DeKalb County, Georgia, is a suburb of Atlanta that has a large black community with diverse economic situations. But this past May, it was revealed that the graduation rate for 2014 could only be called disgraceful. Of the 5,594 members of the class of 2014, a shocking 1,456 seniors did not graduate. These numbers mean that 24 percent of high school seniors in DeKalb County received certificates of attendance, not high school diplomas. The number of non-graduates actually increased from 2013 when 1,194 seniors did not graduate.
It would seem that in 2013 initiatives would have been put in place to address this poor graduation rate since the community was outraged. Dr. Melvin Johnson, school board chairman, is quoted as saying to local media, “We are always bothered when students don’t graduate for whatever reason … and it’s not always academics. Some of it is economic factors, mobility, and so on. We should graduate these students whatever the reason is … We should address them. Perhaps, if they had taken summer school in the 11th grade, they would graduate on time.”
These are uninspiring words considering that in the DeKalb school district of 25 high schools, anywhere from 13 percent to 87 percent of the senior class did not graduate. Only two high schools, DeKalb Early College Academy with 37 seniors and DeKalb School of the Arts with 67 seniors, graduated their entire senior class.
