Hollis Hand Elementary School, Lagrange GA

Original Research by School Decision on Hollis Hand Elementary School

Hollis Hand Elementary serves a mix of roughly a majority white student body alongside substantial Black and Hispanic populations, with more than half its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The school sits on the northwestern edge of LaGrange, a mid-sized county seat in west Georgia experiencing pronounced growth driven by manufacturing, automotive suppliers, and recent corporate relocations. The Thread, a newly built multi-use trail network, connects the school directly to downtown and the broader community's parks and neighborhoods, which is unusual for an elementary school and shapes how families can engage with the wider city.

The school's academic profile shows a gap between math and English language arts. In math, about three in five students in tested grades (three through five) meet proficiency. In English language arts, the rate drops to just under half, with third grade showing notably lower performance than upper grades. Science proficiency among fifth graders sits at roughly half. These results suggest math instruction is a relative strength, while reading deserves close attention, particularly in the primary grades. The school serves grades pre-K through five, so younger children are not assessed by state tests, and no multi-year trend data is available to show whether these numbers represent improvement or decline.

The Troup County School System continues a decades-long pattern of voter approval for education capital projects. The most recent round, approved in 2021, funded substantial renovations and replacements across the district, including a new elementary school building and security upgrades. Starting in 2025-2026, the district has rolled out a new universal dyslexia and reading screener in grades K through three paired with explicit phonics instruction—a direct response to state law and a signal that early literacy intervention is becoming more systematic district-wide.

About a third of the student enrollment sits in pre-K and kindergarten, which is typical for this grade span. The school draws families from neighborhoods on Country Club Road and surrounding areas, a part of LaGrange where housing is modestly priced relative to state and national benchmarks and where growth is steady but not explosive. For families already in the area or moving to LaGrange for manufacturing or service jobs, this is a neighborhood school with good access to city trails and parks. For families relocating for other reasons, the school's reading outcomes merit direct conversation with administrators about current supports and progress.

The school is part of a unified district serving a single county, so transportation, curricula, and services are managed on a district level rather than fragmented across multiple municipalities. Housing affordability and rental costs in the school's zip code are below state averages, making the area accessible to working families. Manufacturing and warehouse employment anchor the local economy, though LaGrange College and healthcare also provide stable jobs nearby. The civic and commercial life of LaGrange is within reach but car-dependent; the Thread trail changes that picture somewhat for this school specifically.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 40% · ▲ 23 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 28 pts above county median

Grade 462%

School 62% · District 47% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 41% · ▲ 17 pts above district

▲ 20 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 342%

School 42% · District 29% · ▲ 13 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 37% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Grade 558%

School 58% · District 40% · ▲ 18 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 41% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-890%

School 90% · district not reported

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

This schoolTroup County, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income26%Higher-income67%41 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income24%Higher-income77%53 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income41%Higher-income77%36 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income30%Higher-income73%43 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income57%Higher-income93%36 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income43%Higher-income87%44 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income34%Higher-income67%33 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income46%Higher-income83%37 pp gap