Benteen Elementary School vs Bolton Academy Elementary

Bolton Academy Elementary ranks #51 of 2268 Georgia schools while Benteen Elementary School sits at #69 of the same pool — a gap of 18 positions statewide, though both land well inside the top 5% of all Georgia elementary schools. The overall rating separates them by just 0.1 points (9.1 vs. 9.0), meaning these are two genuinely high-performing schools 8.7 miles apart rather than a clear winner versus a runner-up.

Academics and growth tell different stories depending on what a family values most. Bolton Academy Elementary holds a 7.7 academic score against Benteen Elementary School's 6.9 — an 0.8-point difference that reflects meaningfully higher tested proficiency. Flip the lens to growth, however, and Benteen Elementary School leads 9.9 to 9.6, which means Benteen is outpacing Bolton at moving students forward from wherever they start. Families prioritizing absolute achievement levels will favor Bolton; families who want their child in a school that accelerates learning gains at an exceptional rate will find Benteen's growth score hard to ignore.

The two schools diverge sharply on demographics and classroom structure. Benteen Elementary School enrolls 306 students with a 9.3:1 student-teacher ratio and serves a population that is 85% free/reduced lunch eligible. Bolton Academy Elementary is nearly twice the size at 557 students, carries a 13.3:1 ratio, and has a 41% free/reduced lunch rate. Benteen's smaller classrooms and higher concentration of economically disadvantaged students mean its near-perfect growth score is being earned in a higher-need environment — a meaningful signal about instructional quality.

Both schools serve the same grade span, PK through 5th, so grade-level access is identical. The programmatic distinction that matters here is school culture and community composition: Benteen Elementary School's combination of small cohort size and exceptional growth rate suggests a tightly managed instructional environment, while Bolton Academy Elementary's larger enrollment, more mixed socioeconomic profile, and stronger academic score suggest a school where incoming proficiency levels are higher and the peer academic environment reflects that.