Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy, Atlanta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy

Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy serves a small, consistently full school community from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in northwest Atlanta. The student body is almost entirely Black, with universal eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch. The school operates within Atlanta Public Schools, which has undertaken a major restructuring plan; families should be aware that the district is closing or merging sixteen schools beginning in 2027-2028, and this school's status warrants direct confirmation with the district.

The school's academic performance is notably weak across all tested subjects and grades. In mathematics, proficiency ranges from very low in the middle grades to below 30 percent by eighth grade, with the lowest performance appearing in grades five and six. English language arts shows similarly thin results, with proficiency in the 18 to 22 percent range at the elementary and middle levels. Science proficiency in fifth grade sits at around 12 percent; eighth-grade science reaches near 25 percent but remains a clear area of struggle. Social studies, tested only in eighth grade, shows proficiency at around 15 percent. Only one point year of data is available, so trend information cannot be assessed. A parent may want to look into this further with the school and the district to understand what factors drive these results and what intervention plans are in place.

Within Fulton County's schools, Hollis Innovation Academy sits in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. The school's enrollment is small and stable, distributed across all its grade bands with particularly healthy numbers in the elementary grades. The campus itself sits on James P. Brawley Drive in a historically significant Atlanta neighborhood. The school carries the word "Innovation" in its name but no specific program offerings, curriculum design, or pedagogical approach were available in the data, so what distinguishes this school academically from others in the district remains unclear.

The housing market in the school's zip code shows median home values below the state benchmark and rents moderately lower than state average, placing this neighborhood among the more affordable parts of the region. Atlanta itself is a major economic hub with significant Fortune 500 employment, a strong civic and cultural presence, and one of the nation's fastest-growing metro areas, anchored by ongoing development along the Atlanta BeltLine and downtown redevelopment projects. The city remains car-dependent overall, though select neighborhoods score high on walkability.

Atlanta Public Schools has invested in a science-of-reading literacy curriculum called Readers are Leaders, rolling it out from an eight-school pilot across all elementary schools with plans to extend into middle school. The district has also brought its school nutrition program in-house as of the 2024-2025 school year. These are systemwide initiatives that would apply to Hollis as well. For families considering this school, the most pressing questions center on understanding why proficiency rates are so low, what turnaround or support efforts are underway, and whether the school will remain open given the district's consolidation plan.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 330%

School 30% · District 41% · ▼ 11 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 415%

School 15% · District 41% · ▼ 26 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 52%

School 2% · District 35% · ▼ 34 pts below district

▼ 36 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 64%

School 4% · District 26% · ▼ 22 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 710%

School 10% · District 30% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 24 pts below state median · ▼ 17 pts below county median

Grade 829%

School 29% · District 36% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 319%

School 19% · District 35% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 413%

School 13% · District 38% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 39% · ▼ 28 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 617%

School 17% · District 37% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 722%

School 22% · District 34% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 820%

School 20% · District 33% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Science

Grade 513%

School 13% · District 38% · ▼ 25 pts below district

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 24% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 815%

School 15% · District 26% · ▼ 10 pts below district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

This schoolAtlanta Public Schools, 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.