George's Creek Elementary, Lonaconing MD

Original Research by School Decision on George's Creek Elementary

George's Creek Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through fifth grade in Lonaconing, a small town in the Georges Creek Valley of western Maryland. The town was built around an iron furnace and coal mining, and today it is a quiet residential community with a compact historic downtown along Main Street. The population has been slowly declining, and there is no public transit. The school sits within Allegany County Public Schools, a district that publicly reports it offers a Chinese Partial Immersion Program and has begun an Elementary Schools Facility Utilization Study, which can precede boundary or consolidation decisions.

Enrollment at George's Creek is on the smaller side for its grade band. The student body is overwhelmingly white, and a substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The school does not report the number of students with individualized education programs or English learners, so a parent may want to ask about special education and language support directly.

On state assessments, performance varies noticeably by grade level. In third grade, about six in ten students met proficiency in both math and English language arts. In fourth grade, that figure dropped to about two in ten in math and about three in ten in reading. Fifth graders showed roughly two in ten proficient in math, about four in ten in reading, and about two in ten in science. The pattern suggests a stronger start in primary grades and a weaker showing in upper elementary, though the school has only one year of data available for comparison, so it is not possible to see a trend. No data were available for chronic absenteeism, discipline incidents, or staffing ratios, which limits a full picture of school climate and support.

Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to examine. The school offers no information on course access or program offerings at the building level. The district's Chinese Partial Immersion Program is a notable curriculum feature for families who want a language pathway, though it is unclear from the data whether George's Creek itself hosts any part of that program.

The surrounding housing market is affordable compared to the state and national benchmarks. Rent and mortgage costs are relatively low, and the town's slow population decline means the area is not seeing new development pressure. For a family looking for a small, rural elementary school in a historic setting with modest housing costs, George's Creek is a direct option. The mixed test results across grades and the missing data on special populations and school environment are areas a parent would want to explore further with the school and district.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · district not reported

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 420%

School 20% · district not reported

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

Grade 518%

School 18% · district not reported

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 363%

School 63% · district not reported

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 428%

School 28% · district not reported

▼ 17 pts below state median · ▼ 31 pts below county median

Grade 536%

School 36% · district not reported

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Science

Grade 519%

School 19% · district not reported

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

This schoolAllegany County Public Schools, 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

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income10%Higher-income15%5 pp gap