Recognition

November 7, 2016 – This year during Attendance Awareness Month, the Georgia Department of Education worked to identify the elementary, middle, and high schools that have made the greatest progress in improving student attendance. Mitchell County High School was recognized as one of these schools.  “Reducing chronic absenteeism has a marked impact on students’ ability to learn, achieve, and grow,”   Superintendent Woods said. “The schools being recognized today are doing an excellent job improving their school climate, increasing student attendance, and working with their communities to eliminate barriers to getting to school. This is great news for students, and these schools and communities should be commended.”  The following schools had the largest percentage decline in the number of students missing 15 or more days of school over the past two school years, and also had a School Climate Star Rating of 4 or 5:

 

1. Atkinson County High School (Atkinson County)

2. Mitchell County High School (Mitchell County)

3. Gordon Lee High School (Chickamauga City)

 

School attendance is essential to academic success, but too often students, parents, and schools don’t realize how quickly absences – excused or unexcused – can add up to academic trouble. For eighth graders in Georgia who miss less than six days of school, the graduation rate is 80 percent or higher. Those who miss 15 or more days have a substantially lower graduation rate of 38 percent.