Franklin County High School Makes History With Highest Graduation Rate Ever

The 2015 Graduation rates are out and both Franklin and Hart Counties have made huge improvements – breaking the 90-percentile mark.

In Franklin County, of the 217 students in the 2015 senior class, 197 graduated or 91.6% – that’s the highest graduation rate in the history of Franklin County High School and up from 86% in 2014.

Since she started in 2007 as Franklin County’s School Superintendent, Dr. Ruth Odell has had as her goal to break the 90-percentile mark in the graduation rate.

Now, just before she retires, that goal has been achieved.

Dr. O’Dell said it’s an exciting time for the school system, students and the community.

“I’m real excited,” O’Dell said. “In 2007 when I started, our graduation rate was just 55%. Actually, the way the graduation rate is calculated now is more stringent. It’s the exact number of students who started in the 9th grade and stayed and are still there graduating in the 12th. It’s a cohort rate. Yes, we’re very excited, needless to say.”

Dr. O’Dell credits the increase with a change in attitude on the part of teachers and staff.

“We really have worked to become a professional learning community. That’s the idea that we’re always working together around data about students. We’re always working to figure out what a single child might need or what an entire class might need. It’s a constant cycle of improvement,” O’Dell said.

And it’s not only teachers and staff working towards improvement, it is a change in the attitudes of the students themselves.

But Dr. O’Dell says students are also more focused on getting that diploma.

“A lot of the graduation rate has to do with culture and believing,” O’Dell explained. “One of the counselors at the high school told me it’s like a different world there now. The students are coming to school expecting to graduate. They believe that they can do that and that they will. They’re more concerned about being in the right classes and that they have the right classes and that they’re doing their career pathway the way they’re supposed to.”

Dr. O’Dell also credits the change in attitude on the part of the Community as a whole in Franklin County with student success.

“I don’t think this would be happening without the help of our teachers and our community,” she said. “I think our community has recognized, in greater numbers, the importance of a high diploma.”

Dr. O’Dell said attention is now turning to helping those who do get that high school diploma go on to a successful post secondary education.