Statement of Governor Sonny Perdue Regarding the Release of this Year's Graduation Rate

Governor Sonny Perdue issued the following statement October 1 regarding the release of this year’s final graduation rate, which is up to 78.9 percent:

“During my first year in office in 2003, our graduation rate stood at just over 63 percent. Since then, our efforts have been focused on helping students finish high school. We created the innovative graduation coach program which identifies at-risk students and creates individualized completion plans. Our Work Ready initiative engages local communities by requiring improvement in the graduation rate in order to qualify as a Certified Work Ready Community. As a result, local leaders and businesses are getting more involved in their schools, ensuring their hometown has an educated, talented workforce. Thanks to the hard work of our teachers, graduation coaches, principals and community leaders, we have seen tremendous improvement in the graduation rate of more than 15 percent in just six years. We are now on the cusp of achieving a benchmark goal of an 80 percent graduation rate by next year, and with another year of hard work and dedication I know we can achieve what some believed was impossible.”

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