Desana Middle School, Alpharetta GA

Original Research by School Decision on Desana Middle School

DeSana Middle School serves students in grades six through eight in Alpharetta, within Forsyth County Schools. The school enrolls a diverse student body of around that size, with an enrollment that is fairly evenly distributed across the three middle-grade years. Nearly half of the student population identifies as Asian, about one-fifth as Hispanic, about one-fifth as white, and the remainder from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting a mixed-income enrollment.

On state end-of-grade assessments administered in the spring of 2025, DeSana's performance in mathematics is solid across all three grades, with proficiency rates ranging in the high sixties to low seventies. English language arts performance is somewhat more uneven: sixth and seventh graders show proficiency rates in the mid-sixties and low seventies, while eighth-grade English proficiency dips to the mid-sixties. Science proficiency in eighth grade, the only grade where it is tested, sits just above half. Eighth-grade social studies proficiency lands in the mid-sixties. Overall, DeSana performs strongest in math and weakest in science relative to the school's other subjects. In math and English language arts, performance is typical for middle schools in this range; science performance is a softer spot a parent may want to understand more deeply through conversation with the school.

The school sits in Alpharetta, a mixed-character North Fulton suburb that has evolved from a small town into what is often called an "urbanburb." The community blends a historic downtown Heritage District with large master-planned commercial zones and upscale residential neighborhoods. Alpharetta is widely recognized as the Technology City of the South, home to a dense concentration of fintech and tech companies including Fiserv, Equifax, and LexisNexis, along with major telecom operations. The local economy is strong and employment-focused on professional, scientific, and tech sectors. Housing values in the area are substantial and rising; median home prices climbed steeply in recent years as regional tech growth has pushed demand outward from central Atlanta.

Forsyth County Schools itself is navigating rapid growth. The district recently passed a locally designed homestead property tax exemption that caps annual increases in taxable home value for school tax purposes, effective through a set term, which offers families some predictability on a major expense. Voters also approved a continuation of a sales tax dedicated to school construction and improvements. These steps suggest the district is actively working to manage capacity and quality amid expansion. More recently, the district implemented a distraction-free education policy banning student cell phones and personal devices during the school day across all grades, with a high school lunchtime exception. This represents a shift in daily classroom environment that parents would experience directly.

DeSana itself serves a compact, middle-class-and-above area with a large Asian-American population and moderate free-lunch eligibility. The school operates as a standard public middle school and is not a specialized program or magnet. It appears to draw its enrollment from the surrounding suburban residential neighborhoods rather than serving a district-wide or particularly diverse admissions area. Data on school climate, special education enrollment, English learner services, and staffing were not available, so families should reach out directly to the school to understand support services, any gifted programs, and discipline practices. Given that the school is situated in a prosperous suburban district with strong employment and housing markets, the peer environment likely skews toward families with means and professional occupations, though the quarter-plus of students on free or reduced lunch reflects meaningful economic diversity within the school.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 67% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 33 pts above state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 772%

School 72% · District 70% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 38 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 872%

School 72% · District 74% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▼ 7 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 665%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 29 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 65% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▲ 35 pts above state median · ▲ 1 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 60% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▲ 27 pts above state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 4% · ▲ 48 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▼ 10 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 66% · ▼ 2 pts below district

▲ 33 pts above state median · even with county median

This schoolForsyth 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 6Lower-income41%Higher-income77%36 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income23%Higher-income76%54 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income33%Higher-income76%43 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income31%Higher-income77%45 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income29%Higher-income77%48 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income26%Higher-income83%57 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income39%Higher-income83%44 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income32%Higher-income81%49 pp gap