The Troup County school system saw its graduation rate increase to 76.3 percent with the release of the final 2009 Adequate Yearly Progress report.

Over the summer, 18 students took advantage of credit recovery opportunities and retests on portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Test to meet the requirements to earn their high school diploma.

“This is great news,” said Schools Superintendent Edwin Smith. “There is still much work to do, but seeing the graduation rate increase and celebrating with these 18 students and the 711 others who received their diplomas in May is a step in the right direction.”

While the system’s graduation rate falls short of the Georgia average of 78.9 percent, Troup County students are making greater gains with a 7.4 percentage point increase over last year, compared to the state’s gain of 3.5. Over the last five years, Troup County has seen a 13.3 percentage point increase in graduation rate, while the state’s gain is 9.5.

“Ensuring that students reach their goals for high school completion is our top priority,” said Sylvia Hooker, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “Through data-driven classroom, grade level, and content performance analysis and collaboration, our students, teachers, principals, and academic support services worked extremely hard to meet the needs of each student. As a system, we realize that student success is a pre-K through 12 grade effort.”

Also announced in the report is revised AYP status for schools and systems. Three Troup County schools - Callaway High School, Gardner Newman Middle School and Hollis Hand Elementary School - met AYP requirements through summer retests.

AYP is calculated through a formula used to determine if schools are meeting the requirements outlined in the No Child Left Behind law. The formula consists of three parts: test participation, academic performance, and “second indicator,” which measures attendance for elementary and middle schools and graduation rate for high schools.

Ninety-five percent of the 21 traditional Troup County schools earned AYP, up from 90 percent last year. One hundred percent of these schools met test participation as well as academic performance requirements. Ninety-five percent met second indicator requirements. With a graduation rate of 73.7 percent, Troup High School missed the minimum requirement by 1.3 percentage points. However, the school made great gains with a 5.8 percentage point increase over last year, officials said.

“There are many individuals and community partners who support our students and schools, emphasizing the importance of education and high school completion,” Smith said. “Along with the hard work of the students and teachers, their support is reflected in this progress.”

This year a local residential educational facility, Bradfield Center Ault Academy, was included in the Troup County report. This nontraditional school met two of the three categories of AYP, test participation and second indicator requirements.

For school systems to make AYP, all subgroups consisting of a minimum number of students must meet requirements in all three categories. As a system, Troup County did not make AYP, having met all requirements with the exception of academic performance in the subgroup of students with disabilities in English language arts and math.