The Georgia Department of Education is awarding a third round of Literacy for Learning, Living, and Leading in Georgia (L4GA) grants to 19 school districts, State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced today. The grants awarded today total $14,755,936.
“The L4GA grant has proven successful for improved literacy in the classroom and I look forward to seeing the achievement of these 19 school districts,” Governor Brian Kemp said. “This community-based program allows the student to grow and thrive in the classroom with student-centric education.”
Introduced in 2016, L4GA is a unique approach to improving literacy that pairs community-driven action with research-proven instruction. By working together, schools, early learning providers, and community leaders are moving the needle on literacy.
“We know that when an entire community invests in students’ literacy achievement, we see sustained and substantial improvement,” Superintendent Woods said. “L4GA funds empower communities to do just that – to come together to ensure all students have the reading skills they need to fuel future learning. I congratulate our new awardees and look forward to supporting their success.”
L4GA’s first round was funded by a $61.5 million federal Striving Readers grant, while the second and third rounds have been funded by a five-year, $179,174,766 federal grant awarded to Georgia in 2019. Ninety-five percent of that amount is being competitively awarded to local school districts and their community partners. The awards take into account the poverty level of a community, the percentage of students reading below grade level, the recent rate of growth in the number of students reading above grade level, and whether a school is identified for support from the Department of Education’s School Improvement team.
Georgia has seen sustained improvement in literacy outcomes since the launch of L4GA, as evidenced by both Georgia Milestones scores and student Lexile scores. Lexile scores for all cohorts of students improved at an average rate of 91 points per year over the last five years, and cohorts of students from 2015 to the present have improved significantly faster than cohorts from 2008 to 2014.
2021 L4GA Grantees
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Baker County Schools
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Barrow County Schools
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Bartow County Schools
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Ben Hill County Schools
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Brooks County Schools
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Clay County Schools
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Clayton County Schools
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Dooly County Schools
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Jefferson County Schools
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Lamar County Schools
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Meriwether County Schools
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Randolph County Schools
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Richmond County Schools
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Rockdale County Schools
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Stewart County Schools
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Taliaferro County Schools
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Tattnall County Schools
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Thomas County Schools
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Troup County Schools