Springdale Elementary School, Macon GA

Original Research by School Decision on Springdale Elementary School

Springdale Elementary serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Macon's Northside neighborhood. The school enrolls a diverse student body with a notably strong representation of Black students alongside substantial Asian and white populations. About a quarter of the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, placing the school in a mixed socioeconomic setting.

Academic performance across tested grades sits below proficiency on state end-of-grade exams. In math, proficiency rates across grades three through five hover around the midpoint, with fourth grade slightly above and fifth grade notably lower. English language arts shows deeper challenges, with proficiency rates in fourth and fifth grade dropping to the low-to-mid range. Fifth-grade science proficiency is similarly constrained. Measured against other Bibb County districts, Springdale's overall proficiency index positions it above the midpoint among county schools, a meaningful distinction that reflects relative rather than absolute strength. An older data point from social studies testing shows strong proficiency, though that assessment has since been retired in Georgia's testing regime.

The school sits in a stable neighborhood setting on Northside Drive. Macon itself is a mid-sized Central Georgia city with a revitalizing downtown core anchored by the Ocmulgee River and increasingly filled with locally owned restaurants and shops, but the everyday built environment in most residential areas remains car-dependent. Housing values in the Macon zip code are modest relative to national benchmarks, with median values and rents both affordable and showing only marginal year-on-year growth. The local economy is anchored by healthcare, higher education, and government, with major employers including Central Georgia Health Systems, Mercer University, and nearby Robins Air Force Base.

The Bibb County district itself carries structural budget challenges and has pursued repeated property tax increases to manage them. In 2024 and 2025, the school board raised effective property taxes despite no millage increase, and the district narrowly avoided school closures through a rezoning process that remains in active planning stages. A voter-approved ESPLOST (Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) renewal passed in November 2025 and will fund capital projects including facility improvements districtwide, technology upgrades, and new buses, though this addresses infrastructure rather than core instructional resources. The district's 2023-2028 strategic plan prioritizes structured literacy and social-emotional learning, with elementary teachers trained in the science of reading and the district deploying AI-assisted reading-assessment tools. This pedagogy shift is still in early implementation across the five-year window.

For families considering the school, the academic data warrants direct conversation with the school about how instruction in reading and math is being delivered, whether the available supports address the specific proficiency gaps, and how the school tracks student progress within classrooms. A parent may want to look into further detail on the district's rezoning timeline and whether Springdale's attendance zone could change for the 2026-27 school year.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 27% · ▲ 22 pts above district

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 28% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 546%

School 46% · District 23% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 349%

School 49% · District 22% · ▲ 27 pts above district

▲ 18 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 22% · ▲ 19 pts above district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 25% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Science

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 32% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-894%

School 94% · district not reported

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

This schoolBibb 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.