Dunleith Elementary School, Marietta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Dunleith Elementary School

Dunleith Elementary is a small, high-poverty school in southwest Marietta serving kindergarten through fifth grade in a neighborhood where most families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school sits at the edge of a mixed-character city that blends a walkable historic downtown around Marietta Square with older suburban residential tracts and newer infill developments. It is part of Marietta City Schools, a district that has made literacy instruction a central reform priority over the past several years.

The academic picture is mixed. In math, Dunleith performs solidly, with proficiency rates in the low-to-mid range across grades three through five and an overall average in the mid-range relative to Cobb County districts. English language arts is the school's area of concern. Third-grade proficiency in ELA is notably low, and fourth-grade results remain soft. By fifth grade, proficiency improves substantially, suggesting the school's older students are accessing stronger reading and writing skills. Science results for fifth grade mirror ELA performance in that same grade. Without multi-year trend data, it is not possible to say whether these results reflect recent improvement, decline, or stability. The school has only one year of state assessment reporting visible in the system.

Dunleith's student body is predominantly Black and Hispanic, with a substantial share of students from Spanish-speaking households; specific counts of English learner students were not available. The enrollment is stable and small for its grade band, allowing for direct teacher-student relationships, though the level of resource scarcity is high. Marietta City Schools has invested significantly in literacy coaching and structured-reading instruction, deploying literacy coaches in every K through 3 building and extending the Science of Reading pedagogy upward through the middle and high school grades. Parents in Dunleith's attendance zone benefit from that district commitment, though the school's ELA results suggest the approach may still be gaining traction in the lower elementary grades.

The district is actively modernizing school buildings through the extended Cobb Education SPLOST VI capital program, which authorized construction and renovation funding through 2029. A parent may want to ask the school directly about planned updates to Dunleith's physical plant and timeline. The Marietta City Schools Board has held its millage rate steady, but rising property assessments have produced recurring effective tax increases for homeowners, a dynamic prospective residents should account for in their housing costs.

Marietta itself offers a blend of downtown walkability and suburban housing stock. The city is growing through infill redevelopment near the downtown square and large new-construction subdivisions at the city edges, particularly near the I-75 and I-285 interchange north of town. Major employers anchor the local economy in aerospace (Lockheed Martin), healthcare (Wellstar Health System), and public sector work. CobbLinc transit connects the city to MARTA rail and broader Atlanta employment centers. Median home values in the 30008 zip code are moderate by Atlanta metro standards, though property assessments are rising. Median listed rents are also in the moderate range.

Dunleith fits families seeking a small, close-knit school in a mixed-income neighborhood with an active district-wide push on literacy and reading instruction. The school's emerging ELA results in upper elementary grades and solid math proficiency suggest a building in transition. Parents choosing this school should view it in light of the district's multi-year literacy reform and ask directly about classroom supports, retention of trained literacy coaches, and implementation depth, particularly in the early grades where the data shows the greatest room for growth.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 51% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 61% · ▼ 2 pts below district

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

Grade 561%

School 61% · District 55% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 44% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 441%

School 41% · District 49% · ▼ 8 pts below district

▲ 7 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 55% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Science

Grade 552%

School 52% · District 48% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Social studies

Grades 3-875%

School 75% · district not reported

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

This schoolMarietta City, 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-income33%Higher-income50%18 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income36%Higher-income46%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income43%Higher-income50%7 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income42%Higher-income55%12 pp gap