2013 APS Grad Rates Up More Than 7 Percent

While no other metro Atlanta school district had as large an increase as APS, the district’s graduation rate still only tops Clayton County (55.8 percent) in the metro area.

With a 93.9 percent graduation rate, Decatur City Schools scored the highest in metro Atlanta, followed by Buford City (90.3 percent) and Forsyth County (89.5 percent).

The 2013 rate for other nearby counties: Cobb at 76.5 percent, Fulton at 75.5 percent, Gwinnett at 72.7 percent, and DeKalb at 58.9 percent.

The state’s public high school graduation rate increased almost two percent over the previous year from 69.7 percent to 71.5 percent.

“Under a more rigorous calculation method, the trend still shows that the percentage of our high school students graduating increases year to year,” said State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge in a statement. "Despite the economic challenges our districts are facing, we have more high school students graduating today than we ever have before, which is a testament to the hard work of our students and teachers.”

To clarify these statistics, the inverse of the graduation rate is not a drop-out rate.

The rates do not factor in students who take more than five years to graduate, who choose to receive a GED or join the military, move out of the district and do not send specific withdrawl/transfer documents to district staff, and those who receive a special education diploma. 

It's the third year in which the state has implemented a more stringent formula to calculate rates. The cohort now starts when a student is a freshman, unlike the previous calculation that defined a cohort upon graduation and included students who took more than four years to graduate. 

The U.S. Department of Education requires all 50 states to use the cohort rate to calculate graduates.

You can see 2013 graduation rates for all Georgia schools at the Georgia Department of Education website.

Atlanta Public Schools – 2013 Graduation Rate

Early College High School at Carver - 98.7%

South Atlanta School of Health and Medical Science - 77.6%

Booker T. Washington High School - Banking, Finance and Investment Small School - 72.7%

Booker T. Washington - Early College Small School - 73.9%

Booker T. Washington High School - Health, Sciences and Nutrition Small School - 51.9%

Mays High School - 69.8%

Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. High School - 55.8%

North Atlanta High School - 80.2%

South Atlanta Law and Social Justice School - 62.2%

School of Technology at Carver - 43.2%

School of Health Sciences and Research at Carver - 70.3%

South Atlanta School of Computer Animation and Design – 55%

The School of the Arts at Carver - 73.6%

Therrell School of Law, Government and Public Policy - 48.9%

Therrell School of Engineering, Math, and Science - 55.4%

Therrell School of Health and Science - 46.3%

Crim High School – 7.5%

Douglass High School - 49.6%

Grady High School - 84.6%

All Schools - 58.6%