School District Sees Graduation Rate Increase

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More high school students graduated from the Cherokee County School District in 2014.

That’s according to figures released on Thursday by the system that show its four-year graduation rate for the class of 2014 rose to 82 percent from 78 percent in 2013.

The latest numbers make the school the district the second-highest ranked metro Atlanta county school system, according to data released by the Georgia Department of Education.

This rate also exceeds the state four-year rate of 72 percent, the district said.

In addition to Cherokee’s four-year graduation rate increasing by four points, every school district high school’s rate remained steady or increased, with Cherokee High School steady at 72 percent; Creekview High School increasing from 87 percent to 89 percent; Etowah High School steady at 83 percent; River Ridge High School increasing from 84 percent to 91 percent; Sequoyah High School increasing from 77 percent to 87 percent and Woodstock High School increasing from 80 percent to 81 percent.

Cherokee school district leaders say the increase can be attributed to not only its continuation of the “successful strategies” developed by the district over the past 16 years to ensure students complete high school and is prepared for college, but also to initiatives to make sure students graduate on time.

These improvements began with Superintendent Dr. Frank Petruzielo’s appointment of a district-wide graduation coach, who is based primarily at Cherokee High, the school with the greatest population of at-risk students; and continued with: sharing of best practices among high school principals and counselors to improve intervention and graduation data tracking practices; increased offering of online credit recovery courses and pursuing grants to fund scholarships for these courses; enhanced training for school staff on State reporting requirements; targeting graduation rate as a component of School Improvement Plans and Innovation Zone initiatives; and the development of a successful pilot program at Cherokee — CHOICES — to provide tutoring, mentoring and other additional services to aid special education students in earning regular education diplomas.

This is the fourth year the Georgia Department of Education has used a more challenging adjusted cohort formula to calculate graduation rates in the state. The cohort begins when a student is a freshman; the previous formula defined the cohort upon graduation and included students who took more than four years to graduate from high school.

“While we are enthusiastic about the increased graduation rate, we remain committed to supporting every student who is not included in this total (and) it’s important to note that the inverse of these rates is not a dropout rate,” Petruzielo added. “The students not counted by the state’s formula in the four-year rate include many of our most challenged, such as those who take longer than four years and one semester to graduate due to serious illness or the need to work to support their family, those who choose to pursue a GED and those who earn a Special Education diploma.”

The superintendent went on to say the district also supports those non-traditional students by providing them with a choice to help them reach the goal of graduation through options such as:

• ACE Academy, the district’s alternative day middle school/high school program;
• Polaris Evening Program, its evening high school program;
• C3 Academy, its expanded online middle school/high school program;
• Summer school initial credit and credit recovery courses; and
• the expansion of the pilot CHOICES program at Cherokee High, which now is serving twice as many students this school year as last year.

“Graduation is the culmination of many years of hard work by not only students, but also the parents, grandparents, teachers, counselors, administrators, support staff, business partners and volunteers who together prepare every one of our community’s children for future success no matter the path they choose,” Petruzielo said.