Garrett Middle School, Austell GA

Original Research by School Decision on Garrett Middle School

Garrett Middle School serves a mid-sized cohort of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in Austell, a small city in southwest Cobb County about an hour west of Atlanta. The school sits on a suburban campus in a residential area of the city, which itself is experiencing active growth with new housing developments and downtown revitalization underway.

The student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a substantial majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The school draws from families in a working-class part of the metro area shaped by manufacturing, logistics, and hospitality employers, including Six Flags Over Georgia and rail operations.

On state end-of-grade assessments in math and English language arts, Garrett's results fall well below the midpoint among Cobb County districts. In sixth-grade math, proficiency is low; by seventh grade it improves somewhat, then declines again in eighth grade. English language arts proficiency is similarly weak across all three grades. Science and social studies proficiency, assessed only in eighth grade, are both quite low. Across all tested subjects and grades, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Cobb County. These results suggest students are not meeting grade-level standards in core content areas at the rates typical for the county, and this is something a parent may want to look into further with the school—to understand what supports are in place, what interventions the school offers, and what trajectory of improvement, if any, is underway.

The school offers no specialized magnet programs or alternative tracks; it is a traditional public middle school. Data on staffing, course offerings, special education services, English learner programs, discipline practices, and attendance were not available, so prospective families cannot see from this record alone what the classroom and school-day experience looks like, what electives or enrichment exist, or how the school responds to students who need extra academic or behavioral support.

Housing in the Austell area is appreciating, with homes in the lower-to-mid range by Atlanta-area standards. Rental housing is also available. The area is car-dependent outside the downtown core, though CobbLinc bus service connects major corridors and reaches MARTA. The Threadmill Complex downtown houses the library and civic services, and multiple parks serve the community.

Parents considering Garrett should weigh these academic outcomes carefully and seek direct conversation with school leadership about intervention strategies, class sizes, teacher experience, and plans for improvement. The school's profile will be clearer with answers to those questions than it is from testing data alone.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 620%

School 20% · District 45% · ▼ 26 pts below district

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

Grade 741%

School 41% · District 50% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 55% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 626%

School 26% · District 51% · ▼ 24 pts below district

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

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 51% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

Grade 824%

School 24% · District 48% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Science

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 34% · ▼ 16 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grade 816%

School 16% · District 49% · ▼ 32 pts below district

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

This schoolCobb 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 6Lower-income34%Higher-income64%30 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income22%Higher-income35%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income30%Higher-income55%25 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income28%Higher-income50%22 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income22%Higher-income21%0 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income27%Higher-income40%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income29%Higher-income35%6 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income26%Higher-income33%8 pp gap