Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate

Share of the four-year high school cohort that graduated, by school, district, and state and demographic subgroup, 2004-2024.

Source: Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA)
Year coverage: 2004–2024
Updated: annual
Version: 1.0.0
Schema hash: d58fde7781df

Detail levels available

StateDistrictSchool · default

Overview

Four-year high-school graduation rate for Georgia public schools, with official district and state rollups, by demographic subgroup (race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, English proficiency, economic status, and special populations). Reports the graduation rate, the number of graduates, and the cohort size. Published by GOSA for school years 2003-04 through 2023-24. 2011 onward is the federal four-year adjusted-cohort graduation rate (ACGR); 2004-2010 predate Georgia's ACGR adoption and use the state's earlier leaver-based methodology — the two halves are not trend-comparable (see limitations). This is the long historical 4-year series with demographic breakdowns; the sibling ccrpi_graduation_rate topic carries the GaDOE CCRPI release (2012 onward, 4- and 5-year rates with CCRPI target/flag context).

Row grain: One row per year, district_code, school_code, demographic.

Key metric

graduation_rate — Graduation Rate (proportion)

The single headline value most answers want.

JSON schema →Data contract (YAML) →

Variables

Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.

Column	Type	Unit	Range	Null?	Description
`year`Year	integer	—	—	no	Ending (spring) calendar year of the cohort's graduating school year (2024 = the 2023-24 cohort). Parsed from the source's LONG_SCHOOL_YEAR and cross-checked against the filename for 2011-2024; from the filename for 2004-2010 (no year column in those eras). Full description▾ Ending (spring) calendar year of the cohort's graduating school year (2024 = the 2023-24 cohort). Parsed from the source's LONG_SCHOOL_YEAR and cross-checked against the filename for 2011-2024; from the filename for 2004-2010 (no year column in those eras).
`district_code`District Code	string	—	—	yes	GOSA district code (FK to districts dimension): 3-digit zero-padded county/city codes or 7-digit state-charter codes. Code 799 is the state-school virtual district ('State Schools'), published as a district-level aggregate in 2004-2010. NULL on state-level rows. Full description▾ GOSA district code (FK to districts dimension): 3-digit zero-padded county/city codes or 7-digit state-charter codes. Code 799 is the state-school virtual district ('State Schools'), published as a district-level aggregate in 2004-2010. NULL on state-level rows. Joins districts; adds its label columns.
`school_code`School Code	string	—	—	yes	GOSA school code, zero-padded to 4 characters (composite FK to schools dimension with district_code; not globally unique on its own). NULL on district- and state-level rows. Full description▾ GOSA school code, zero-padded to 4 characters (composite FK to schools dimension with district_code; not globally unique on its own). NULL on district- and state-level rows. Joins schools; adds its label columns.
`demographic`Demographic	string	—	—	no	Student subgroup the row reports (race/ethnicity, gender, disability, economic status, special population); 'all' is the total. Full description▾ Demographic subgroup (FK to the global demographics dimension). Race buckets use the combined asian_pacific_islander key (pre-1997 OMB convention) in every year: 2011+ bronze publishes the explicit 'Asian/Pacific Islander' label, and the bare 'Asian' label of 2004-2010 is the same combined bucket — the six race-bucket counts sum exactly to the All Students totals at the state level in every year, so Pacific Islanders are folded in, never published separately. 2004-2017 publish 15 subgroups; active_duty, foster_care, and homeless appear from 2018; english_learners is absent in 2021 only. 'all' is the unfiltered total and overlaps every other value; subgroups are mutually exclusive only within their own category (race, gender, disability, economic, special population). 18 allowed values▾ `active_duty` `all` `asian_pacific_islander` `black` `economically_disadvantaged` `english_learners` `female` `foster_care` `hispanic` `homeless` `male` `migrant` `multiracial` `native_american` `not_economically_disadvantaged` `students_with_disabilities` `students_without_disabilities` `white` Joins demographics; adds its label columns.
`num_graduates`Number Graduates	integer	count	—	yes	Number of students in the subgroup's cohort who graduated with a regular diploma within four years of first entering 9th grade (from 2011 the federal adjusted-cohort numerator; 2004-2010 use the state's earlier leaver-based accounting). Published values are >= 10 from 2011 onward (GOSA's n=10 reporting threshold). 2004-2009 use literal zeros for suppressed cells — a zero in those years may be real or suppressed and the two cannot be distinguished in source. The three non-suppressed 2010 migrant rows are internally inconsistent in bronze (num_graduates = num_cohort yet graduation_rate != 1.0; graduation_rate is the authoritative figure) and are preserved as published. Full description▾ Number of students in the subgroup's cohort who graduated with a regular diploma within four years of first entering 9th grade (from 2011 the federal adjusted-cohort numerator; 2004-2010 use the state's earlier leaver-based accounting). Published values are >= 10 from 2011 onward (GOSA's n=10 reporting threshold). 2004-2009 use literal zeros for suppressed cells — a zero in those years may be real or suppressed and the two cannot be distinguished in source. The three non-suppressed 2010 migrant rows are internally inconsistent in bronze (num_graduates = num_cohort yet graduation_rate != 1.0; graduation_rate is the authoritative figure) and are preserved as published.
`num_cohort`Number Cohort	integer	count	—	yes	Cohort size — the denominator of the graduation rate. From 2011 this is the federal adjusted four-year cohort (first-time 9th-graders four years prior, plus transfers in, minus transfers out); the 2004-2010 denominator is the source's 'Approximate Class Size' (pre-ACGR leaver-based methodology). NULL for ALL rows in 2012-2016 (the source does not publish TOTAL_COUNT in those years; consumers may estimate round(num_graduates / graduation_rate) at their own rounding risk). In 2023-2024 some rows — mostly school-level (295 school / 74 district in 2023, 271 / 68 in 2024) — publish num_cohort while num_graduates and graduation_rate are suppressed (partial suppression). Published values are >= 10 from 2011 onward. 2004-2009 zeros may be real or suppressed (see num_graduates). Full description▾ Cohort size — the denominator of the graduation rate. From 2011 this is the federal adjusted four-year cohort (first-time 9th-graders four years prior, plus transfers in, minus transfers out); the 2004-2010 denominator is the source's 'Approximate Class Size' (pre-ACGR leaver-based methodology). NULL for ALL rows in 2012-2016 (the source does not publish TOTAL_COUNT in those years; consumers may estimate round(num_graduates / graduation_rate) at their own rounding risk). In 2023-2024 some rows — mostly school-level (295 school / 74 district in 2023, 271 / 68 in 2024) — publish num_cohort while num_graduates and graduation_rate are suppressed (partial suppression). Published values are >= 10 from 2011 onward. 2004-2009 zeros may be real or suppressed (see num_graduates).
`graduation_rate`Graduation Rate	number	proportion	—	yes	Share of the four-year cohort that graduated, on a 0-1 scale; 2011+ is the federal ACGR, 2004-2010 a non-comparable older method. Full description▾ Four-year graduation rate as a proportion (0-1 scale): num_graduates divided by num_cohort. From 2011 this is the federal adjusted-cohort rate (ACGR); 2004-2010 use Georgia's earlier leaver-based methodology and are NOT trend-comparable with 2011+ (state rate breaks 0.808 -> 0.675 at the 2010->2011 boundary). The source publishes 0-100 percentages (1-2 decimal places); divided by 100. Reconciles with num_graduates / num_cohort within 0.001 everywhere except the three documented 2010 migrant defect rows. Zeros in 2004-2009 may be real or suppressed (see num_graduates).

Filters

Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.

Parameter	Kind	Allowed values	Notes
`year`	year_exact	any value	—
`year_min`	year_range	any value	—
`year_max`	year_range	any value	—
`detail`	detail	`districtsschoolsstates`	enum-enforced, default: schools
`district_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`school_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`demographic`	foreign_key	18 allowed values▾ `active_duty` `all` `asian_pacific_islander` `black` `economically_disadvantaged` `english_learners` `female` `foster_care` `hispanic` `homeless` `male` `migrant` `multiracial` `native_american` `not_economically_disadvantaged` `students_with_disabilities` `students_without_disabilities` `white`	multi-value, enum-enforced
`district_type`	dimension_attribute	7 allowed values▾ `commission_charter` `resa` `standard` `state_agency` `state_charter` `state_school` `state_special`	multi-value, enum-enforced
`demographic_category`	dimension_attribute	12 allowed values▾ `aggregate` `disability` `economic_status` `esol` `foster_care` `gender` `grade` `homeless_status` `migrant_status` `military` `race` `sped`	multi-value, enum-enforced

Example requests

Run these against the base URL — they return live data.

All rows (first page), schools level

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/graduation_rate_4_year_cohort"

schools data for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/graduation_rate_4_year_cohort?year=2024"

One district (code 601), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/graduation_rate_4_year_cohort?district_code=601&year=2024&detail=districts"

Download 2024 as CSV

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/education/graduation_rate_4_year_cohort?year=2024&format=csv"

Notes & limitations

NULL handling

Suppressed cells (too few students to report) are NULL, never zero.
Zero is a real, reported value.

Limitations

2004-2010 figures predate Georgia's adoption of the federal four-year adjusted-cohort methodology (ACGR, first reported 2011) and use the state's earlier leaver-based rate; the 2010->2011 state rate drop (~81% to ~67%) is a methodology break, not a real decline — do not trend across it. Suppressed cells are NULL (not zero) from 2010 onward, but 2004-2009 sources use literal ZEROS for suppressed cells — a zero rate/count in those years may be real or suppressed and cannot be distinguished; treat very small cohorts in 2004-2009 with caution. num_cohort is NULL for every row in 2012-2016 (the source publishes no denominator in those years). School rows do not always sum to the published district row (49 of ~3,850 district-years publish a district num_graduates below the visible school sum, source-published, e.g. 2016 Whitfield 709 vs 810) — use the official district/state rows for rollups rather than summing school rows. The race axis uses the combined asian_pacific_islander bucket — not comparable row-for-row with split-convention topics without aggregating those topics' asian + pacific_islander rows at query time. State rows have NULL district_code and school_code; district rows have NULL school_code.