West Side Elementary School vs Hickory Hills Elementary School

West Side Elementary School and Hickory Hills Elementary School sit 1.3 miles apart in Marietta, Georgia, yet occupy meaningfully different positions in state rankings. West Side Elementary School holds an overall rating of 9.7/10 — 0.5 points above Hickory Hills Elementary School's 9.2/10 — and ranks #4 of 2268 schools in Georgia. Hickory Hills Elementary School ranks #32 of the same pool, a result that is still elite by any measure but trails its neighbor by 28 positions statewide.

The sharpest separation between the two schools is in academic proficiency. West Side Elementary School scores 9.6/10 on academics versus Hickory Hills Elementary School's 8.4/10 — a 1.2-point gap that reflects a meaningful difference in tested achievement. Growth scores, which capture how much students improve year over year, are nearly identical: West Side Elementary School earns a 9.8/10 and Hickory Hills Elementary School a 9.6/10. Both schools are developing students at an exceptional rate; the divergence lies in where students start and how high proficiency climbs, not in momentum.

The two schools serve different demographic profiles. West Side Elementary School enrolls 531 students with 17% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, while Hickory Hills Elementary School enrolls 396 students with 66% qualifying — a 49-point gap that signals a substantially higher concentration of economic need at Hickory Hills. Student-teacher ratio also differs: West Side Elementary School averages 12.1 students per teacher versus Hickory Hills Elementary School's 9.4:1, meaning Hickory Hills students have notably more individual teacher access despite the school's lower overall rating.

Both schools serve the same grade span, PK through 5th grade, so families are not choosing between different instructional levels. The distinction is environment and outcomes: West Side Elementary School pairs its top-four state rank with larger class sizes and a lower-poverty student body, while Hickory Hills Elementary School delivers near-identical growth performance with the smallest student-teacher ratio of the two and serves a far higher share of economically disadvantaged students.