1
Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Sawnee Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,591
Elementary
DISTRICT 1,008 · STATE 605
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FORSYTH COUNTY·NCES 130222002173
Sawnee Elementary School
1616 Canton Hwy, Cumming, GA 30040 · (770) 887-6161 · Forsyth County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,591 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
100 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 13.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
21%
342 students
DISTRICT 22% · STATE 74%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 31 | 2% |
| Kindergarten | 214 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 248 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 262 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 257 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 316 | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 263 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (214) is 19% smaller than its 5th grade class (263).
Student demographics
67%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 68% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on published attendance-zone data from Forsyth County. Zones change; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
Georgia Milestones 2024-25 . % Proficient or DistinguishedEnglish Language Arts
54.5%
GA avg 40.1% . -1.0pp since 2021
Math
71.2%
GA avg 44.6% . +3.4pp since 2021
What this means: On the Georgia Milestones, Georgia's statewide test, about 55 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 71 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Georgia schools, those numbers are about 40 and 45. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2021, while math scores are up about 3 points.
Georgia Milestones results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 54.5% | 71.2% |
| 2023-24 | 51.5% | 64.9% |
| 2022-23 | 54.6% | 67.9% |
| 2021-22 | 55.5% | 67.8% |
% Proficient or Distinguished, all students and all tested grades.
Source: Georgia Milestones. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
59.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
66.2%
based on GA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.0pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 59% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 66% typical for Georgia schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Georgia's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Sawnee Elementary School
Sawnee Elementary School's state test result (59.2% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sawnee Elementary School this school | 1,591 | 21.5% | 59.2% |
| Poole's Mill Elementary Cumming | 1,384 | 22.0% | 52.9% |
| George W. Whitlow Elementary Cumming | 1,247 | 32.6% | 66.3% |
| Mashburn Elementary School Cumming | 976 | 23.2% | 65.4% |
| Level Creek Elementary School Suwanee | 1,051 | 15.1% | 85.5% |
| Kelly Mill Elementary Cumming | 1,104 | 14.9% | 64.6% |
Matched among Georgia elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Sawnee Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Georgia | In Forsyth County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 59.2% | #202 of 1,208 | #16 of 23 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 71.2% | #117 of 1,215 ▲ 69 | #14 of 23 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 54.5% | #205 of 1,215 ▲ 84 | #16 of 23 ▲ 1 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +1.2pp | #664 of 1,183 | #9 of 22 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,591 | #3 of 1,324 | #1 of 23 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.9:1 | #1,217 of 1,301 | #20 of 23 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 66.7% | #232 of 1,301 | #4 of 23 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 21.5% | #1,218 of 1,312 | #10 of 23 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +13.3% | #149 of 386 | #4 of 7 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
1,591
+177 (+13%) vs 2020
+180% since 2000-01, when it was 569
Student : Teacher
15.9:1
was 16.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 1,591 | 99.9 | 15.9:1 | 21% (342) |
| 2023-24 | 1,831 | 106.4 | 17.2:1 | 21% (383) |
| 2022-23 | 1,720 | 98.9 | 17.4:1 | 16% (275) |
| 2020-21 | 1,414 | 85 | 16.6:1 | 16% (222) |
| 2017-18 | 1,404 | 89 | 15.8:1 | 23% (318) |
| 2015-16 | 1,308 | 84 | 15.6:1 | 27% (352) |
| 2010-11 | 1,591 | 95 | 16.8:1 | 24% (381) |
| 2000-01 | 569 | 39 | 14.6:1 | 14% (80) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sawnee Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 13% (1,404 to 1,591); teachers up 12% (89 to 99.9).
About Sawnee Elementary School
Sawnee Elementary School is a large elementary school based in Cumming, Georgia. The school enrolls 1,591 students in pre-K through 5. On average, elementary schools in Georgia enroll around 605, and this school is 163% bigger than that mark.
Sawnee Elementary School sits within Forsyth County, which has 42 schools and 54,864 students.
No group is above 50% at Sawnee Elementary School; the largest is Asian, at 41%. The rest of enrollment is 37% White, 14% Hispanic, 3% Black, and 3% multiracial. Among all residents of Forsyth County, the Asian share is about 20%. Measured by the diversity index, the student body scores 67%.
There are about 15.9 students for every full-time-equivalent teacher at Sawnee Elementary School, which has 99.9. The school's 15.9:1 compares with an average of 13.3:1 for elementary schools in Georgia. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch stands at 21%. That is in line with the 21% average for public schools in Forsyth County.
Sawnee Elementary School's average proficiency rate across its state test results of 59.2% is 7.0 points below the 66.2% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
Census data for Forsyth County show the median household earns about $143,784 a year, 57% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 3% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Public schools in Forsyth County number 42, with about 54,864 students.
A public school about 2.4 miles away, Kelly Mill Elementary, is the closest to Sawnee Elementary School. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. The nearest schools with test data average 55.7%, lower than Sawnee Elementary School's 59.2%.
NCES assigns Sawnee Elementary School the locale Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The school's student count rose 13% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
On allk12, people connected to Sawnee Elementary School can post about pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Forsyth County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
267,287
Census ACS
Median income
$143,784
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
3%
Below federal line
Schools in county
42
54,864 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Forsyth County
- Lambert High SchoolHigh · 3,249 students
- South Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,634 students
- Denmark High SchoolHigh · 2,527 students
- West Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,503 students
- Forsyth Central High SchoolHigh · 2,457 students
- North Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,151 students
Other schools in Cumming
- South Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,634 students
- West Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,503 students
- Forsyth Central High SchoolHigh · 2,457 students
- North Forsyth High SchoolHigh · 2,151 students
- Lakeside Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,513 students
- Poole's Mill ElementaryElementary · 1,384 students
Nearby schools
- Kelly Mill Elementary2.4 mi · 1,104
- Forsyth Central High School2.7 mi · 2,457
- Otwell Middle School2.7 mi · 1,062
- Cumming Elementary School2.7 mi · 900
- West Forsyth High School3.0 mi · 2,503
- Liberty Middle School3.6 mi · 1,256
Frequently asked questions
About Sawnee Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Sawnee Elementary School?
Sawnee Elementary School enrolls approximately 1,591 students in grades PK-05.
Is Sawnee Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Sawnee Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Sawnee Elementary School have?
Sawnee Elementary School employs 100 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 15.9:1.
How diverse is Sawnee Elementary School?
Sawnee Elementary School reports a student body of 37% White, 14% Hispanic, 3% Black, 41% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is Sawnee Elementary School public or private?
Sawnee Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Forsyth County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.