By Mark Woolsey
Both the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools showed healthy increases in their high school graduation rates in 2026. But at least one local school official says there’s more to be done.
Marietta High School, the lone secondary school in the city, boosted its four-year graduation rate to 95.1 percent from 92.2 percent last year. That’s almost a three-percentage-point increase and constitutes a record.
Back in 2019, the high school’s graduation rate stood at 75.7 percent. The school’s walk-cap-and-gown percentage is up almost 20 percentage points since then.
Deputy Superintendent Chuck Gardner says the district is justifiably proud of the numbers, the result of initiatives on several fronts.
“It comes down to where there’s no silver bullet for graduation. It comes down to understanding the needs of every kid and knowing what they need to get them across the stage,” he says.
In terms of how subgroups performed, students classified as English learners showed the biggest subcategory jump year to year, increasing 9.1 percent. Hispanic students were second from the top with a 4.5 percent hike. Students with disabilities posted a 2.7 percent increase, putting them in the third spot.
And school officials say Marietta Schools ranks first in metro Atlanta for its overall jump in graduation rates since 2019 and is fourth among districts statewide.
Cobb Schools are showing some healthy gains as well.
District officials said in a news release that the graduation rate jumped to a record 90.9 percent for 2026. They say that’s the first time Cobb Schools have had a graduation rate higher than 90 percent, and the percentage eclipses the statewide average of 88.5 percent.
The Cobb rate rose from the 89.2 percent posted for the 2025 class, and as a district, it’s up considerably.
For individual schools, Cobb Horizon ranked at the top with 8.2 percent more students earning their diploma than in 2025. Also showing substantial jumps were Campbell, up 5.7 percent; Osborne, up 4.2 percent; Pebblebrook, up 4.1 percent; and Sprayberry, up 3.0 percent.
“A record-breaking graduation rate for the whole county, and moving from good to great at Kell, Sprayberry, and Lassiter in particular, makes all of the work worth it. Couldn’t be happier for families seeing the benefits,” said school board Vice Chair David Chastain in a news release.
Marietta school officials say they’ll be working to close their gap.
“We’re at 95 percent but there’s still 5 percent to go,” said Gardner, Marietta Schools’ deputy superintendent.
“Until we have all of our kids walking across the stage on time we still have work to do,” said Gardner.
“We’re always focusing and thinking about how we can learn from the successes he’s had,” said Gardner.
Gardner says they’ll focus on the graduation rates for students with disabilities. That subgroup is the only one that came in with a graduation rate below 90 percent, at 88.6 percent.
The figures are compiled as part of what’s called the “Four-Year Cohort Graduation Rate,” which serves as the basis for measuring graduation performance in secondary school.
The rate is the number of students who graduate in four years with a regular high school diploma, divided by the number of students who form the graduating cohort.