Governor Perdue Announces Substantial Decrease in High School Dropouts; Graduation Rate Up

ATLANTA - Governor Sonny Perdue spoke to the National Dropout Prevention Conference today and announced the state's graduation coaches helped decrease the number of dropouts in Georgia high schools by at least 2,200 students for the second year in a row. In the 2007-2008 school year, 2,241 fewer students dropped out than in 2006-2007, a 10.6 percent decrease. The number of dropouts in the 06-07 school year was 2,272 lower than the year before, a decrease of 9.7 percent. In total, the number of dropouts in 07-08 was 4,513 students fewer than in 05-06, a decrease of 19.3 percent in just the first two years of graduation coaches serving in Georgia's high schools.

"Our Graduation Coaches are doing outstanding work serving at-risk students, developing individual graduation plans and following through to encourage potential dropouts to stay in school," said Governor Perdue. "Seeing more students graduate and fewer drop out strengthens Georgia's ability to provide an educated workforce and compete in the global markets."

Georgia saw this dramatic decrease in the numbers of dropouts despite continuing increases in attendance figures -- an increase of 18,000 new students added to the state high schools last two years.

Georgia's high school graduation rate of 75.4 percent has steadily risen twelve points from 63.3 percent in the 2002-2003 school year when Governor Perdue first took office.

Last year, Georgia's graduation coaches worked with 33,834 students with poor attendance and 14,082 students who were not on track to graduate. In total, they intervened on behalf of at-risk students 282,400 times. Over 78 percent of seniors who were identified as at-risk and served by coaches graduated from high school last year.

"Reducing Georgia's dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate is our top priority and it's clear we are making great progress," State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said. "This has happened thanks to the hard work of our graduation coaches, counselors, teachers, students and parents. There is work left to be done, but I know with this type of collaboration we will get the job done."

There are currently 398 coaches working in Georgia high schools. Governor Perdue first funded high school graduation coaches in the FY07 budget. Based on the success of the High School Graduation Coach program, Governor Perdue extended the program to Middle Schools across the state at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. There are currently 242 graduation coaches working in middle schools

Under Governor Perdue's vision, the graduation coach's primary responsibility is to identify and work with at-risk students and help them get back on the graduation track before they drop out. The coach also identifies, recruits and engages concerned organizations and agencies to serve in a variety of support roles in their respective communities.

The graduation rate for the past six school years are as follows: 02/03, 63.3 percent; 03/04, 65.4 percent; 04/05, 69.4 percent; 05/06, 70.8 percent; 06/07, 72.3 percent; and 07/08, 75.4 percent.

Dropout statistics for the past six school years are as follows: 02/03, 24,810 students; 03/04, 23,683 students; 04/05, 24,280 students; 05/06, 23,372 students; 06/07, 21,100 students; and 07/08, 18,859 students.

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