Barksdale Elementary School, Conyers GA

Original Research by School Decision on Barksdale Elementary School

Barksdale Elementary School serves the early elementary grades through fifth grade in the residential neighborhoods around Conyers. The school enrolls a diverse student body, with a substantial majority drawn from families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Most students are Black, with a meaningful share of Hispanic and white students and smaller numbers of Asian and multiracial children.

The most striking feature of Barksdale's current academic picture is that proficiency in math and English language arts is quite low across the tested grades. In math, fewer than one in three students reach proficiency in grades three through five, with the fourth grade performing slightly better than third and fifth. In English language arts, proficiency climbs notably in fifth grade but sits below that in grades three and four. Science proficiency, measured only in grade five, is somewhat stronger though still below what many families would consider a solid foundation. One data point from an older social studies assessment showed much higher performance, though that result is now more than a decade old and no longer current.

The school sits within Rockdale County Public Schools, a district that remains debt-free and has prioritized literacy support through new coordinator and teacher-endorsement positions. The district is implementing revised mathematics and English language arts standards that cascade into schools like Barksdale over this year and next. What those curriculum shifts and literacy infrastructure will mean for student progress is still unfolding; families interested in this school would benefit from understanding how the new ELA resources rolling out for grades six and above may eventually inform or reshape instruction in the primary grades.

Barksdale is a modest-sized elementary school for its grade span, drawing students almost entirely from Conyers and its immediate surroundings. About four in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, marking significant economic need. The enrollment itself is stable across grades and leans toward the middle of the range for elementary schools in this part of Georgia.

Conyers itself is a mixed suburban city on I-20 about a half hour east of Atlanta, home to the restored Olde Town district with its farmers markets and gardens, but fundamentally car-oriented with most residential and school campuses set apart from downtown. The housing market is modestly valued and has absorbed steady new construction, including townhouse and single-family communities. The area's economy depends on manufacturers like Pratt Industries and health systems like Rockdale Medical Center, anchoring working-class stability alongside service and retail employment.

In February 2025, the school district made a notable tax-policy decision by allowing the statewide floating homestead exemption to take effect rather than opting out, as most nearby districts did. This caps annual increases in assessed values on owner-occupied homes and will reduce the district's revenue over the coming years. That trade-off between lower homeowner tax bills and tighter school budgets is worth understanding if you are weighing Barksdale for your child.

The gap between Barksdale's current test results and what a parent might hope for is real and a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly around what instruction looks like in math and whether the new literacy focus at the district level is already touching the early grades. The school and district are actively implementing changes meant to strengthen these foundations, but families considering enrollment should ask directly about curriculum pace, interventions for students not yet proficient, and how literacy and math support are being staffed and delivered.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 324%

School 24% · District 24%

▼ 16 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 432%

School 32% · District 25% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 524%

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

▼ 14 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 325%

School 25% · District 25%

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

Grade 427%

School 27% · District 23% · ▲ 4 pts above district

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

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 30% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 32% · ▲ 7 pts above district

even with state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-891%

School 91% · district not reported

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 7 pts above 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-income22%Higher-income44%22 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income55%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income30%Higher-income53%23 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income26%Higher-income51%25 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income34%Higher-income63%29 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income26%Higher-income59%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income20%Higher-income33%14 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income26%Higher-income53%27 pp gap