Barrow grad rates fall under new formula

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Barrow grad rates fall under new formula

Posted by

Mike Buffington

in Education Archives, Top Stories & Breaking News

Tuesday, April 10. 2012

Comments (18)

Using a new formula, graduation rates for area schools were placed downward in revised figures released by the Georgia Department of Education on Tuesday. In Barrow County, Apalachee High School’s graduation rate fell from 77 percent to 65.48 percent with the new formula. Winder-Barrow High School’s graduation rate dropped from 76.4 percent to 65.43 with the new calculation.

But the new formula — called the cohort rate — is calculated based on the number of students who graduate within four years and includes adjustments for student transfers. The cohort is based on when a student first becomes a freshman and earns a high school diploma.

Basically, the revised 2011 graduation rates released this week don’t show any changes in the percentage of students finishing high school — just a new method in calculating graduation rates.

For the full story, see the April 11 issue of the Barrow Journal.

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#1 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 01:17 PM [Reply]

Dr. Creel should be very proud! We are too worried about the possibility of uniforms, teachers taking furlough days, kids going back to school far too early in the summer and giving them too much time off when school does begin. Glad to know she and the school board have their priorities in line.

#1.1 Judy Marcilliat on 04/11/12 at 08:10 AM [Reply]

Barrow County has some good people who have lived here and raised their children here. Some of these parents are our children and they are working to raise their children correctly. I am not willing to count them out. Remember the good kids and parents please!
Dr. Creel has not been in Barrow long enough to be the problem. Let's get busy and solve the problem(s). Parents, volunteers, mentors, business leaders - volunteer to tutor.

#2 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 01:27 PM [Reply]

Its day care, Barrow. You want them to be able to read and write, too?

#3 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 04:00 PM [Reply]

Election time is just around the corner. You can vote to keep the status quo, or vote for new blood, new ideas, younger set of BOE members who are more familiar with the world as it is today and not the old, old set who wishes things were as they were back in the 50's when they attended school.

How can you expect someone who is so far over the hill, they can barely turn on a computer much less use it, to understand the technology needed in the schools today?

#4 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 07:14 PM [Reply]

That comment about how people in Barrow County are is sad but true.

#5 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 08:23 PM [Reply]

Hello people. Georgia is 49 th in the country for education. This problem isn't only in barrow county!!

#6 Anonymous on 04/10/12 at 08:28 PM [Reply]

no child left behind = EVERY CHILD IS BEHIND!!!!

#7 Fortitude on 04/10/12 at 08:53 PM [Reply]

It is still the parents. Parents who let their children drop out and live off the system instead of disciplining them, they let them do what they want. Why are kids walking from AHS at 1030am towards Hwy81 ?
You can blame Creel and BOE, but if parents dont supervise, set better examples and instill some sort of importance on an education, you get what you have here

#8 Anonymous on 04/11/12 at 06:43 AM [Reply]

All things considering, Barrow's rates didn't drop nowhere near as bad as those systems in the Metro-Atlanta area. Say what you want about Barrow being back woods, country, and good ole boy. Look at the rates of the "hoity toity" city folk, and you'll see their rates dropped 20-30% because of the new calculations.

#8.1 Anonymous on 04/11/12 at 07:51 AM [Reply]

Cherokee County: 82.4 to 74.82 (-7.58)
Clayton: 81.6 to 51.48 (-30.12)
Cobb: 87.3 to 73.35 (-13.95)
Dekalb: 79.2 to 58.65 (-20.55)
Fayette: 94 to 78.23 (-15.77)
Forsyth: 89.7 to 86.27 (-3.43)
Fulton: 85.3 to 67.56 (-17.74)
Gwinnett: 84.7 to 67.56 (-17.14)
Atlanta (APS): 66.3 to 51.96 (-14.34)

What do you have to say about Barrow vs the Metro area?

#9 Sheesh on 04/11/12 at 08:01 AM [Reply]

Interesting that Mike chose to name this article Barrow Rates Drop rather than the full story that State Rates Drop.

But of course he isn't really instigating. Is he?

#10 Anonymous on 04/11/12 at 09:22 AM [Reply]

What people are missing is the terminology. The term graduation rate has changed in its meaning. The key to the article is this sentence:

"Basically, the revised 2011 graduation rates released this week don’t show any changes in the percentage of students finishing high school — just a new method in calculating graduation rates. "

The dropout rate in Barrow County is actually way way way down. I can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but someone showed me the data because I had thought previously that the dropout rate was the reason Apalachee was not making AYP (which it was not the reason).

Essentially, what this new graduation rate formula is telling us is that the number of kids finishing in four years is 65%. What this is not telling us is the number of kids who need to stay an extra year and/or maybe need summer school their senior year. And what is wrong with that anyway? Is it a bad thing that kids are kept from graduating because they failed a class or needed extra help to finish? Or, like I have seen in some instances, a student will drop out and then return back to school. Should the schools not let them in because they need their graduation rates to look better?

This new formula leaves more questions than answers.

#11 Anonymous on 04/11/12 at 07:47 PM [Reply]

Leave it to BC to recalculate to try to make the numbers look better. They do it to try to save their jobs.
For you who are posting for us to look at other counties I only care about our counties rates. We need new leaders in our BOE.

#11.1 what a maroon on 04/12/12 at 07:37 AM [Reply]

It's not just Barrow you moron.

#11.2 Anonymous on 04/12/12 at 12:17 PM [Reply]

The BOE has nothing to do with the number of kids that are graduating, transfering, and dropping out. The teachers, the parents, and the kids themselves are the three things that affect the numbers.

#11.2.1 Fortitude on 04/12/12 at 02:57 PM [Reply]

Thank you. Its nice to see someone understand what the real problem is.

#12 Anonymous on 04/12/12 at 08:30 PM [Reply]

Who hires the principals and the teachers of our schools?
I think when the schools rates are low they should look for new leaders in our schools.

#13 still amazed on 04/17/12 at 07:17 PM [Reply]

Clean Sweep. Creel has about run everyone out of town...now Assistant Superintendent, Claire, is going to the same position in Oconee County. Yeah, right. Creel wrote in an e-mail to principals that Claire was going to Oconee because that is where her grandparents are from. Yeah, just like Creel said Mr. McGhee was retiring for family reasons and then two weeks later is working in Madison County.
Can anyone say "wake up" BOE?

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