The Jackson County School System is appealing a state report saying one of its schools didn't meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
Jackson County Comprehensive High School was one of 37 high schools in Georgia that didn't meet AYP because it didn't achieve the required graduation rate.
And because one school failed to meet AYP, the entire Jackson County School System was labeled as failing to meet AYP.
The Georgia Department of Education says JCCHS's graduation rate was 67.4 percent in 2008, according to a report released on Friday. High schools need a graduation rate of at least 70 percent to keep off the AYP list.
Shannon Adams, superintendent of the Jackson County School System said Friday that an appeal of the AYP status was submitted two weeks ago.
Adams said the appeal centers on the fact that JCCHS's graduation rate includes students from East Jackson Comprehensive High School, which opened in August 2007.
The Georgia DOE grouped the graduation rate from the two county high schools for JCCHS's AYP report, Adams said. Officially, EJCHS won't have a graduation rate accounted for its AYP status until the fourth year after its opening.
"We have students that received the vast majority of their education at Jackson County Comprehensive High School," Adams said. "Those students then moved to East Jackson (and) East Jackson has no graduation rate until its fourth year of existence."
Adams said when the graduation rate for the two county high schools is done correctly, JCCHS will meet AYP. He said school officials are confident the state will approve the appeal.
The Jackson County School System estimates that JCCHS's graduation rate was 74 percent in 2008. Statewide, the graduation rate was 74.2 percent.
AYP is a measure of year-to-year student achievement on statewide assessments, such as the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) for elementary and middle schools, and the Georgia High School Graduation Test for high schools.
The AYP report is released as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. AYP measures schools in three areas: academic performance, test participation and a 'second indicator,' such as graduation rates or attendance.
The latest AYP report is the first time JCCHS has failed to meet AYP. Schools that don't meet AYP for two or more consecutive years are labeled as "Needs Improvement" and face potential consequences.
The last time a county school didn't meet AYP was 2005, when East Jackson Middle School had students with disabilities that failed math standards. Maysville Elementary School didn't meet AYP in 2004 for failing to meet attendance standards.
No county school has been labeled as "Needs Improvement" since the implementation of the AYP report, according to the state department of education.
The Jefferson and Commerce city schools were two of 34 systems in Georgia in 2008 that had 100 percent of their schools meet AYP.
State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said in a statement that about 69 percent of all schools in Georgia made AYP.
This fall, the AYP report will be updated when final graduation rates are calculated to include summer graduates. The state will also account for summer CRCT retest results of third, fifth and eighth grade students.
