The top reported proficiency rate is 80% in Social studies. The lowest is 14% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Garrett Elementary School
Garrett Elementary School is a pre-K through fifth-grade school in Augusta serving a mid-sized enrollment of students across seven grade levels. The school sits in a district navigating significant changes: Richmond County's Long-Range Facilities Master Plan, approved recently, will close some schools, redraw attendance zones starting in the 2026-27 school year, and eventually repurpose the Josey-Murphey campus into a districtwide College and Career Academy. Families choosing Garrett should understand that this feeder pattern and the school's own attendance zone may shift as those changes roll out.
Academically, Garrett's performance on state testing is substantially below proficiency benchmarks across all tested subjects and grades. In the most recent state assessment data, math proficiency is particularly low, with fewer than one in seven students meeting standards across grades three through five, and the lowest performance in grade four. English language arts shows similarly constrained proficiency, ranging from roughly one in five students in grades four through three to about one in four by grade five. Science proficiency in grade five reaches the mid-twenties percentagewise, marking the strongest subject area reported. When these proficiency rates are aggregated across tested subjects and grades, the school sits above the midpoint among the three districts in Richmond County, but the absolute performance numbers remain modest. The school's grade composition means that the earliest tested grades are those with the weakest results, which may reflect typical early-elementary learning trajectories, but a parent may want to look into the school's reading and math intervention structures to understand how progress is supported as students move through the upper elementary years.
The student population is predominantly African American, with the remainder distributed across White, Hispanic, multiracial, Asian, and other groups in smaller proportions. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting significant economic need within the enrollment. Special education identification rates and English learner counts were not available in the data provided.
Augusta itself is Georgia's third-largest city, anchored by a walkable downtown core along the Savannah River with Broad Street as its main commercial and cultural corridor. Downtown has seen considerable recent investment in multifamily housing, downtown parks including the expanded James Brown Linear Park, and a Broad Street streetscape project adding bike lanes and improved pedestrian infrastructure. The city's economy is anchored by healthcare (Augusta University and Wellstar MCG Health), Fort Eisenhower as a major military and cybersecurity training hub, manufacturing, and government employment. Housing values in the 30904 zip code where Garrett is located remain moderate by national and state standards, and rents are climbing. The area is experiencing growth, particularly multifamily development in the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, though many parts of Augusta remain car-dependent outside of the central district.
The district has adopted a traditional school calendar for 2025-26 after a public input period considered a year-round alternative. The district is also investing in new facilities through voter-approved sales tax funds, including a new Barton Chapel Elementary and the College and Career Academy, without adding property tax burden. For families in this attendance zone, Garrett offers an early elementary home in a part of the city experiencing neighborhood revitalization, though academic outcomes suggest the school will require careful attention to reading and math growth as a key consideration in the enrollment choice.
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