Indicators

In March 2008, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was amended to include a requirement for all states and local education agencies receiving Title I funds to begin calculating and publicly reporting a comparable high school graduation rate using a new four-year adjusted cohort rate calculation method. This rate allows for a uniform method of comparing graduation rates among states. The four-year high school graduation rate defines the cohort when the student first becomes a freshman, and the rate is calculated using the number of students who graduate within four years.

Four-year Cohort Graduation Rate

# of cohort members who earn a regular high school diploma
(# of starting cohort members + students who transfer in
- students who transfer out, emigrate, or die)

Completers are those students who exit from high school with some credential. Some exit with regular diplomas and others exit with either a Special Education Diploma or a High School Certificate:

Graduates are a special group of completers. Graduates are students who have met course and assessment criteria. Graduates have completed a high-school program of study with a minimum of 23 units and have passed the required state assessment as referenced in State Board Rule 160-3-1-.07 Testing Programs - Student Assessment .  Graduates may earn one of several kinds of endorsements:

• High School Diploma: Students receiving a high school diploma have satisfied attendance requirements, unit requirements, and the state assessment requirements as referenced in State Board Rule 160-3-1-.07 . 
• High School Certificate. Students receiving a high school certificate have not completed all of the criteria for diploma or have not passed the state assessment requirements as referenced in State Board Rule 160-3-1-.07 , but have earned 23 units.

Other Completers include those students who exit high school with a Special Education Diploma.

• Special Education Diplomas: Students receiving a Special Education Diploma are students with disabilities assigned to a special education program who have not met the state assessment requirements or who have not completed all of the requirements for a high school diploma, but who have nevertheless completed their Individualized Education Program (IEP).

The National Center for Education Statistics requires that states report a 7-12 grade dropout rate and a 9-12 grade dropout rate. Students are reported as dropouts if they leave school for one of the following reasons: Marriage, Expelled, Financial Hardship/Job, Incarcerated/Under Jurisdiction of Juvenile or Criminal Justice Authority, Low Grades/School Failure, Military, Adult Education/Postsecondary, Pregnant/Parent, Removed for Lack of Attendance, Serious Illness/Accident, and Unknown. The dropout rate calculation is the number of students with a withdrawal code corresponding to a dropout divided by the number of students that attended the school. The number of students that attended the school is based on any student reported in the Student Record, excluding no-shows.

HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) Scholarship eligibility data is reported by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC). The Report Card includes the number and percent of students eligible for the HOPE scholarship at the school, system, and state levels.

Public and private high schools calculated summary grade point averages (GPA) for graduating seniors to transmit a list of HOPE scholarship eligible students to the Georgia Student Finance Commission each February (preliminary list) and June (final list). In making these calculations, local schools counted only the highest grades for the required number of course credits in the areas of English, mathematics, science, social studies and foreign language (for college preparatory only). Schools weighted grades as they deemed appropriate. Further, they could use a numeric (0-100) or a 4.0 scale to report (A=4, B=3, etc.) grades. If a student received a college preparatory diploma, the scholarship eligibility standard was 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or 80 on a numeric scale. If the student received a diploma type that was not college preparatory, the scholarship eligibility standard was 3.2 on a 4.0 scale or 85 on a numeric scale.

Schools are no longer required to calculate grade point averages but will transmit transcript and grading scale data for all seniors to the GSFC. As required by law, all high school attempted grades must be reported, whether or not credit was earned. GSFC calculates student eligibility for the HOPE scholarship using un-weighted grades and will apply a 3.0 scholarship eligibility standard for college preparatory students and a 3.2 scholarship eligibility standard for students receiving other diploma types, both on a true 4.0 scale (no grades regardless of weighting will exceed 4.0). Earned Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course grades will be un-weighted by GSFC; if weighted by the local school, uniform weights will be added by the GSFC to these courses before GSFC calculates each student's grade point average. Note that only courses for which a grade was earned will be counted in the GPA calculation; thus, "incomplete" or "withdrawn" courses will not be considered.

Eligible students may use the HOPE scholarship to attend a postsecondary school in Georgia. The HOPE scholarship program is funded by the Georgia Lottery for Education. The percentage of graduates is computed using the number of reported eligible-for-HOPE high school graduates divided by the number of total high school graduates. For more information, please review a frequently asked question fact sheet regarding HOPE Scholarship changes .

A retained student is one who is reported in the October FTE count as being in the same grade for a given school year as he/she had been in the previous school year. The report shows numbers for each race/ethnicity category and for male/female. The percent is based on the disaggregation group.

• Diplomas with College Prep. Endorsements: A College Preparatory program of study is a program requiring 22 units of coursework that includes a specified quantity of mathematics and foreign language units.
• Diplomas with Vocational Endorsements: A Vocational or Career-Preparatory program of study is a program requiring 22 units of coursework that includes a specified quantity of Technology or Career-Preparatory units.