The top reported proficiency rate is 69% in Social studies. The lowest is 21% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Pelham Elementary School
Pelham Elementary School serves prekindergarten through fifth grade in a small, rural southwest Georgia town anchored by agriculture and a tight-knit community identity. The school enrolls a modest population in a setting where most families travel by car on state and U.S. highways rather than on foot, and where civic life organizes around a historic downtown and community events like the weekly Pelham Country Jamboree and annual Wildlife Festival.
The student body is economically vulnerable. All students enrolled at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of poverty concentration that shapes the school's operational context. Racially, the enrollment is predominantly Black, with a substantial white minority and smaller shares of Hispanic and Asian students. Special-education and English-learner enrollment data were not available, so a parent seeking detail on those populations should ask the school directly.
In state assessments from the 2024-25 school year, Pelham Elementary's proficiency rates are low across the subjects tested. In mathematics, proficiency ranged from just over one-quarter of fifth-graders to about half of third-graders, with a school-wide math proficiency around two-fifths. English language arts proficiency was notably lower, near one-fifth across third and fourth grade and one-quarter in fifth grade, for a school average near one-fifth. Fifth-grade science proficiency stood just above one-third. These results place the school above the midpoint of overall proficiency when compared against the other districts in Mitchell County, though the county itself operates in a region where proficiency rates tend toward the low end of state distributions.
Prior social studies data from more than a decade ago showed higher performance, but that measure is no longer current. Trend data across multiple years of recent assessment are not available, so whether current performance represents a shift or a steady state cannot be determined from the data at hand.
The school operates within Pelham City Schools, a small district coterminous with the town, and serves as one of three schools in the district alongside a middle and a high school. No recent major district-level curriculum changes, capital projects, or structural shifts with parent-facing impact could be confirmed in available sources, though the district approved a charter conversion focused on a college-and-career pathway structure some years ago.
The town itself is in slow decline. Population and housing activity are modest. Median home values and household incomes are well below national norms, and new residential development is limited; civic energy has focused on downtown revitalization rather than expansion. A state correctional facility and light manufacturing anchor employment, alongside agriculture-related work and small retail. For families considering this school, the setting is a genuine small town with community character but limited economic momentum, and academic proficiency remains a challenge area that a prospective parent may want to explore directly with the school regarding instructional strategy, staffing stability, and support services.
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