The top reported proficiency rate is 77% in Social studies. The lowest is 28% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cook Elementary School
Cook Elementary School serves grades three through five in Sparks, a small rural town in south Georgia where most families rent their homes. The school sits on North Elm Street within the town proper, part of a public cluster that includes Cook County Middle School on the same campus. About a substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment spans roughly equal numbers across the three grades. The racial composition is roughly evenly split between white and Black students, with smaller shares of Hispanic students and other backgrounds.
The school's academic performance shows a pattern worth understanding plainly. On state end-of-grade assessments in early 2025, proficiency rates across all three grades were below half. In English language arts, third-grade students showed the lowest result, while fifth-grade performance was higher. Math proficiency declined across grade levels, starting at a modest rate in third grade and dropping further by fifth. Science results for fifth grade were somewhat stronger than math but still below proficiency benchmarks. A social studies assessment from an earlier period showed a much higher rate, though that test is no longer administered statewide; the shift in what Georgia measures makes direct trend comparison uncertain.
The school serves a working community where the local economy centers on agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing. BASF operates multiple plants in Sparks producing agricultural chemicals. Grimmway Farms opened a regional packing facility here in recent years. The region is also home to the Cook County Workforce Development Center, a satellite campus of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College, which sits in Sparks alongside the school buildings. The broader county sits along Interstate 75 and benefits from the South Georgia Megasite, a large industrial park designed to attract major manufacturers.
Housing in the zip code is modestly priced, at values that run roughly in line with state benchmarks. Monthly rent averages lower than monthly mortgage payments, consistent with the town's character as a renting community. Most families here have not moved there for prestige schooling; the school serves its immediate residential and working population.
Current state assessment data for this school exists only for the 2024-25 school year, so trend over time cannot be shown. Parents may want to connect directly with the school about recent initiatives to support math and reading instruction, which represent the area of clearest need. Cook County reports that K-12 students in the district are learning in all new school facilities, indicating recent infrastructure investment. The school is a traditional public school with no charter or magnet designation, and demographic data on students receiving special education services or learning English as an additional language was not available in public records.
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