Walton and Harrison high schools in Cobb County led the school system in graduation rates, with 94.1 percent walking away with diplomas.

Come to myajc.com to begin following the school-by-school comparison as we sift the numbers that were released Monday morning.

It was a very good year for Georgia overall. The state’s high school students graduated at a significantly higher rate than their predecessors in 2015, producing a stunning increase in the state’s graduation rate, though tens of thousands are still failing to earn a diploma.

Nearly four out of five of the freshmen of 2011 graduated last spring, the Georgia Department of Education reported Monday.

The 78.7 percent graduation rate is 6.2 percentage points higher than the rate for the class of 2014. That is a large increase, considering that the 2014 rate was less than a fraction of a percentage point higher than the year before.

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HBCUs nationally will get $438 million, according to the UNCF, previously known as the United Negro College Fund. Georgia has 10 historically Black colleges and universities. (Daniel Varnado for the AJC)

Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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