Summary:
Zip code 30252 in McDonough, Georgia, is home to two public high schools—Union Grove High and Ola High School—serving grades 9 through 12 within the Henry County School District, with a combined enrollment of roughly 3,200 students.
Ola High School is the current academic leader, ranking 84th out of 455 Georgia high schools (82nd percentile) and improving its state ranking each year. Its Algebra I proficiency rate of 60.7% is 12.6 points above the state average and 25.6 points above the district, and it also leads in Biology (58.6% proficient). Ola improved in every tested subject year-over-year, including a 2.8-point gain in Algebra I. Union Grove High, while ranking 135th this year (down 52 spots from last year), still outperforms the district in most areas. Its Biology proficiency (53.4%) and U.S. History proficiency (49.8%) both exceed state averages, and its chronic absenteeism rate of just 9.7% is less than half the district rate—a standout metric. However, Union Grove saw significant declines in Algebra I (-14.3 points) and Biology (-6.7 points) this year, creating a widening gap between the two schools.
Both schools post strong graduation rates (94.3% for Union Grove, 94.9% for Ola) and dropout rates under 1%, far better than the district and state. They serve similar socioeconomic populations (35.8% and 38.8% free/reduced lunch) with nearly identical student-teacher ratios and per-student spending, yet Ola outperforms Union Grove in most academic metrics—suggesting school-level factors beyond resources drive the difference. Both schools are clear outliers in the Henry County district, which ranks in the 30th percentile statewide, yet these two high schools rank in the 70th–82nd percentile. Note that this data release does not include English Language Arts scores; those results arrive in December, so no conclusions should be drawn from their absence.
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