State Sees Slight Increase In Graduation Rate

Still, that number indicates more than a quarter of high-schoolers aren’t leaving with a degree after four years.

Historically Georgia has ranked near the bottom when stacked up against other states. In 2012, only the District of Columbia and Oregon graduated fewer students than Georgia; Alaska and New Mexico matched Georgia’s 70 percent rate.  

State Department of Education spokesperson Matt Cardoza, however, said it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

“One state has a certain number of credit hours to get a diploma, where another state has something different,” he said.

This is the fourth year Georgia’s used a new federal measuring standard, known as the adjusted cohort rate. The formula counts the group of students who enter freshman year together and complete high school in four years.

Cardoza said while the formula’s the same for everyone – how each state measures ‘a graduate’ is different.

“In Georgia, we’re one of the only states that has four units of math requirements, four units of science and so on,” he said, “so we have an extremely high bar for every student in the state to get a diploma.”

Cardoza said only Washington, D.C., has the same standards.

How Georgia’s most recent numbers compare to other states remains unknown since states release their graduation numbers at different times. 

This story is part of American Graduate – Let’s make it happen – a public media initiative supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help more kids stay on the path to graduation.