Georgia's on-time grad rate up slightly

By Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia has reversed a downward trend in its on-time high school graduation rates, but is still seeing 38 percent of its ninth-graders go off track, a new report shows.

The state, like most others in the South, saw a rise in its on-time graduation rate between 2002 and 2006, the Southern Regional Education Board said in a report being released today.

The 1-percent gain puts Georgia’s on-time graduation rate at 62 percent, 46th in the country and third lowest in the 16-state region behind Louisiana and South Carolina.

“Georgia has some work to do very clearly,” said Joan M. Lord, the SREB’s vice president for education policies, on Tuesday.

One recommendation — supported by the governor, an SREB board member — is that Georgia pay more attention to the transition between middle schools and high schools, particularly “in the middle grades with readiness for high school,” Lord said.

“That’s paid off in some states ... and might be a place for Georgia to take a pretty serious look,” she said.

“Our view is that as Georgia leaders look to improve school accountability they should make high school graduation rates just as important as student achievement,” said Alan Richard, SREB communications director. “That means pushing schools to raise graduation rates like never before, but also helping them to reach their goals.”

William Cardoza, spokesman for state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox, said, “We know our graduation rate is certainly lower than we want it to be.” He said the study period predates the push for a new curriculum and graduation requirements that Cox anticipates will help.

It also doesn’t take into account the graduation coach program that Gov. Sonny Perdue began in 2006, said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley. “Just in the past two years, we have seen 4,500 fewer students drop out even with the student population increasing.”

Georgia’s graduation rate bottomed out at 57 percent in 1999, when the national average hovered at 71 percent. The national graduation rate rose 1 percent between 2002 and 2006, to 73 percent, and the 16 SREB states picked up an average of 3 percentage points to 72 percent.

“It’s been impressive growth [in the nation],” said Matthew A. Lenard, an SREB research associate, who co-authored the report with Lord.

Southern states Average Freshman Graduation Rate 2006

Source: National Center for Education Statistics/SREB

*South Carolina’s 2006 rate is based on estimated high school gradutes from NCES, projections of Education Statistics to 2017.