Brookwood Elementary School, Dalton GA

Original Research by School Decision on Brookwood Elementary School

Brookwood Elementary School is a regular public school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in Dalton, Georgia, located on Central Avenue in the city's residential fabric. It enrolls a student body of about seven hundred students, reflecting Dalton's cultural and economic diversity. Just over half the enrollment is Hispanic or Latino, with meaningful populations of White and Asian students; a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating economic hardship in the attendance zone.

The school sits within Dalton Public Schools, a district in the midst of significant pedagogical and fiscal change. In 2024, the district adopted new core literacy curricula for grades K-8, myView Literacy for elementary and myPerspectives for middle grades, as the centerpiece of an initiative called Dalton Reads aimed at bringing all students to proficiency by the end of fifth grade. The rollout includes eight dedicated literacy team positions across the district and is designed as a multi-year transformation of classroom instruction. At the same time, the district raised its property tax rate in late 2024 to cover a revenue shortfall and fund both the literacy push and teacher salary improvements. These are conditions of active investment but also financial strain, characteristic of a mid-sized district managing growth and demographic change.

Brookwood's academic performance, as measured by Georgia End of Grade assessments in the most recent school year, shows middle-range proficiency across subjects. In math, students in third grade achieved proficiency at a moderate rate, with fourth grade slightly lower and fifth grade notably lower. English language arts results followed a similar downward trajectory from grade three through five. Science proficiency in fifth grade, the only grade level tested, was the lowest of all reported subjects. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places Brookwood above the midpoint among the county's districts, a meaningful distinction in the local context.

The school's student body speaks to both challenge and opportunity. A large share of students are economically disadvantaged, and a substantial portion are likely learning English as an additional language, though specific counts for English learners were not available in the data. The enrollment is roughly stable across grades, suggesting steady operation and predictable staffing needs. Families with children at Brookwood live in Dalton's residential neighborhoods, where housing values are below the Georgia state median and notably below the national median, making the school accessible to working and lower-income families.

Dalton itself is a working city of moderate size, nationally known as a carpet manufacturing center but increasingly diversified into solar and automotive production. Downtown has a walkable historic core with ongoing civic investment, but the school sits outside this hub, on routes most residents access by car. The broader community is experiencing modest population growth and new multifamily housing construction after a long lull, though much of it is market-rate. The city has substantial in-commuting, suggesting employment hubs outside residential zones.

A parent might ask what this school offers. Brookwood is a traditional elementary school with no specialized magnet or charter status. It participates in the district's literacy initiative, meaning instruction in reading and writing is undergoing intentional, curriculum-based redesign with district support. The relatively lower performance in upper elementary grades, particularly in math and science by fifth grade, is a concrete fact a parent should discuss directly with the school to understand whether the shift in literacy instruction is already affecting other subjects, what supports exist for students not yet proficient, and what the trajectory looks like. The school population is multicultural and working-class, which shapes peer environments and community tone. The district's commitment to literacy proficiency by fifth grade is clear, but whether that translates to measurable gains at Brookwood specifically is something the school and district can address.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 37% · ▲ 27 pts above district

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

Grade 457%

School 57% · District 47% · ▲ 11 pts above district

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

Grade 547%

School 47% · District 40% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 356%

School 56% · District 32% · ▲ 24 pts above district

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

Grade 450%

School 50% · District 36% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 39% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 34% · ▲ 5 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 7 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-893%

School 93% · district not reported

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

This schoolDalton Public Schools, 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 3Lower-income34%Higher-income71%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income60%31 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income57%Higher-income71%14 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income40%Higher-income68%28 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income49%Higher-income69%20 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income32%Higher-income64%33 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income57%24 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income38%Higher-income63%26 pp gap