Gaines Elementary School, Athens GA

Original Research by School Decision on Gaines Elementary School

Gaines Elementary School is a regular public elementary school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Athens, Georgia, within Clarke County School District. The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly African American with substantial Hispanic and smaller populations of White and multiracial students. All students enrolled at Gaines qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the school's high-poverty character.

Academic performance at Gaines is very low across tested subjects. In math, students in third through fifth grades show proficiency rates that are substantially below what the state expects, with fifth grade showing especially weak results. English language arts proficiency is similarly constrained across the same grades, with fifth-grade proficiency particularly limited. Science proficiency, tested only in fifth grade, is also very low. These results point to significant gaps in foundational and grade-level skills in mathematics and literacy across the school's upper elementary grades.

The school is located in the Clarke County district, which adopted a new K-3 science-of-reading curriculum in August 2023 emphasizing explicit phonics and phonemic awareness. That shift, intended to address literacy from the ground up, may take time to move through the grade bands and appear in measurable outcomes for this school. Parents might want to inquire directly with Gaines about how this curriculum rollout has been implemented in classrooms and what early indicators of reading progress staff are seeing in the school's youngest students.

Gaines is among the beneficiaries of ESPLOST 6, the sales-tax-funded capital referendum that Clarke County voters approved in 2021. The school is scheduled to receive major renovations as part of that five-year buildout, a concrete sign of facility investment, though timing and the scope of work specific to Gaines was not detailed in available sources.

The school sits in Athens, a college town anchored by the University of Georgia in a region experiencing active growth and development. Housing values in the immediate area are moderate relative to state and national benchmarks, and rent is rising at a faster rate than values, indicating market tightness. Families considering Gaines should note that Clarke County opted out of Georgia's statewide homestead exemption in 2025, a decision that means property tax growth on homesteaded properties is not capped at inflation and can rise with assessments, a material factor for families planning to purchase in the district. Property taxes fund a substantial portion of the district's general budget.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 313%

School 13% · District 38% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 38% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 59%

School 9% · District 31% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 29 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 38%

School 8% · District 27% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 412%

School 12% · District 28% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 28% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median · ▼ 25 pts below county median

Science

Grade 57%

School 7% · District 29% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

Social studies

Grades 3-846%

School 46% · district not reported

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

This schoolClarke 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.