Robert Shaw Theme School, Scottdale GA

Original Research by School Decision on Robert Shaw Theme School

Robert Shaw Theme School is an early-grades elementary serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in Scottdale, an unincorporated community in eastern DeKalb County. The school enrolls a small cohort of students from a historically working-class neighborhood rooted in the early 1900s cotton mill village, with a student population that is predominantly Black and a substantial majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.

In state testing across third, fourth, and fifth grades, proficiency rates cluster in a solid middle band. Math proficiency runs highest, with roughly four-fifths of students meeting standard across the tested grades. English language arts and science proficiency sit slightly lower, in the high sixties to mid-seventies. Third-grade math outperforms the other grades, suggesting that gains may narrow as grade level advances. Among neighboring DeKalb County districts, Robert Shaw's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile, a meaningful position that reflects coherent learning gains across its grade band.

The school serves grades that do not yet sit for Georgia's traditional high-stakes assessments; social studies proficiency data, drawn from an older assessment year, is not current. No graduation rate applies, as the school does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism, special education enrollment rates, and English learner counts were not available in the data, limiting visibility into student support services and attendance patterns. A parent or resident may want to look into those dimensions directly with the school.

Scottdale itself is in an active growth phase. The former Tobie Grant Manor public housing site is being redeveloped as Village at Mills Creek, a mixed-finance master-planned community that will add several hundred residential units across family and senior components, alongside new single-family homes and potential retail. Recent housing appreciation has been steady, and the area has become a pocket for families and professionals working in the nearby Clifton Corridor (Emory University) and downtown Atlanta. The community retains its mixed, working-class character alongside newer development; Your DeKalb Farmers Market and the Scottdale-Tobie Grant Library remain civic anchors.

A family weighing Robert Shaw should understand that DeKalb County is midway through the Student Assignment Project, a multi-year redistricting effort that could reshape school assignments across clusters including Druid Hills, which affects this area. A final recommendation is expected to the Board of Education in December 2026. Additionally, DeKalb's property tax burden, while being rolled back incrementally, remains substantial; home values in the 30079 zip code have risen, and actual property-tax bills continue to climb above the revenue-neutral rollback due to appreciation. The school's small, cohesive student body and solid academic standing offer a straightforward neighborhood school pathway for early elementary grades, with the caveat that middle and high school attendance boundaries may shift under the ongoing county-level planning process.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 385%

School 85% · District 34% · ▲ 51 pts above district

▲ 45 pts above state median · ▲ 57 pts above county median

Grade 479%

School 79% · District 35% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 34 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Grade 574%

School 74% · District 32% · ▲ 42 pts above district

▲ 36 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 370%

School 70% · District 30% · ▲ 40 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 44 pts above county median

Grade 474%

School 74% · District 30% · ▲ 44 pts above district

▲ 40 pts above state median · ▲ 48 pts above county median

Grade 576%

School 76% · District 35% · ▲ 41 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · ▲ 46 pts above county median

Science

Grade 579%

School 79% · District 33% · ▲ 45 pts above district

▲ 39 pts above state median · ▲ 52 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-893%

School 93% · district not reported

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

This schoolDeKalb 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.