5 Savannah-Chatham schools win state Title I honors

Five Savannah-Chatham County Public School System schools are on the Georgia Department of Education’s 2026 lists of top Title I schools. Four were named Reward Schools for the size of their gains on state tests. Savannah Classical Academy was named a Distinguished School for the second year running.

The district announced the honors in a news release on Sept. 29.

The five schools

Not all five sit inside the city limits. Garden City Elementary is in Garden City, about five miles northwest of Savannah. Gould Elementary has a Savannah mailing address on Pineland Drive, but the Census Bureau’s geocoder places it inside Garden City. Johnson High’s Sunset Boulevard campus sits inside the town of Thunderbolt by the same measure. All five belong to the district that serves Savannah, and Gould feeds Beach High.

What the two honors mean

Title I schools get federal money because many of their students come from low-income families. The state picks its two lists from those schools only, using statewide test scores in English language arts and math. The district’s release gives the state’s definitions:

• Distinguished Schools are among the highest-performing 5% of Title I schools, based on combined English and math scores from the most recent year.
• Reward Schools are among the 5% of Title I schools that improved most, comparing the last two years of scores.

So a Reward School is not necessarily a top scorer. It is a school whose scores rose faster than at almost every other Title I school in Georgia.

A second year for Savannah Classical

Savannah Classical Academy was also a Distinguished School in 2025, when it was named a Reward School as well. The district said then that it was the only Distinguished School in Chatham County and one of nine schools in Georgia with both designations, according to its 2025 release. This year it holds the Distinguished title alone.

“These recognitions are powerful evidence of what is possible when talented educators, strong school leadership, engaged families, and hardworking students remain focused on academic excellence,” Superintendent Denise Watts said in the release.

She said she was “especially proud that these honors reflect both where our students are performing and how much they are growing academically.”

What it means for you

• If your child attends one of these schools, the honor reflects the 2025-26 state test results. Each school’s full scores are in the state’s Georgia School Grades report for the district.
• If you are comparing schools, our Savannah schools guide lists every public school, with graduation rates for the district’s high schools.
• The district’s 2026 graduation rate was 87.8%, up from 87.2% in 2025, according to a separate district release. Beach High’s was 93.3% and Johnson High’s 92.9%.