West Town Elementary School, Albany GA

Original Research by School Decision on West Town Elementary School

West Town Elementary serves about 293 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade in Albany, Georgia. The school's enrollment is almost entirely Black students, and every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a community with substantial economic need.

The school's academic performance on Georgia's state assessments shows low proficiency rates across all tested subjects and grades. In mathematics, proficiency ranges from around one in twenty students in fifth grade to about one in three in fourth grade, with third-grade proficiency around one in four. English language arts shows similar patterns, with fifth grade particularly low. Science proficiency in fifth grade is below mathematics and ELA. These results place West Town substantially below state standards, and a parent may want to understand directly from the school what academic supports and interventions are in place, what the school's improvement priorities are, and how progress is being tracked.

The school sits within Dougherty County's single school system, which serves Albany and surrounding areas. Albany is a mid-sized regional hub in southwest Georgia and the county seat, functioning as a commercial and industrial center for the surrounding region with healthcare, education, military, and manufacturing anchors. The city's population has been shrinking gradually over decades, though recent development activity includes new housing starts and economic announcements in manufacturing and logistics. Downtown Albany has civic and cultural anchors including the Flint RiverQuarium, Thronateeska Heritage Center, and Ray Charles Plaza clustered near the riverfront in a walkable core, while residential and commercial spread is largely car-dependent outside that center.

Housing in the Albany zip code where West Town sits is affordable relative to national benchmarks. Median home values are modest compared to state and national medians, and median rents are below national benchmarks as well. The affordability metrics suggest that monthly mortgage payments and rent-to-income ratios are reasonable for a household at median income, making the area accessible for families seeking lower cost of living. The Dougherty County School System has cut its school property-tax rate six times over the last several years, with no increase in nearly two decades, meaning families in the district carry a lower school-related tax burden than most Georgia districts.

West Town is a regular public elementary school with no specialized programs listed in the available data. The school's grade span means state testing occurs only in grades three, four, and five; pre-K, kindergarten, and grades one and two are not assessed. No data on special education enrollment, English learner enrollment, teacher staffing, chronic absenteeism, or school discipline were available, so a parent seeking those details should contact the school directly.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 322%

School 22% · District 31% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 431%

School 31% · District 30% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 14 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 56%

School 6% · District 24% · ▼ 18 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 23% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 10 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 514%

School 14% · District 29% · ▼ 14 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 5 pts below county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · District 39% · ▼ 20 pts below district

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

Social studies

Grades 3-867%

School 67% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

This schoolDougherty 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.