Austin is No. 39, Dunwoody Elementary No. 73 and Vanderlyn No. 74 in the new U.S. News Georgia elementary rankings. What the list measures and who is zoned.
Three of Dunwoody’s six public elementary schools are among the top 100 elementary schools in Georgia, according to new U.S. News & World Report rankings.
The DeKalb County School District announced the results Tuesday. It listed the Dunwoody schools as:
- Austin Elementary, No. 39
- Dunwoody Elementary, No. 73
- Vanderlyn Elementary, No. 74
They are the only DeKalb neighborhood elementary schools on the list, the district’s announcement shows. DeKalb’s other three entries are magnet or theme schools:
- Kittredge Magnet School, No. 1 for the second year in a row
- Wadsworth Magnet School for High Achievers, No. 3
- Robert Shaw Theme School, No. 27
Dunwoody High was already on the publication’s high school list, at No. 96 in Georgia. It was one of six DeKalb high schools in the state’s top 100, the district said.
What it means for you
If your child is zoned for Austin, Dunwoody or Vanderlyn, the ranking is one outside measure of how students there performed on state tests. It does not change zones, funding or programs.
Zones are set by the district and do not follow city limits. Check any address with the district’s school locator. Our school pages carry each school’s zone, state report card and calendar:
- Austin Elementary
- Dunwoody Elementary
- Vanderlyn Elementary
- Chesnut, Hightower and Kingsley elementary schools
- Peachtree Middle and Dunwoody High
How U.S. News ranks schools
The rankings use students’ scores on state tests in math and reading or English language arts. Half of the formula is the scores themselves. The other half weighs the same results against the socioeconomic makeup of each school’s students, the district said.
So the order does not follow raw scores exactly. Dunwoody Elementary placed one spot ahead of Vanderlyn. Vanderlyn had the higher 2025 score on the state’s own measure, the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), and the higher share of students proficient in English.
The three ranked schools all scored above the Georgia average on CCRPI in 2025, according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement’s 2025 School Grades data:
| School | U.S. News rank | 2025 CCRPI | English, proficient or above | Math, proficient or above |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Elementary | No. 39 | 95.1 | 77.8% | 88.1% |
| Vanderlyn Elementary | No. 74 | 94.1 | 73.4% | 79.3% |
| Dunwoody Elementary | No. 73 | 83.5 | 67.8% | 65.6% |
| Georgia elementary average | 78.6 | |||
| DeKalb elementary average | 73.3 |
The English and math columns add the shares of students at the state’s top two Georgia Milestones levels, proficient and distinguished, for 2025.
The rest of Dunwoody’s schools
Chesnut, Hightower and Kingsley elementary schools were not among the DeKalb schools the district listed. Their 2025 English proficiency rates were 58.9%, 22.1% and 38.7%, according to the state data in the chart.
Peachtree Middle, which serves almost all of Dunwoody, was not among the five DeKalb schools the district listed in the middle school top 100. Chamblee Middle, about four miles southeast, placed No. 59. Wadsworth Magnet School for High Achievers ranked No. 1 among Georgia middle schools.
The ranking is the second recognition for Dunwoody Elementary this month. The school earned the state’s John Hancock Ribbon of Distinction for cursive writing, presented Oct. 22, the district said.
“These rankings recognize the hard work and academic achievement taking place in our schools every day,” Superintendent Norman C. Sauce III said in the district’s announcement. The Board of Education named Sauce, the interim leader, superintendent on Oct. 5; read our story on his appointment.
The full list is on the U.S. News Georgia elementary schools page. For every public school serving the city, see our Dunwoody schools guide.
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