Graduation rates increased for most Cobb high schools in 2018

Math teacher Amy Shaffer works with her students during the first day of 2018 classes at Carl Harrison High School in Kennesaw. Harrison tied for the highest 2018 graduation rate.

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

Credit: Alyssa Pointer

Math teacher Amy Shaffer works with her students during the first day of 2018 classes at Carl Harrison High School in Kennesaw. Harrison tied for the highest 2018 graduation rate.

There remains a large disparity between first and last when it comes to Cobb County’s 2018 high school graduation rates. Still, most county schools were above the state average.

According to Georgia Department of Education statistics released Wednesday, the graduation rate in Cobb is 85.2 percent, compared to 83.6 percent the year before and 83.8 percent the year before that.

For Marietta High School, the rate was 76.2 percent this year.

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The statewide average was 81.6 percent, an increase from 80.6 in 2017 and 79.4 the year before.

The number the state uses reflects the percentage of students who started and graduated from high school together.

Of the 16 high schools in Cobb, the state’s second-largest school district, nine saw increases from the prior year.

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Harrison and Lassiter high schools tied for first with 95.6 percent.

Osborne High School posted the lowest rate, with 65.9 percent of students graduating. Its rate last year was 67.5 percent.

The high school with last year’s lowest rate — Pebblebrook, at 65.8 percent in 2017 — increased to 72 percent this year.

We broke down how Cobb County and Marietta schools did last year with the recently released Milestones data.

Here are the 2018 graduation rates for the 16 high schools:

• Allatoona, 93 percent (up from 90.1 percent last year)

• Campbell, 83.5 percent (up from 79.2 percent last year)

• Harrison, 95.6 percent (down from 96.3 percent last year)

• Hillgrove, 93.9 percent (up from 91 percent last year)

• Kell, 83.8 percent (down from 87.9 percent last year)

• Kennesaw Mountain, 86.7 percent (up from 82.6 percent last year)

• Lassiter, 95.6 percent (down slightly from 95.7 percent last year)

• McEachern, 84.3 percent (up from 83.3 percent last year)

• North Cobb, 87.9 percent (down from 89.4 percent last year)

• Osborne, 65.6 percent (down from 67.5 percent last year)

• Pebblebrook, 72 percent (up from 65.8 percent last year)

• Pope, 94.1 percent (up from 91.8 percent last year)

• South Cobb, 71.4 percent (down from 72.6 percent last year)

• Sprayberry, 86.2 percent (up from 85.5 percent last year)

• Walton, 95.1 percent (up from 94.5 percent last year)

• Wheeler, 77.3 percent (down from 81.1 percent last year)