More students are graduating from Bibb schools. Here’s why it’s on an upward trend

Central High School student A’Yana Burney was not expected to graduate.

“Last year ... I struggled the most,” she said, adding that she was told as a junior she did not have enough credits to join her class of 2019. “I honestly thought I wasn’t going to make it to my 12th grade year.”

Principal Emanuel Frazier helped her enroll in credit recovery programs and, by August, she earned enough credits to be considered a senior.

“The hardest thing for me was just not giving up,” said Burney, who expects to be studying engineering at Benedict College in South Carolina this time next year. “A lot of my teachers motivated me. They helped me get to where I am now.”

Bibb County’s graduation rate in 2018 was 78.5, up from 77.1 last year, according to data recently released by the Georgia Department of Education.

That’s the highest graduation rate on record since the state started using the adjusted cohort calculation, now required by federal law, in 2012. It is the fourth straight year the district has reported an increase.

The state’s graduation rate also is at an all-time high with 81.6 percent of students earning diplomas. That is up 1 percentage point from last year.

Bibb County schools Superintendent Curtis Jones attributed the uptick to a number of efforts including principals shifting their focus from improving classes as a group to honing in on individual students.

“Once you get up to around 70-80 percent (graduation rate), you have to stop really looking at whole class,” Jones said. “Instead of getting an increase of 4 out of 10, where you’re trying to focus on the whole group … now you’re trying to find one or two more, so you can get 8 out of 10.”

Central, Northeast and Rutland high schools, all of which had graduation rates of more than 80 percent, were most successful in this and in credit recovery efforts, Jones said.

Central topped the district at 83.6 percent compared to 79.9 percent in 2017. Westside ranked the lowest with only 71.7 students graduating this year, down from 74.8 in 2017.

Jones, superintendent since 2013, set a district goal to attain a graduation rate of 80 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2025.

In addition to federal grants designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared for a post-secondary education, Jones touted the dual enrollment programs that make it possible for students to earn college credit while in high school.

The mindset of the district has changed, Jones said, and faculty “has been more supportive of this idea that we’re going to focus on the graduation rates.”

Banners advertising future graduating classes hang over the heads of Rutland Middle School students as a daily reminder.

“It starts them thinking about being graduates sooner,” Jones said. “A lot of times, when you’re leaving elementary school or middle school, you might be promoted, but you haven’t had to earn credit.”

There is still plenty of room for improvement.

About 24 percent of Bibb students in grades 3-8 are able to read at or above their grade level, according to results from the Georgia Milestones test published by the Georgia Department of Education in July.

Student attendance and behavior also are among improvements for which the district continues to strive, Jones said.

Rutland High School attendance has improved since it began offering exam exemptions for satisfactory attendance, he said. The “Strive for Five” initiative, implemented three years ago by the state but continued in Bibb County, rewards students who have a perfect attendance record for the first 30 days of school.

The district will start looking at “big data” to improve both truancy and behavior, Jones said.

The student information system tracks students disciplinary issues, absences, grades and state test scores for each student from the third grade through the senior year. It is expected to be operating in full by November or December.

Jones said profiles for both successful students and those who dropped out hopefully will help to more quickly identify students who are at risk.

“You just don’t become an at-risk student overnight,” Jones said. “It happens over a period of time.”

Jones is optimistic that the district is on track have an 80 percent graduation rate by 2020.

“We’re happy but, again, not satisfied,” he said.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 3:49 PM with the headline "More students are graduating from Bibb schools. Here’s why it’s on an upward trend."