Atlanta’s graduation rate lags U.S.

Atlanta’s city high schools in 1995 could barely give away diplomas. Two of every three seniors didn’t pass muster. The system’s graduation rate loitered at a dismal 33 percent.

Fast forward and Atlanta still lags, according to a national report to be released today.

Fewer than half —- 44 percent —- of its high school students graduate on time.

But the numbers show only a chapter rather than the whole story. The good news: Atlanta has gained national honors for its efforts at urban school reform. The bad: Too many city-dwelling kids, both here and across the nation, are still far behind. The graduation rate among major cities hovers at 53 percent.

The annual report, called Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, is being released by America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit in Washington devoted to children’s issues.

The group partnered on the research with Editorial Projects in Education, a nonprofit that publishes the national journal Education Week. The report also was funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit funded by the billionaire software creator and his wife.

The report based its findings on data ending in 2005. Researchers calculated graduation rates using a formula that tracks the four steps students must take to earn a diploma on time —- three grade-to-grade promotions until, after grade 12, graduation.

It’s not quite the same way Georgia [with federal permission] does it, because the state also takes into account the number of students who drop out. By doing so, its rates trend higher. According to state officials, Atlanta’s graduation rate by 2005 already had risen to 72 percent —- about where it stands today.

Here’s where the good news begins for Atlanta.

Hired in 1999, city schools Superintendent Beverly Hall has remade the system with an eye on high schools. Most noticeable has been the conversation of large campuses into smaller academies or learning communities. The concept has regained favor as schools try to increase student performance. The first campus to undergo such a change, Carver High, will this year graduate its first senior class.

Less visible has been a focus on school leadership, teacher quality and student support programs. Put together, “the kind of initiatives we have implemented have brought out the changes you’re beginning to see with the graduation rates,” said the system’s Abigail Crawford, who helps oversee high school operations.

Outsiders are starting to notice. The Gates Foundation gave Atlanta a $10.5 million grant to help with its high schools. And just this year, the American Association of School Administrators named Hall the nation’s top superintendent.

BY THE NUMBERS

The America’s Promise Alliance will release a national report today on graduation rates in America’s largest cities. According to the report, which calculates rates differently than the state:

44% of Atlanta students graduate on time

45th is Atlanta’s rank among the nation’s 50 largest cities

71% is the national graduation rate