Fulton County Schools graduation rates remain steady in 2018

Students arrive for the first day of school this year at Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary in East Point.  BOB ANDRES  /BANDRES@AJC.COM

Credit: Bob Andres

Credit: Bob Andres

Students arrive for the first day of school this year at Hamilton E. Holmes Elementary in East Point. BOB ANDRES /BANDRES@AJC.COM

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Fulton County Schools’ 2018 graduation rate. 

Across the county, graduation rates among high school seniors in Fulton County Schools remained the same this year.

The grad rate for the class of 2018 was 86.8 percent, matching the 2017 rate, according to data released Wednesday from the Georgia Department of Education. In total, 6,708 of 7,731 seniors graduated from Fulton schools in 2018.

Across the state, the graduation rate increased year over year, seeing a small jump from 80.6 percent to 81.6 percent.

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For Fulton County, the school that performed the best overall was Cambridge High School in Milton, which graduated 463 of its 476 seniors for a 97.3 percent graduation rate. Following close behind was Johns Creek High School at 97.1 percent and Milton High School at 96.7 percent.

Cambridge High School also ranked at the top for graduating economically disadvantaged students, at a 97.1 percent rate.

One of  the lowest performing high schools, according to the data, was Independence High School, an alternative school in Roswell. By graduating 73 of its 140 seniors, it had one of the lowest graduation rates in the county, 52.1 percent.

Independence also ranked lowest in the county at graduating African-American students with 52.8 percent; Hispanic students, 42.2 percent; and economically disadvantaged students, 53.3 percent, among schools with trackable data.

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For students with disabilities, Banneker High School in College Park ranked the lowest, graduating just 53.1 percent of seniors. Johns Creek High School graduated the most students with disabilities, 93.8 percent.

The high school with the highest graduation rate for Hispanic students was Langston Hughes in Fairburn, notching a 95.6 percent rate. For African-American students, Riverwood International Charter School had the highest graduation rate at 98.6 percent.

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