Hillside Elementary School, Roswell GA

Original Research by School Decision on Hillside Elementary School

Hillside Elementary serves about 530 students in the early grades, kindergarten through fifth grade, in a Scott Road location in Roswell. The school sits in one of metro Atlanta's most affluent suburbs, a city shaped by a preserved historic downtown around Canton Street and sprawling residential neighborhoods of established brick homes and newer infill. The area is predominantly car-oriented and served by light commercial corridors; much of daily life centers on the Chattahoochee River and its trails. Roswell's housing market is well above state and national benchmarks, and the surrounding neighborhoods are solidly middle to upper-middle class.

The school's academic profile shows proficiency in language arts outpacing mathematics. Across grades three, four, and five, most fifth graders meet proficiency in reading and language arts, while performance in math drops off notably as grade level rises, with about half the fifth-grade cohort reaching proficiency. Third grade shows stronger math results than older grades. Science proficiency at grade five sits close to the midpoint. When measured across tested subjects and grades, Hillside's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among schools in Fulton County, a meaningful standing given the district's strong performance statewide on recent reading initiatives.

The student body is diverse by race and ethnicity, with white students making up roughly two-fifths of enrollment, Hispanic students slightly less, and Black students about one-fifth. A substantial share of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating economic diversity within the school. The school does not report English learner rates, nor do figures appear for special education enrollment or identification; if those data exist, they were not available through state sources.

Roswell itself is in the midst of a downtown revitalization emphasizing mixed-use infill rather sprawl. The Hill Street project near City Hall will bring new apartments and commercial space; Southern Post, a recently opened mixed-use site, has already added office and residential capacity alongside retail anchored to the historic core. Infrastructure investments in Holcomb Bridge Road connectivity and the Big Creek Parkway suggest the city is managing growth actively. The district's "Every Child Reads" initiative, funded with federal pandemic relief, replaced multiple fragmented reading programs with a unified Science of Reading approach beginning in 2021, and Georgia Milestones results have shown gains across nearly every grade since, with Fulton County leading the state in the number of schools recognized as Literacy Leaders. For a family moving to the area or considering Roswell schools, this unified approach to literacy is a lasting change embedded in every K-5 classroom across the district. A parent may want to check in with the school about math supports and whether remediation or acceleration pathways are available for students whose proficiency lags in that subject area.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 363%

School 63% · District 58% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 24 pts above county median

Grade 454%

School 54% · District 62% · ▼ 8 pts below district

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

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 54% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 355%

School 55% · District 50% · ▲ 6 pts above district

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

Grade 448%

School 48% · District 54% · ▼ 6 pts below district

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

Grade 566%

School 66% · District 59% · ▲ 7 pts above district

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Science

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 56% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 15 pts above county median

Social studies

Grades 3-886%

School 86% · district not reported

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

This schoolFulton 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-income31%Higher-income71%41 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income34%Higher-income79%45 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income44%Higher-income82%38 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income35%Higher-income77%42 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income39%Higher-income76%37 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income34%Higher-income85%50 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income26%Higher-income70%44 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income34%Higher-income79%45 pp gap