Benteen Elementary School vs Parkside Elementary School

Parkside Elementary School ranks #50 of 2,268 Georgia schools, placing it 19 spots ahead of Benteen Elementary School at #69 — both comfortably in the top 5% statewide. Their overall ratings sit just 0.1 points apart (Parkside at 9.1/10, Benteen at 9.0/10), making this one of the tightest head-to-head comparisons among Atlanta elementaries. The gap is real in state rank terms but narrow enough that neither school has a decisive edge on aggregate score alone.

Academically, Parkside Elementary School holds a 0.5-point advantage over Benteen Elementary School — 7.4/10 versus 6.9/10 — a meaningful delta that likely reflects differences in proficiency rates across tested grades. On growth, however, both schools are identical: Benteen Elementary School and Parkside Elementary School each score 9.9/10, placing both in the top tier for student progress relative to peers statewide. That matched growth score signals that students at both schools are advancing at an exceptional rate regardless of where they start.

The demographic and structural differences between the two schools are the sharpest contrasts in this comparison. Benteen Elementary School enrolls 306 students against Parkside Elementary School's 603 — roughly half the size — and carries an 85% free and reduced lunch rate compared to Parkside's 48%. Benteen's student-teacher ratio of 9.3:1 is substantially lower than Parkside's 13.7:1, meaning Benteen students receive considerably more individual attention per classroom. These numbers together paint Benteen as a smaller, higher-poverty school where staff resources are concentrated intensely on each child.

Both Benteen Elementary School and Parkside Elementary School serve grades PK through 05 and sit just 1.3 miles apart in Atlanta, making geography a negligible factor. The choice narrows to what a family prioritizes: Parkside's higher academic proficiency score and larger peer community, or Benteen's dramatically lower student-teacher ratio and the outsized staff attention that comes with a smaller, more resource-intensive enrollment.