DeKalb Schools’ graduation rate increases again

ajc.com

The DeKalb County School District saw its graduation rate rise another percentage point to 75, surpassing the previous year's 74 percent record rate.

The district’s graduation rate has risen 15.5 percentage points since 2013, including 10.5 points between 2013 and 2015.

The DeKalb Early Career Academy graduated all of its 87 seniors for a 100 percent graduation rate, followed closely by Arabia Mountain High School with 99.1 percent, having graduated 316 of its 319 seniors.

The district has seen steady increases in its graduation rate since 2013, with the exception of 2016, when the graduation rate declined 0.6 percentage points. 

Some have been due to changes in the criteria for being counted as a graduate, as well as the state's phasing out of the High School Graduation Test. The state Board of Education in 2011 voted to replace the test with end-of-course exams, which would count as 20 percent of a student's overall class grade. Previously, an average of about 3 percent of the state's high school students each year did not receive diplomas after failing the test five times.