Spring Creek Charter Academy, Bainbridge GA

Original Research by School Decision on Spring Creek Charter Academy

Spring Creek Charter Academy is a kindergarten-through-tenth-grade charter school in Bainbridge, Georgia, operated by the State Charter Schools Commission. It serves families across a four-county region of southwest Georgia and stands out for its accessibility model: enrollment is open to any student in Decatur, Grady, Miller, and Seminole counties, with placement through a lottery system rather than residence-based assignment or academic screening. The school's enrollment is small, about typical for a rural charter, and the student body is predominantly white with a substantial Black population and a smaller Hispanic enrollment. Most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the counties served.

The school operates currently in modular buildings on Vada Road, but a permanent campus is under construction and expected to open for the 2027-28 school year. The new facility will materially expand capacity in the elementary grades, adding a third class per grade, which matters because the school has maintained a substantial waitlist at the primary level. The charter was renewed for five years in 2025, and the school has just added twelfth grade for the 2025-26 year, positioning the first graduating cohort for 2026. With that transition to full K-12 status, the school is adding dual enrollment, career exploration, and college counseling.

Academic performance tells a mixed story. In science, the school shows strength: in fifth-grade science, proficiency runs substantially higher than math and ELA in the same grade. But across most other tested grades and subjects, proficiency is low. In elementary math and language arts (grades three and four), fewer than half of students meet state proficiency. The gap widens noticeably in sixth and seventh grade, where middle-school math proficiency falls well below half. ELA proficiency in those grades remains low as well. By eighth grade, performance in math, ELA, science, and social studies all sit well below proficiency benchmarks, with social studies showing the weakest results. Science in grade eight, like the tested grades in math and ELA, reflects a sharp drop-off from the modest proficiency seen in grade five science. Overall proficiency across tested subjects averages low and places the school in the top quartile among Decatur County districts, a positioning that reflects the county's academic landscape rather than strength in absolute terms. Data on change over time was not available, so it is unclear whether these patterns represent the school's baseline or reflect recent trends.

The school's fifth-grade science performance suggests either particular strength in the curriculum at that level or a cohort effect; parents may want to ask the school directly about what accounts for the science spike, since it does not track with results in adjacent grades. The consistently low middle-school performance, especially in math, raises questions about transition, instruction, or student need that warrant further conversation with school staff. The absence of data on special-education and English-learner rates makes it difficult to assess whether low proficiency reflects the service population or instructional outcomes, so that is another fair question to pose during a visit.

For a family in the region, Spring Creek offers an alternative to traditional public-school enrollment and a growing set of pathways as the school expands to include grades eleven and twelve. The waitlist in elementary suggests demand, and the new facility should ease access. The school's low proficiency results require serious consideration against the family's academic priorities and tolerance for a school in the early or building phase of establishing baseline outcomes.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 341%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 548%

School 48% · District 48%

▲ 10 pts above state median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 715%

School 15% · District 15%

▼ 19 pts below state median

Grade 821%

School 21% · District 21%

▼ 22 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 317%

School 17% · District 17%

▼ 13 pts below state median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 11 pts below state median

Grade 541%

School 41% · District 41%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 639%

School 39% · District 39%

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 727%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 9 pts below state median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 66%

▲ 27 pts above state median

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 18%

▼ 13 pts below state median

This schoolState Specialty Schools II- Spring Creek Charter Academy, 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income62%22 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income29%Higher-income57%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income69%23 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income22%Higher-income41%19 pp gap