OTIS A. MASON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL vs JAMES A. WEBSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Otis A. Mason Elementary School and James A. Webster Elementary School sit 4.7 miles apart in St. Augustine, Florida, and their overall ratings are nearly identical — Mason at 9.2/10 (ranked #55 of 3,777 Florida schools) and Webster at 9.1/10 (ranked #76 of 3,777). Both land in Florida's top 2%, so neither school represents a compromise. The 0.1-point gap at the top level, however, obscures more meaningful differences beneath it.

The academic score gap is the sharpest delta between the two schools: Otis A. Mason Elementary scores 9.0/10 in academics versus James A. Webster Elementary's 7.7/10 — a 1.3-point difference that reflects real distance in tested proficiency outcomes. Growth tells a different story. Webster edges Mason in growth score, 9.8/10 versus 9.6/10, meaning students at Webster are advancing relative to their own starting points at a slightly faster rate. Families weighing absolute performance against demonstrated trajectory will find these two schools pulling in opposite directions on those measures.

Demographically, the schools diverge in meaningful ways. Otis A. Mason enrolls 700 students against Webster's 532, and Mason's student-teacher ratio of 14.0:1 is noticeably higher than Webster's 11.8:1 — Webster students get, on average, more individual teacher time per day. The free and reduced lunch rate at Webster is 72%, compared to 47% at Mason, indicating Webster serves a substantially higher share of economically disadvantaged families. Both schools cover grades PK–05, so grade-range is not a differentiating factor.

Both campuses run the same PK–05 grade band, and no program-level distinctions are documented in the available data. The primary structural difference for a family choosing between them is this: Mason delivers higher absolute academic scores and a larger campus environment, while Webster offers a smaller class size, a marginally stronger growth trajectory, and a student body drawn more heavily from lower-income households — a mix that often signals stronger equity-focused instructional practice.