Harris County’s graduation rate up nearly 3 percent to 92.7 in 2016

Harris County improved its graduation rate by 2.8 percentage points, from 89.9 to 92.7, this past year. Harris County principal Todd Stanfill said in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer the improved graduation rate “is a direct result of the continued efforts of the faculty to focus on individualized instruction, various support programs and the use of data to identify areas that require additional efforts.”

Jeff Branham, the school district’s chief information officer, said in the email, “We attribute this achievement to our teachers, administrators, central office staff and a highly supportive population in Harris County.

The GaDOE noted in its news release that the state’s 2016 graduation rate is considered preliminary because of incomplete data from a few school districts.

Asked why the department announced the state’s 2016 graduation with incomplete data, GaDOE spokesman Matt Cardoza told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “Because that’s the date we said we would release and we need to keep commitments. If we received a lot of incomplete data from districts we probably would have been forced to delay, but, since there weren’t many schools, we wanted to honor the date we originally told districts.”

Reporting for the nation’s graduation rate is a year behind the state and local data. The nation’s graduation rate of 83 percent is at a record high, although that figure, released last month, is for 2015 graduates; the figures the state released Tuesday are for 2016 graduates.

Here’s how Georgia’s other second-tier cities performed compared to last year: Bibb County (Macon) increased 0.4 percentage points, from 71.2 percent to 71.6 percent; Chatham County (Savannah) increased 1.9 points, from 81.3 to 83.2; Richmond County (Augusta) decreased 0.9 points, from 77.6 to 76.7.

Research demonstrates that making learning environments safe and relevant, better engaging parents and communities in our schools, and helping students with academic needs leads to an increased graduation rate. This continues to be the Harris County School District’s academic focus.”

Harris County superintendent Jimmy Martin said in the email, “We are pleased with our results, but we are not satisfied until every student graduates.”

Those efforts include “dropout recovery programs and prevention strategies to better engage youth in their learning and their future,” Branham said.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Harris County’s graduation rate up nearly 3 percent to 92.7 in 2016."