Gentian Elementary School, Columbus GA

Original Research by School Decision on Gentian Elementary School

Gentian Elementary is a regular public school in Columbus, Georgia, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is located on Primrose Road in the 31907 zip code and is part of Muscogee County Schools. It educates a student body of about the size typical for an elementary school of its grade span, with enrollment distributed fairly evenly across all six grades.

The student population at Gentian is economically disadvantaged across the board; all enrolled students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Racially and ethnically, the school is majority Black, with substantial White enrollment, a smaller Hispanic population, and a small share of students identifying as multiracial or Asian. The school does not report counts or rates for students with individualized education plans or English learners, so the scope of those populations is not visible in available data.

On state assessments administered in the tested grades, Gentian's proficiency rates run well below the state norm across both language arts and mathematics. In third grade, proficiency in math sits around one-third, while in fourth and fifth grades it falls to around one-sixth to one-fifth across both subjects. Language arts proficiency follows a similar pattern, ranging from roughly one-quarter to one-third across the tested grades. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows higher proficiency than either of the core academic subjects. A parent may want to look into whether the school or district has specific intervention strategies in place, and what support structures exist for students working below proficiency. No multi-year trend data is available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent a stable baseline, a recent decline, or an improving trajectory.

The school sits in Columbus, a mid-sized city along the Chattahoochee River with downtown and Uptown commercial cores, military employment anchored by Fort Moore, and corporate offices including Aflac headquarters. Columbus's population has been mostly flat, with economists noting modest growth and some outmigration toward larger metros, though regional housing demand is expected to remain strong over the coming decade. The broader housing market reflects that: home values in the 31907 zip are below both the state and national benchmarks, and rents are similarly modest. Mortgage and rental affordability ratios are favorable relative to national data, and the area's unemployment rate remains in the mid-range, neither tight nor elevated.

The Muscogee County district, which operates Gentian and serves all of Columbus, has undertaken substantial recent action that shapes the outlook for schools in the system. Voters approved a sales tax continuation in May 2024 to fund capital projects spanning several years, including a consolidation of two elementary school buildings and system-wide safety retrofits. The district has also raised property taxes above the legal rollback rate in multiple recent fiscal years, a pattern that continued into the current budget cycle. For families weighing relocation or long-term enrollment, both the facility investment and the compounding tax burden are material factors to weigh.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 335%

School 35% · District 27% · ▲ 8 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Grade 417%

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

▼ 28 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 520%

School 20% · District 26% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · even with county median

English language arts

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 25% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 27% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 528%

School 28% · District 32% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Science

Grade 538%

School 38% · District 32% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 13 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-870%

School 70% · district not reported

▼ 14 pts below state median · even with county median

This schoolMuscogee 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.