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2014 Graduation Rates

Posted on November 3, 2014 | Comments Off on 2014 Graduation Rates

WHAT IS A COHORT GRADUATION RATE?
A cohort graduation rate follows the students who are first-time high school students in a particular year and determines the percentage that graduate within a given time frame, such as four years.
WHAT IS THE FOUR-YEAR COHORT GRADUATION RATE?
The four-year cohort graduation rate is the percentage of students in a cohort, adjusted for transfers into and out of the school, district, or state, that graduate with a standard diploma within four years of entering high school.
State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge is celebrating a rise of less than 1% in Georgia’s public high school four-year cohort graduation rate. Michael Thurmond, DeKalb Superintendent, predicted a few weeks ago at the State of System Address that DeKalb Schools would “see the greatest graduation rate improvement of any of the 181 school districts.”  DeKalb Schools 2014 graduation rate is 62.3%, which is an increase of 3.4%.  Our increase did not come out on top as predicted.  DeKalb’s increase ranks 64th in the state and the overall graduation rate ranks 167th.
Below are the graduation rates for all DeKalb High Schools

Graduation Rates Graduation Class Size Total Graduated
SCHOOL NAME 2012 2013 2014 2014 2014
All Schools 57% 59% 62% 7250 4514
Arabia Mountain 90% 97% 98% 302 297
Cedar Grove 64% 64% 73% 233 169
Chamblee Charter 82% 83% 84% 334 279
Clarkston 44% 53% 52% 378 196
Columbia 60% 60% 62% 295 182
Cross Keys 51% 42% 47% 322 152
DeKalb Alternative School 2% 1% 4% 71 3
Dekalb Early College Academy 95% 97% 100% 37 37
DeKalb School of the Arts 92% 98% 100% 67 67
Destiny Achievers Academy 32% 37% 58% 36 21
Druid Hills 69% 68% 76% 324 246
Dunwoody 77% 74% 79% 360 283
Elizabeth Andrews 14% 11% 9% 270 25
Gateway to College Academy 7% 3% 10% 48 5
Lakeside 65% 72% 77% 416 322
Lithonia 46% 57% 67% 302 203
Martin Luther King, Jr. 55% 71% 65% 442 289
McNair 47% 46% 52% 206 108
Miller Grove 56% 60% 60% 380 226
Redan 78% 73% 80% 278 222
Southwest DeKalb 68% 68% 66% 349 231
Stephenson 70% 62% 72% 409 294
Stone Mountain 65% 60% 59% 303 180
Towers 47% 44% 54% 294 158
Tucker High School 78% 63% 69% 465 319

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What is the Role of the School System?

Posted on October 28, 2014 | 1 comment

Wayne Washington reported in the AJC that Ivy Prep Academy At Kirkwood will spend $14 million to buy the strip mall in which it is located. It’s raising some questions, as Washington reports,

It’s one solution to the most vexing problem charters face — finding a permanent facility. But the deal means the school, Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood, must collect rent, manage and repair property and face the prospect, if its three other tenants move, of losing the rental income used to help pay off $14 million in bonds used to purchase the property.

School systems spend a great deal of time and money on items outside of education.

  • Every day DeKalb Schools serves 26,000 breakfasts and 4,600 after school snacks.
  • Whitefoord Elementary, in APS, houses Whitefoord Family Medical Center providing comprehensive family primary health care.
  • The west wing of New Birth church is home to the Leadership Prep Academy where DeKalb Schools pays $10,000/month for rent.

What is the role of the school system? The question is, “Should these schools be real estate developers?” asked state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. As Washington reports,

“The deal allowed Ivy Prep, in operation since 2011, to spend $11.2 million to purchase the strip mall on Memorial Drive where it was once one of four tenants along with a Pizza Hut, a LIV Fitness center and the Kirkwood Family Medicine clinic. The school building had been the site for another charter school that failed.
Those tenants will now pay about $21,000 a month in rent to Ivy Prep, which itself was paying $31,250 per month before buying the strip mall.”

Continue reading Wayne Washington’s article in the AJC here >>

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