1
What tradition at Wacona Elementary School should never be changed?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
885
Elementary
DISTRICT 488 · STATE 605
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WARE COUNTY·NCES 130543001774
Wacona Elementary School
3101 State St, Waycross, GA 31503 · (912) 287-2362 · Ware County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY33-TOWNTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL885 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 58% of Georgia public elementary schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- B-Three-year trend Change in reading and math proficiency over the last three test years.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Georgia public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
18.9:1
47 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.5:1 · STATE 13.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
86%
765 students
DISTRICT 89% · STATE 74%
Community
5
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 | 289 | 33% |
| Kindergarten | 108 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 94 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 99 | 11% |
| Grade 3 | 106 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 101 | 11% |
| Grade 5 | 88 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (108) is 23% larger than its 5th grade class (88).
Student demographics
58%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 64% · 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
Test scores
Georgia Milestones 2024-25 . % Proficient or DistinguishedEnglish Language Arts
34.6%
GA avg 40.1% . -2.9pp since 2021
Math
40.9%
GA avg 44.6% . +6.5pp since 2021
What this means: On the Georgia Milestones, Georgia's statewide test, about 35 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 41 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Georgia schools, those numbers are about 40 and 45. Reading and writing scores are down about 3 points since 2021, while math scores are up about 6 points.
Georgia Milestones results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 34.6% | 40.9% |
| 2023-24 | 42.7% | 41.4% |
| 2022-23 | 36.3% | 38.7% |
| 2021-22 | 37.5% | 34.4% |
% 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
38.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
32.7%
based on GA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+6.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 39% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 33% 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 Wacona Elementary School
Wacona Elementary School's state test result (38.8% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wacona Elementary School this school | 885 | 86.4% | 38.8% |
| Northwest Laurens Elementary Dudley | 889 | 79.4% | 63.4% |
| LAKE OCONEE CHARTER Greensboro | 873 | 80.5% | 57.0% |
| Pine Grove Elementary School Valdosta | 756 | 77.6% | 56.5% |
| Leroy Massey Elementary School Summerville | 877 | 94.3% | 20.9% |
| Lanier County Elementary School Lakeland | 850 | 100.0% | 45.1% |
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 Wacona Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Georgia | In Ware County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 38.8% | #579 of 1,208 | #5 of 6 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 40.9% | #608 of 1,215 ▼ 40 | #4 of 6 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 34.6% | #605 of 1,215 ▼ 145 | #5 of 6 ▼ 2 |
| 3-year test score change ranked biggest gain first | +1.8pp | #619 of 1,183 | #5 of 6 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 885 | #149 of 1,324 | #1 of 6 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 18.9:1 | #1,293 of 1,301 | #6 of 6 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.3% | #547 of 1,301 | #6 of 6 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 86.4% | #629 of 1,312 | #4 of 6 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.4% | #515 of 854 | N/A |
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
885
-70 (-7%) vs 2020
-2% since 1990-91, when it was 902
Student : Teacher
18.9:1
was 19.9:1
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 | 885 | 46.9 | 18.9:1 | 86% (765) |
| 2023-24 | 963 | 50.3 | 19.1:1 | 87% (834) |
| 2022-23 | 937 | 49.5 | 18.9:1 | 94% (878) |
| 2020-21 | 955 | 48 | 19.9:1 | 98% (934) |
| 2017-18 | 988 | 46.2 | 21.4:1 | 90% (891) |
| 2015-16 | 1,024 | 47 | 21.8:1 | 90% (922) |
| 2010-11 | 943 | 47 | 20.1:1 | 65% (614) |
| 2000-01 | 842 | 40 | 21.1:1 | 56% (475) |
| 1990-91 | 902 | 51 | 17.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Wacona Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (988 to 885); teachers up 2% (46.2 to 46.9).
About Wacona Elementary School
Wacona Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school in Ware County, located in Waycross, Georgia. Students in pre-K through 5 make up the school's enrollment of 885 students. Elementary schools in Georgia average about 605 students, which makes this school 46% larger than average.
Wacona Elementary School is in Ware County, a district with 5,920 students across 9 schools.
More than half of enrollment at Wacona Elementary School is White: 58%. Other groups include 27% Black, 9% Hispanic, and 6% multiracial. The diversity index for Wacona Elementary School is 58%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Wacona Elementary School has a student-to-teacher ratio of 18.9:1, with 46.9 full-time-equivalent teachers. Compared with the 13.3:1 average for elementary schools in Georgia, this school's ratio is higher. The school has 86% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The figure for public schools in Ware County is close, at 87%.
Wacona Elementary School earns a B on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 58% of Georgia public elementary schools.
The model predicts 32.7% for a school in Georgia with Wacona Elementary School's free or reduced-price lunch share. Wacona Elementary School posts 38.8%.
Ware County is the school's county. There, median household income comes to about $47,448, 14% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 17% of people live in poverty. There are 10 public schools in the county, enrolling about 5,927, Wacona Elementary School among them.
A public school about 1.4 miles away, Ware County Middle School, is the closest to Wacona Elementary School. The count of other public schools within five miles is 6. Its average proficiency rate of 38.8% is below the 42.9% average for nearby schools.
The school's locale code, Town: Remote, means it is in a town far from an urbanized area.
Federal enrollment counts fell from 955 (2020-21) to 885 (2024-25). There were fewer students per teacher in 2024-25 (18.9:1) than in 2020-21 (19.9:1).
The discussion board for Wacona Elementary School is open to topics like pickup and drop-off, after-school programs, and teacher feedback. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Ware County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
35,976
Census ACS
Median income
$47,448
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
14%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
17%
Below federal line
Schools in county
10
5,927 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Ware County
- Ware County High SchoolHigh · 1,633 students
- Ware County Middle SchoolMiddle · 752 students
- Waycross Middle SchoolMiddle · 606 students
- Center Elementary SchoolElementary · 470 students
- Williams Heights Elementary SchoolElementary · 436 students
- Waresboro Elementary SchoolElementary · 429 students
Other schools in Waycross
- Ware County High SchoolHigh · 1,633 students
- Ware County Middle SchoolMiddle · 752 students
- Waycross Middle SchoolMiddle · 606 students
- Center Elementary SchoolElementary · 470 students
- Williams Heights Elementary SchoolElementary · 436 students
- Waresboro Elementary SchoolElementary · 429 students
Nearby schools
- Ware County Middle School1.4 mi · 752
- Center Elementary School1.5 mi · 470
- Waycross Regional Youth Detention Center1.7 mi · 7
- Williams Heights Elementary School3.2 mi · 436
- Waycross Middle School3.3 mi · 606
- Ware County High School3.7 mi · 1,633
Frequently asked questions
About Wacona Elementary SchoolHow large is Wacona Elementary School?
Wacona Elementary School enrolls approximately 885 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Wacona Elementary School serve?
Wacona Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Wacona Elementary School have?
Wacona Elementary School employs 47 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 18.9:1.
What is the student diversity at Wacona Elementary School?
Student demographics at Wacona Elementary School are roughly 58% White, 9% Hispanic, 27% Black, 0% Asian, 6% Two or more.
What district is Wacona Elementary School in?
Wacona Elementary School is part of Ware County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.