards (%) | Students who exceeded standards (%) | Total Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 36.2% | 8.6% | 24,383 |
| 2022-23 | 33.6% | 7.9% | 68,869 |
