The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Kelly Springs Elementary School
Kelly Springs Elementary School serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade in Dothan, Alabama, as part of the Dothan City school district. Dothan itself is a regional commercial and transportation hub for southeastern Alabama and nearby areas of Georgia and Florida, with an economy that includes healthcare, poultry processing, and manufacturing plants for companies such as Sony, Michelin, and General Electric. The city covers a large area of generally flat, forested terrain and has a typical car-dependent Sun Belt layout, though its downtown holds civic anchors like the Wiregrass Museum of Art and the National Peanut Festival fairgrounds. Housing in the local market sits at a price point that is moderately below the national median, and the area has historically emphasized affordable housing and low property taxes as part of its growth pitch. For a family considering this school, Dothan offers a range of employment sectors and a mild climate.
Kelly Springs is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school. The student body is diverse. The largest demographic group is Black or African American students, followed by White students and then Hispanic or Latino students, with smaller shares of students who are Asian or of two or more races. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that indicates a high level of economic need in the school community. Enrollment is spread fairly evenly across the elementary grades, with a slightly larger group in first and second grade.
State testing results from the most recent school year provide a picture of academic performance across the grades. In English language arts, proficiency rates were in the upper third to just below half of students across grades three through five, with the third-grade rate the lowest of the three tested grades and the fifth-grade rate the highest. In mathematics, proficiency rates were lower, ranging from the mid-teens to a bit under a third of students, with fourth graders outperforming their peers in third and fifth grades by a clear margin. In science, tested in fourth grade only, roughly a quarter of students met the proficiency bar. When combined across all tested subjects and grades, the school’s overall proficiency index falls in the bottom quartile relative to the other districts in Houston County, a comparison set that includes only a handful of districts. This is a meaningful benchmark for a parent to consider. The school sits near the lower end of the range among its county peers, and the numbers suggest that many students are not yet meeting grade-level standards, particularly in math.
The school district, Dothan City, did not publicly report any major recent changes such as boundary adjustments, curriculum overhauls, or property tax referendums that would affect a family’s decision in an immediate way. The district brief found no parent-relevant changes to note, so what a family sees at Kelly Springs today is likely to be stable in terms of district policy for the near future.
Because Kelly Springs serves only elementary and middle grades, there is no graduation rate to report. The school does not yet have high school students, so families looking at longer-term outcomes will need to consider the feeder middle and high schools in the Dothan City system. Similarly, data on special education populations and English learner counts were not available from state sources, so a parent who needs to understand how the school serves students with individualized education programs or language support may want to ask the school directly about those services.
For a family considering Kelly Springs, the school offers a full kindergarten-through-sixth-grade pathway in a community with a diversified regional economy and relatively affordable housing. The academic picture, however, shows that proficiency rates lag notably behind the county average, especially in math. A parent would want to understand what academic interventions, tutoring, or enrichment the school provides, and how the school supports students who are not yet at grade level. The school is well integrated into Dothan itself, and the district appears to be operating without major recent upheavals, but the academic challenge is a real one that anyone choosing this school should examine closely with the principal or teaching staff.
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