Brown Elementary School, Jonesboro GA

Original Research by School Decision on Brown Elementary School

Brown Elementary serves a full early-childhood-through-fifth-grade population in Jonesboro, a small Clayton County seat about 18 miles south of Atlanta. The school's 671 students are predominantly Black, with substantial Hispanic and Asian representation and smaller multiracial enrollment. All students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic profile of the surrounding area.

The school sits in a neighborhood where median home values are moderate, roughly 80 percent of the state average, and rental costs fall somewhat below the national median for affordability calculations. This is a compact school campus in a car-oriented city where the historic downtown has been described publicly as undergoing renewal, but residential neighborhoods and schools sit separated from that core by the broader suburban road network.

On Georgia's end-of-grade assessments in 2024-25, Brown's proficiency rates across tested grades and subjects were low. Third-grade students showed proficiency in around a quarter of math and below a quarter in English language arts. Fourth grade was similar: roughly a quarter proficient in math, and roughly a quarter in ELA. Fifth grade performed somewhat better, reaching around a quarter to a third across the three tested subjects (math, ELA, and science), with science showing the strongest hold at roughly a third proficient. Across all tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to other districts in Clayton County, though the absolute attainment levels remain low statewide. The school has no prior-year data available to show trajectory; trend data dating to the mid-2010s exists but spans a gap too wide to interpret as recent direction. A parent may want to inquire directly with the school about what supports and instruction shifts are underway, especially given the district's recent adoption of Science-of-Reading literacy practices across all K-5 classrooms.

Clayton County as a whole is managing a substantial multiyear capital reshaping. Voters approved a major bond in 2023 to renovate or replace 36 aging school buildings; whether Brown is among those targeted for rebuilding is a question worth asking the school or district directly. The district has also begun deploying the Amira universal reading screener and tutor across all K-5 grades as part of its "Where Literacy Lives" initiative, grounded in structured literacy science.

The school itself is elementary-only, so it serves early learners through fifth grade with no secondary pipeline visible in its own data. As families consider whether Brown fits their needs, the immediate question is about the school's current academic supports and what the low proficiency numbers mean in terms of individual student progress and classroom-level instruction, rather than relative ranking.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 323%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 29% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 526%

School 26% · District 21% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 316%

School 16% · District 17% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 423%

School 23% · District 23%

▼ 12 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 529%

School 29% · District 25% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 533%

School 33% · District 23% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-877%

School 77% · district not reported

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolClayton 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.