Data released by the Georgia Department of Education Tuesday show that cohort graduation rates have increased across the board for Newton County Schools.

The school system released the results from the state, which show that each high school and the district as a whole showed great improvement from 2011 to 2012.

All schools with the exception of Challenge Charter Academy, a public school independent of Newton County School System, outpaced the state’s cohort graduation rate of 69.7 percent.

The four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate defines the "cohort" based on when a student first becomes a freshman.

The rate is calculated using the number of students who graduate within four years and includes adjustments for student transfers.

In contrast, Georgia’s former graduation rate calculation defined the cohort upon graduation, which may have included students who took more than four years to graduate from high school.

"Newton County high schools continue to make academic breakthroughs with this latest result published by the state of Georgia," said NCSS Superintendent Gary Mathews. "The increases in our local graduation rates — both for each individual school and the system as a whole — are simply excellent. 

"As we continue to stress, improvement is what we want to see.  Gains in graduation rates — when combined with the high rankings of our high schools among local school systems on the recently released CCRPI ratings — are something our faculty can point to with pride."

Graduation rates for the schools are listed online at CovNews.com.

Graduation rates for the schools are listed below:

School               2011 Cohort % Graduation Rate               2012 Cohort % Graduation Rate                        Percent Increase

Alcovy High                         64.71                                                    74.24                                         9.53

Eastside High                       70.60                                                     86.87                                        16.27

Newton High                        66.33                                                     83.02                                        16.69

*Challenge Charter Academy 7.14                                                      11.76                                         4.62

NCSS                                  64.14                                                    76.21                                        12.07

State                                  67.4                                                       69.7                                           2.3

*Challenge Charter Academy is an independent public school that is not governed nor administered by the Newton County School System.