Flat Shoals Elementary School, Conyers GA

Original Research by School Decision on Flat Shoals Elementary School

Flat Shoals Elementary School is a pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade school in Conyers serving an enrollment that spans early childhood through the upper elementary years. The school sits in a district—Rockdale County Public Schools—that is debt-free and currently deploying a new sales tax measure approved by voters in 2024 to fund safety upgrades, technology, facility work, and instructional resources. The district is also in the midst of curriculum transitions: new mathematics standards rolled out during the 2023-24 school year, and new ELA instructional resources for middle and high school grades are being adopted for the 2025-26 year, part of a broader literacy strategy the district has formalized.

Flat Shoals serves a student body that is predominantly Black, with a substantial share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The school also has a smaller Asian population and students of mixed heritage and other backgrounds; the racial and ethnic makeup reflects the broader diversity of Rockdale County and the Conyers area. The enrollment is stable at mid-size for an elementary school.

State assessment results from the 2024-25 school year show proficiency rates in early literacy and numeracy that are below the state standard across third, fourth, and fifth grades. In third-grade English language arts, proficiency stood at below one-fifth of tested students. Fourth grade showed similar performance in both subjects. Fifth grade, where the school tested students across math, ELA, and science, performed slightly higher in language arts—at just above one-third—but remained low in both mathematics and science, where proficiency was roughly one-quarter to one-third. These results indicate that a substantial majority of students at Flat Shoals are not yet meeting grade-level standards in reading, writing, and math. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about what instructional supports are available to students working below proficiency and what the school's trajectory has been in prior years, since comparison data across multiple years was not available in the current dataset.

The school is not in a magnet or charter arrangement; it operates as a regular public school. Information on special education enrollment, English learner populations, and staffing levels was not provided in available data. The school's website was not available for review.

Conyers is a mixed-use suburban city serving as the county seat of Rockdale County, about twenty-some miles east of Atlanta along the I-20 corridor. The city has a historic downtown core (Olde Town Conyers) with walkable brick streets, local restaurants, and civic gathering spaces, alongside the broad suburban layout typical of the region. Active residential development is ongoing, including multiple new single-family and townhouse communities, with growth focused in areas including Flat Shoals Road and Sigman Road. Housing values in the area have moved modestly downward year-over-year, though prices remain in the mid-range for the region; rental prices have held relatively stable. Major employers include Rockdale Medical Center, manufacturers such as Acuity Brands and Pratt Industries, and county government and schools.

Public transportation in Conyers is limited; residents rely primarily on personal vehicles. A regional express bus route (Xpress Route 426) connects park-and-ride lots to downtown and midtown Atlanta on weekday schedules, but Conyers is not directly served by MARTA rail. The school itself is on Flat Shoals Road in the southeastern part of the city.

In February 2025, the Rockdale County Board of Education voted not to opt out of Georgia House Bill 581, allowing a new floating homestead exemption to take effect for school property taxes. This exemption caps annual increases in assessed home value at the inflation rate, making homeowner tax bills more predictable but also creating an estimated shortfall in school revenue over the coming years. This is a significant decision that distinguishes Rockdale from most neighboring metro Atlanta school districts, and it has implications for how the district's budget will evolve alongside the E-SPLOST IV funding that voters approved.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 320%

School 20% · District 24% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 25% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▼ 23 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 25% · ▲ 5 pts above district

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

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 25% · ▼ 6 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 422%

School 22% · District 23% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 30% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Science

Grade 528%

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

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

Social studies

Grades 3-884%

School 84% · district not reported

even with state median · even with county median

This schoolRockdale 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.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income32%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income24%Higher-income33%9 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income39%Higher-income59%20 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income30%Higher-income40%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income27%Higher-income32%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income42%11 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income19%Higher-income35%17 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income25%Higher-income37%12 pp gap