Summary:
Zip code 31557 in Patterson, Georgia, is home to a single school, Patterson Elementary School, which serves grades PK through 5 within the Pierce County school district.
Patterson Elementary School is a high-performing rural school that consistently beats state averages across all tested subjects, despite serving a student body where nearly 88% qualify for free or reduced lunch. The school’s standout strength is mathematics, where 3rd graders posted an impressive 85.9% proficiency rate—37.6 points above the state average—and even the lowest math score (5th grade at 53.5%) still exceeds the state by 9.4 points. However, there is a notable decline as students advance: math proficiency drops 32.4 percentage points from 3rd to 5th grade, a much steeper slide than the state’s 4.2-point decline across the same grades. In science, 5th graders score 49.3% proficient, which trails the district average by 8.5 points but still tops the state by 5.1 points. Using the most recent ELA data from 2024-2025, the school outperforms the state by 11.8 to 17.2 points across grades 3-5, though ELA proficiency (52-55%) is notably lower than math proficiency (72-79%) from that same year.
The school has slipped in state rankings from 95th (2023-2024) to 208th (2025-2026), yet it remains in the top 17% of Georgia elementary schools with a 4-star rating. Chronic absenteeism stands at 16.0%, which is 38% higher than the district rate of 11.6% but below the state average of 17.7%. With a favorable student-teacher ratio of 13.7:1 and per-student spending of $14,367, the school appears well-resourced. The Pierce County district itself ranks 10th out of 201 districts statewide (95th percentile), providing strong support. While the school’s math program is exceptional in early grades, the grade-level decline in math and science performance relative to the district are areas worth watching. Overall, this is a solid, high-poverty school delivering results well above state norms.
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