Doraville United Elementary School, Atlanta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Doraville United Elementary School

Doraville United Elementary School serves an overwhelmingly Hispanic student body living in high economic need. The school has small enrollment at the early end, with most students in the upper elementary grades. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is linguistically and economically concentrated. The school sits in a zip code where home values have declined slightly and rents have dropped, placing it in a neighborhood with modest affordability pressures relative to national benchmarks.

Academic performance is substantially below both state proficiency benchmarks and typical results across DeKalb County districts. In math, proficiency across tested grades ranges from low to mid-teens, with grade four performing highest. English language arts shows similarly low attainment, ranging in the low-to-mid teens across grades three through five. Science, tested only in grade five, aligns with this pattern. The school's overall proficiency index places it below the midpoint among DeKalb County's districts. These results reflect a student population facing significant academic barriers, likely including language and socioeconomic factors that compound learning demands in the early grades. Parents evaluating this school may want to look directly into what interventions or targeted support the school is using to address these proficiency gaps and what gains, if any, the school has made year to year. Trend data covering prior years was not available, so it is not clear whether proficiency is stable, declining, or changing.

The school offers no published magnet, choice, or specialized programming. It operates as a neighborhood elementary serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. No information was available on special-education services, English learner support, or staffing ratios.

DeKalb County Schools is in the midst of a multi-year restructuring that could reshape school assignments and consolidate buildings. An initial proposal in early 2025 flagged many schools for possible closure or repurposing to address capacity imbalance across the district. A final recommendation is expected by the end of 2026. For families considering this school, that ongoing process is worth monitoring directly with the district to understand whether Doraville United's footprint or assignment zone may be affected. The district has also been rolling back its millage rate, though rising property values have continued to raise tax bills. Atlanta annexed a portion of DeKalb County in 2024, rezoning some students into Atlanta Public Schools, though Doraville appears to sit outside that territory.

The city of Atlanta where the school is located has a diverse, car-dependent layout with pockets of walkability concentrated in neighborhoods closer to downtown, the BeltLine trail loop, and Midtown. Major employers including Delta Air Lines, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, and healthcare and university systems anchor the regional economy. The area is experiencing rapid growth in intown infill housing and continued concentration of development along transit-served corridors and the BeltLine, though multifamily construction has slowed considerably. Doraville itself is an older inner-ring suburb with established residential character rather than a growth hot spot.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 34% · ▼ 21 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · District 35% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 32% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 314%

School 14% · District 30% · ▼ 15 pts below district

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

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 30% · ▼ 17 pts below district

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

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 35% · ▼ 22 pts below district

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

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 33% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grades 3-8Lower-income13%Higher-income29%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grades 3-8Lower-income17%Higher-income43%26 pp gap