Summary:
Zip code 30456, serving the Sardis area in Burke County, Georgia, is home to just one elementary school, S G A Elementary School, which serves grades PK through 5 with 230 students.
S G A Elementary School stands out as a high-poverty, rural school achieving remarkable results. Every student (100%) qualifies for free or reduced lunch, yet the school outperforms its district, Burke County, in every tested subject and grade level. In 4th-grade math, for example, 51.7% of students are proficient compared to just 28.1% district-wide. The school's math scores are also nearly identical to state averages—50.0% vs. 48.3% in 3rd grade, 51.7% vs. 50.1% in 4th grade, and 42.4% vs. 44.1% in 5th grade. Science proficiency (39.4%) also outpaces the district (31.3%) while remaining slightly below the state (44.2%).
The school has shown extraordinary momentum, with math proficiency jumping by 7.5 to 18.1 percentage points across all grades in the latest year, and 5th-grade science improving by 9.7 points. This pushed the school's state ranking from the 34th to the 57th percentile. A very favorable 9.2:1 student-teacher ratio and high per-student spending of $26,843 likely support these gains. Chronic absenteeism is also a bright spot at 13.8%, better than both the district (20.0%) and state (17.7%). The most recent English Language Arts data (from the prior year) shows proficiency rates of 17.9%–32.4%, below state averages, though current-year results have not yet been released. Overall, this school demonstrates that significant academic success is possible even in challenging circumstances, making it a potential model for other rural, high-poverty schools.
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