Westside Elementary School, Valdosta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Westside Elementary School

Westside Elementary School serves about 900 students in pre-kindergarten through grade five in Valdosta, a mixed-use regional city in south Georgia that functions as a retail and service hub for a nine-county area. The school sits within Lowndes County Schools, a district that recently passed a significant capital improvement referendum and is in active construction of new and expanded elementary facilities to meet growth in the southern parts of the county.

The student body is predominantly white, with meaningful representation of Black and Hispanic students and a smaller Asian population. About half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a school community with modest median household incomes but also housed, stable families. The prekindergarten and kindergarten classes are full, suggesting the school is holding enrollment at or above typical elementary capacity for its region.

In math, Westside's students show moderate to solid performance across the tested grades. Third graders profile strongest, with about seven in ten meeting proficiency. By fifth grade the rate dips, with about six in ten proficient. Fourth grade sits in between. Science in fifth grade is a relative strength, with roughly seven in ten students proficient. English language arts is the softer spot. Across third, fourth, and fifth grades, between roughly half and two-thirds of students reach proficiency, and the growth trajectory from third to fifth is modest. These patterns are typical for schools serving economically diverse, mixed-composition communities; they reflect the reality that students come in at varying readiness levels, and reading and writing gains in elementary take time.

Westside's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among the three districts in Lowndes County, a meaningful mark. The school is meeting expectations relative to its immediate peer group, even as the absolute percentages show room for continued growth in English language arts.

The district is actively investing in elementary schools. A brand-new Lake Park Elementary facility is under construction, and Dewar Elementary is receiving a major classroom wing and gymnasium addition. Westside itself is not among the named projects, but families should know the district is focused on elementary expansion and modernization across the system, funded by voter approval of a penny-on-the-dollar education sales tax. The district has also implemented a distraction-free education policy limiting student cell phone and smartwatch use during instructional time, a pedagogy shift parents will see in place.

Valdosta's housing market shows modest home values and rents below the state average, with recent growth in both market-rate development (major single-family and mixed-use projects announced or underway) and affordable housing initiatives. The city is in an active redevelopment phase, particularly in the downtown core and along new commercial corridors. The area has recovered from Hurricane Helene damage, including to key public facilities like the main regional library.

Westside is a neighborhood school of moderate size for its grade band, serving families in an area with active residential and infrastructure investment. It is not a specialized or choice program; it is a regular public elementary school. The peer environment reflects the city's economic and racial composition. Parents looking for a traditional elementary with accessible test data, a school in the upper range of its county, and a district investing in facilities would have reason to look here. Those wanting to understand the English language arts proficiency picture more deeply, or seeking schools with higher overall ELA attainment, might ask the school directly how it is approaching literacy instruction and what support structures exist for students below proficiency.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 373%

School 73% · District 61% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Grade 469%

School 69% · District 66% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 24 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 563%

School 63% · District 60% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 352%

School 52% · District 43% · ▲ 9 pts above district

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

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 48% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 564%

School 64% · District 52% · ▲ 12 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 572%

School 72% · District 64% · ▲ 8 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grades 3-894%

School 94% · district not reported

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

This schoolLowndes 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

Grade 3Lower-income38%Higher-income47%10 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income28%Higher-income64%37 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income56%Higher-income87%32 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income41%Higher-income67%26 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income44%Higher-income72%28 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income59%Higher-income84%25 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income52%Higher-income86%34 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income51%Higher-income81%30 pp gap