The top reported proficiency rate is 28% in English language arts. The lowest is 11% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on W O Lance Elementary
W O Lance Elementary serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Lanett City school system, a small district encompassing a single elementary school, a junior high, and a high school. It is a regular public school with no charter or magnet designation. The student body of roughly half a thousand children makes it a moderate-sized elementary school for its grade band.
State test results from the 2024-25 school year show that proficiency rates across math, English language arts, and science are low in absolute terms. In math, the share of students meeting proficiency declines steadily from the lower elementary grades through the upper ones, with the smallest share in sixth grade. English language arts rates are somewhat higher than math across all tested grades, though they also fall below state averages. In science, only fourth graders are tested, and proficiency is limited. When placed against the two school districts operating in Chambers County, the school’s overall proficiency index, which averages the reported rates across all tested subjects and grades, sits above the midpoint. That means it outperforms the county’s other district, though the absolute numbers indicate that the majority of students are not yet meeting grade-level benchmarks. A parent may want to discuss specific academic support programs with the school to understand how the building works to raise performance.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population and a small share of White students. Very small numbers of American Indian or Alaska Native and multiracial students round out the enrollment. A very high share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a high-poverty context. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the source materials. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data was also missing from the record.
Lanett is a small city on the Alabama-Georgia line, straddling the Chattahoochee River. It was founded as a textile mill town, and the Lanett Cotton Mills dominated the local economy until they closed in the late twentieth century. Manufacturing remains the largest employment sector, followed by education and health care. The population has been declining in recent decades, and the housing market is affordable relative to national benchmarks. Home values are well below the state median, and rental costs reflect that pattern. The city has a downtown core near the river, and civic landmarks include a park, several historic homes, and a former high school listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. The school itself sits within a small geographic footprint, close to the downtown area. No details about walkability or specific street life were available, but a grid layout typical of Alabama mill towns suggests limited foot access concentrated near the center.
The district brief did not uncover any recent major changes or strategic priorities for the Lanett City system, so that context is absent. Similarly, the school’s program offerings were not listed in the data, and no multi-year trend lines exist to show whether performance is improving or declining over time. A family considering W O Lance Elementary will find a school in a small, historically industrial city with a high-poverty student population and academic results that reflect the challenge of that context. The building shares its district with a single junior high and high school, so the elementary feed is straightforward for families who plan to stay in Lanett through graduation.
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