Franklin Forest Elementary, Lagrange GA

Original Research by School Decision on Franklin Forest Elementary

Franklin Forest Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in LaGrange, a growing west Georgia city anchored by manufacturing, regional healthcare, and a college presence. The school sits within Troup County School System, which has recently enacted system-wide reading screening and science of reading instruction starting in kindergarten, including a universal dyslexia screener three times yearly through third grade.

The school's student body is economically challenged: all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. By race and ethnicity, the enrollment is majority Black, with substantial Hispanic representation and meaningful white enrollment, reflecting broader county demographic patterns. Enrollment runs in the low hundreds across the grade band, with early elementary grades (pre-K, K, first) slightly larger than upper elementary (grades three through five).

State testing results from the most recent year show proficiency rates well below typical benchmarks. In English language arts, third graders showed the lowest result, followed by fourth and fifth graders at modest levels. Math proficiency rose with grade level, starting lowest in third grade and reaching its highest point in fifth grade, though even that highest figure remains below midpoint expectations. Science testing is only administered at fifth grade; the result there aligns with the math figure for that grade. The pattern is consistent: academic proficiency is concentrated in the lower ranges across both core subjects and across grades.

These results matter contextually. Franklin Forest sits in an economically mobile county experiencing rapid industrial and housing growth driven by automotive manufacturing, distribution, and announced major employer relocations. The district has secured substantial capital funding through a continuing one-cent sales tax (ESPLOST VI), which has funded new school facilities and major renovations, including improvements to elementary school infrastructure. The district has also just implemented science of reading instruction district-wide, starting in the youngest grades. Both suggest systemic effort and investment. The low proficiency numbers, then, likely reflect student need (poverty, transience, incoming literacy gaps) that the district has publicly committed to addressing, rather than resource scarcity.

For a parent considering this school, the realistic read is straightforward: this is an elementary building serving a high-poverty population in a district that is investing in early literacy intervention and facility quality but is still early in turning test outcomes around. The school's peer environment and instructional setting are substantially economically disadvantaged. A family should expect that their child will be in classes where most peers also qualify for lunch support, and that reading and math instruction, while aligned to evidence-based practice as of 2025, operates in a context where systemic proficiency remains low. A family living in or moving to this attendance zone should seek direct conversation with the school about classroom composition, reading support pathways, and how the new screener and literacy approach are being implemented at Franklin Forest specifically.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 40% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Grade 435%

School 35% · District 47% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 41% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 29% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 37% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · District 40% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 2 pts below state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 41% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Social studies

Grades 3-879%

School 79% · district not reported

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolTroup County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.