Six Columbus area schools earn new state award for reading achievement or improvement

Mark Rice
·2 min read

Six Columbus area schools are among the 155 in the state to receive a new award celebrating their performance.

The Georgia Department of Education calls these schools Literacy Leaders, recognizing their achievement or improvement on third-grade reading scores from the Georgia Milestones tests, including four schools in Muscogee County, one in Harris County and one in Chattahoochee County:

  • Britt David Magnet Academy (achievement)

  • Dawson Elementary School (improvement)

  • Fox Elementary School (improvement)

  • South Columbus Elementary School (improvement)

  • New Mountain Hill Elementary School (achievement)

  • Chattahoochee County Education Center (improvement).

The Literacy Leaders are determined by the Georgia Milestones Reading Status indicator, derived from the students’ performance on a subset of questions in the English language arts assessment during the spring of 2023.

Schools with at least 90% of their third-graders reading at grade level or above are Literacy Leaders for their achievement. Schools that increased their third-grade reading score by at least 15% from 2022 to 2023 are Literacy Leaders for improvement, also known as growth.

Third-graders are the youngest students required to take the Georgia Milestones. Education experts consider reading to be the most crucial academic skill because it’s the basis of learning for all subjects in school.

“Through third grade,” according to the Children’s Reading Foundation, “children are learning to read; after third grade, they are reading to learn.”

GaDOE superintendent Richard Woods put it this way in a news release: “The ability to read opens up the doors not only to the rest of a student’s education, but to their ability to continue learning throughout their life. That’s why we are laser-focused on literacy at the Georgia Department of Education and as a state.

“These schools — our Literacy Leaders — are doing exceptional work to ensure every student is equipped with the lifelong skill of literacy, and it’s an honor to recognize them.”