New formula generates lower graduation rates

Using a new formula, graduation rates for area schools were placed downward in revised figures released by the Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday.

That’s especially evident at Jackson County Comprehensive High School where the graduation rate had risen from 69 percent in 2008 to 85.3 percent in 2011, based on the old rate.

But under the new “four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate,” JCCHS’s graduation rate for 2011 now stands at 77.78 percent.

Last school year marked the first, official graduation rate for East Jackson Comprehensive High School, which opened in 2007. Under the old formula, that school’s graduation rate was 81.9 percent, but the new calculation places that figure at 71.0 percent.

Jefferson and Commerce high schools both saw relatively little change in their revised 2011 graduation rates, compared to some schools in Georgia.

Commerce High School’s graduation rate fell from 87 percent under the old formula to 85.58 percent under the new calculation for 2011, while Jefferson High School’s graduation rate dropped from 92.2 percent to 90.11 percent. Overall, JHS remains to have one of the best graduation rates in Georgia.

For the full story, see the April 11 issue of The Jackson Herald.