Four-year high school graduation rates for Bulloch County and Georgia rose, for the most part, for the class of 2012 compared to the previous graduating class, according to data released Tuesday.
Georgia’s most recent public high school graduation rate rose more than two percentage points over the previous year — from 67.4 percent in 2011 to 69.7 percent in 2012.
“I am very pleased that our graduation rate continues to increase, no matter how it is calculated,” State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge said. "While our graduation rate is still far too low and we have much progress to be made, we are moving in the right direction.”
In Bulloch County, both the school system overall and Statesboro and Southeast Bulloch high schools posted even higher rates. Bulloch County’s four-year graduation rate was 73.3 percent for the class of 2012, up 4 percentage points from 69 percent in 2011.
SEB’s rate climbed from 72.2 percent in 2011 to 79.2 percent in 2012. At Statesboro, the rate improved from 67.5 percent in 2011 to 71.7 percent in 2012.
Portal Middle High School dropped from 69.6 percent in 2011 to 62.3 percent in 2012.
"Our goal is to prepare students to graduate from high school and be ready to succeed in college or a career," Bulloch County Schools Superintendent Charles Wilson, said.  "The reality is that it may take longer than four years for some students, yet our goal for them remains unchanged.”
Georgia changed the way it calculates the graduation rate  beginning with the class of 2011.
This is the second year Georgia has calculated the graduation rate using a new formula — known as the adjusted cohort rate — as required by the U.S. Department of Education. Based on an estimated cohort graduation rate of 58.6 percent in 2009, the rate of students getting diplomas has risen by 11 percentage points since 2009. The cohort rate was applied to 2009’s graduating class to help create a trend line, even though the state used a different calculation then which resulted in higher rates than are reported now.
“The new calculation method gives us an accurate data method from which to compare our efforts to those of the rest of the state and nation,” Wilson said. “What is important is what we do with this information going forward. Our efforts need to be focused on improving student achievement and growth, that will ultimately improve the graduation rate while also accomplishing our mission of college and career readiness.”
The U.S. Department of Education requires all 50 states to use the cohort rate to calculate graduates.