The Georgia Department of Education is recognizing schools that demonstrated exceptional achievement or growth in reading and mathematics during the 2024-2025 school year — and the list includes 13 Gainesville and Hall County schools. The Literacy Leader schools are being recognized for excellence in reading, and the Math Leader schools for excellence in mathematics.
The local schools are Gainesville High, Gainesville Middle School East, Flowery Branch High, North Hall High, Friendship Elementary, and World Language Academy – each named a Literacy Leader School, and C.W. Davis Middle, Cherokee Bluff Middle, Myers Elementary, North Hall High, North Hall Middle, South Hall Middle, North Hall Middle, and World Language Academy Middle – each named a Math Leader School.
The Literacy Leader and Math Leader honors celebrate schools that demonstrate extraordinary student progress and proficiency. Schools are recognized for achievement, growth, or both on annual end-of-grade or end-of-course assessments. The criteria recognize the crucial importance of grade-level reading in third and sixth grades and numeracy skills in fifth and eighth grades and require higher growth from schools with lower achievement levels.
A total of 406 schools met the qualifications for recognition as 2024-2025 Literacy Leaders. Awards were given based on the outlined criteria at the elementary and middle-school levels, and at the high-school level based on the American Literature EOC, which is the state test for ELA in high school. Literacy Leader qualifications use the Georgia Milestones Reading Status indicator, which is based on the Lexile score associated with students’ performance on a subset of questions on the ELA assessment. GaDOE also recognized Literacy Leader schools for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years.
A total of 479 schools met the qualifications for recognition as 2024-2025 Math Leaders. Awards were given based on the outlined criteria at the elementary and middle-school levels, and at the high-school level based on the Algebra: Concepts and Connections EOC, which is the state test for mathematics in high school. Math Leader qualifications are based on students achieving the Proficient Learner level or above on the Georgia Milestones mathematics assessments. GaDOE recognized Math Leader schools for the 2023-2024 school year.