With a new school year starting, education is on a lot of minds…including ours! So, for this month’s Regional Snapshot, we are taking a glimpse into education in metro Atlanta and exploring the various factors that impact a student’s educational success. Check out the highlights below, but we encourage you to read the full report here.

  • Overall, only about 40 percent of third graders in the 10-county ARC Region are proficient in reading by the end of third grade.
  • A study commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that, nationally, children not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times more likely to not graduate high school.
  • Similar to reading outcomes, only about 38 percent of 8th graders on the 20- County region are proficient in math by the end of 8th grade.
  • Naturally, there is a strong correlation between 3rd grade reading proficiency and 8th grade math proficiency. After third grade is when children transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
  • And there is also a strong correlation between poverty and student achievement, which is also visible in the spatial distribution of levels of student achievement throughout the region.

Don’t feel like downloading the full report? You can simply scroll through below!