Lockheed Elementary School, Marietta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Lockheed Elementary School

Lockheed Elementary School sits in Marietta, a mixed-character city that blends a historic downtown core with surrounding residential neighborhoods. The school itself serves an early-grade population (pre-K through fifth grade) in a community anchored by aerospace and defense manufacturing, healthcare, and public sector employment. Parents moving into this area will find a school embedded within a district that has made structured literacy a hallmark strategy.

The student body at Lockheed is predominantly Hispanic and Black, with a substantial majority of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment spans about that size for this grade band, distributed fairly evenly across the grades. The overwhelming economic need here is real: nearly all students live in households below the lunch-eligibility threshold, which signals either concentrated poverty, high unemployment, or both.

On state testing, Lockheed's recent results show consistent struggle across all measured subjects. In math, proficiency ranges from low in third grade to somewhat higher in fourth, then drops again by fifth. English language arts proficiency is similarly low across grades three through five, clustering below one-quarter of students. Science proficiency in fifth grade—the only grade tested—is markedly lower still. These numbers are substantially below the midpoint among Cobb County districts in the overall proficiency index. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what interventions or supports are being deployed, and whether the school has plans to improve these trajectories.

On the positive side, Lockheed is part of a district that has invested deliberately in literacy instruction. Beginning in 2021, Marietta City Schools adopted a structured-literacy approach district-wide and placed literacy coaches in every K-3 school, then expanded the model into grades 6-8 and high school. This pedagogical approach, called Literacy & Justice for All, became the model for Georgia's 2026 Early Literacy Act. The district has reported an 11-percentage-point rise in students reading at or above grade level over a four-year stretch. That said, Lockheed's current proficiency numbers suggest the school is still in the ramp phase of that improvement, or serving a population facing barriers beyond curriculum alone.

The Marietta district operates within a property-tax dynamic that prospective homeowners should understand. The Board of Education has held its millage rate flat, but because property assessments are rising, the steady rate produces repeated effective tax increases. This is standard across rising suburban markets, but it means property tax bills will climb even if the formal rate does not.

Marietta itself is growing through mixed-use redevelopment downtown, infill projects, and large housing developments on the city edges. The city is home to a walkable downtown square with shops, restaurants, and civic anchors; voters approved a Cobb Education SPLOST (capital sales tax) through 2029 earmarking substantial funds for school construction and renovation district-wide. For families seeking an early-grades school in a city with active civic life and a district-wide push toward literacy, Lockheed offers enrollment in that initiative. For families seeking a school with currently strong test performance, the data suggests looking elsewhere within the district or beyond.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 51% · ▼ 31 pts below district

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

Grade 437%

School 37% · District 61% · ▼ 24 pts below district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 55% · ▼ 32 pts below district

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

English language arts

Grade 315%

School 15% · District 44% · ▼ 29 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 424%

School 24% · District 49% · ▼ 25 pts below district

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

Grade 524%

School 24% · District 55% · ▼ 30 pts below district

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 48% · ▼ 35 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Social studies

Grades 3-873%

School 73% · district not reported

▼ 11 pts below state median · ▼ 13 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-income15%Higher-income23%9 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income14%Higher-income19%5 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income55%29 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income18%Higher-income35%16 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income17%Higher-income31%14 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income35%Higher-income38%2 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income40%10 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income27%Higher-income37%10 pp gap