Westwood Elementary School, Dalton GA

Original Research by School Decision on Westwood Elementary School

Westwood Elementary School serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Dalton, a mid-sized northwest Georgia city known for carpet manufacturing and a notably multicultural population. The school sits in a working industrial and residential setting, part of Dalton Public Schools, which is undertaking a deliberate literacy initiative called Dalton Reads to boost reading proficiency by fifth grade.

The student body reflects Dalton's demography. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating significant economic need. Roughly half the enrollment identifies as Hispanic or Latino, with smaller shares of white, Black, and Asian students and a very small number of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and multiracial students. The school draws from a community built on manufacturing and immigrant labor, with real economic ties but also real economic strain.

On state assessments, Westwood's academic performance shows uneven ground. In mathematics, proficiency rises sharply from third to fifth grade, climbing across the span, with fifth-grade performance notably stronger. English language arts follows a similar trajectory, though overall proficiency in both subjects sits below the midpoint. Fifth-grade science proficiency is at the midpoint. When compared to other districts in Whitfield County, Westwood's overall proficiency index places it well above the median performance across tested subjects and grades, a meaningful strength in a small county cohort.

The school's enrollment is approximately that size typical for an elementary building with seven grades, including early learners in pre-K and kindergarten. The grade distribution is fairly even across the served grades, indicating stable enrollment rather than dramatic imbalance.

Dalton Public Schools adopted a new core literacy curriculum in May 2024, Savvas' myView Literacy for K-5, paired with eight new literacy team positions. This is a significant, deliberate shift meant to drive the district's reading proficiency goals. The change is fresh and multi-year, so classroom effects are still developing. The district also raised its local property tax rate in November 2024 to cover a revenue shortfall and fund, among other things, additional literacy support positions and teacher salary increases.

Outside the school, Dalton itself is growing modestly. The city has a historic downtown, parks, and civic anchors including the library and Creative Arts Guild, though neighborhoods and schools require a car to reach most services. Major employers remain the floor-covering industry alongside newer manufacturing in solar and automotive. The housing market in the school's zip code is modest in value relative to national benchmarks, and mortgage rates are moderate, making homeownership accessible to working families but not necessarily cheap.

For families seeking an elementary school in an economically and culturally diverse setting with room to grow academically, Westwood offers that profile. Third-grade proficiency is a soft spot; a parent may want to discuss with the school what interventions support younger readers moving into fourth grade and beyond. The district's intentional work on literacy is concrete and recent, though too new for results to show on these tests. The school is not a destination choice from elsewhere in the county, but rather the neighborhood or assigned school for families in Dalton's surrounding residential areas.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 37% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

Grade 465%

School 65% · District 47% · ▲ 18 pts above district

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

Grade 573%

School 73% · District 40% · ▲ 33 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 35 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 337%

School 37% · District 32% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 36% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Grade 562%

School 62% · District 39% · ▲ 23 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 550%

School 50% · District 34% · ▲ 16 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-892%

School 92% · district not reported

▲ 8 pts above state median · ▲ 7 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-income36%Higher-income50%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income29%Higher-income57%28 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income65%Higher-income85%20 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income42%Higher-income66%24 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income31%Higher-income50%19 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income54%Higher-income86%32 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income59%Higher-income94%35 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income47%Higher-income77%30 pp gap