• Newsweek’s 2008 list of America’s Best High Schools named Marietta High School (MHS) one of the best high schools in the nation, ranking it among the Top 5% (562 out of the Top 1300) of all high schools in America for the third year in a row.

• Marietta Students Keep Pace, Post Gains on New State Graduation Test
  Marietta High School students posted gains on the 2008 Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) by achieving higher scaled scores in three subject areas tested— English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics, and Social Studies.

• For the fifth consecutive year, Unit GA-20021 at Marietta High School earned the Air Force Junior ROTC (JROTC) Distinguished Unit Award. In addition to garnering the Distinguished Unit Award, MHS Air Force JROTC instructors Senior Master Sergeant Noli Ewing and Lt. Col. James T. Wilson were once again named Outstanding Instructors of the Year for School Year 2007-2008.

• For the third consecutive year, Unit GA-20021 at Marietta High School garnered the Unit of Excellence Award at the Summer Cadet Officer Leadership School at Mercer University.

• In 2008, MCS earned six Awards for Excellence in School Nutrition from the Georgia School Nutrition Association (GSNA) at the 2008 Annual GSNA Conference in Savannah, Georgia. Among the most important awards earned by the school district are the School District of Excellence in Child Nutrition Award-presented by the National Association of School Nutrition (NASN) to only seven school systems statewide; and the GSNA President's Award for Achievement-presented to only one school system for the best school nutrition program statewide.

• Marietta City Schools’ 2008 composite ACT score (21.1) outpaced the state (20.6) and was on par with the national (21.1) average. Compared to the class of 2007, Marietta High School students this year outpaced the state with higher average scores in English (20.4), Math (21.8), and Reading (21.3), and dipped 0.1 point below the state in Science (20.2). More»

• The Board of Education of the City of Marietta is officially a 2007 Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) - School Board of Distinction. Over the last five years, from 2002 to 2007 only 58 districts have achieved this distinction. In addition, The Center for Digital Education and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) named the Board of Education of the City of Marietta among the Top Tech-Savvy School Boards and winners of the 2007 Digital School Boards Survey for small, medium and large school districts. Marietta City Schools tied for 6th place (up from 10th place in 2006) in districts with 2,501 – 15,000 students.

• MCS teacher named 2008 Georgia Teacher of the Year.

• The Georgia Department of Education’s Division for Exceptional Students and the Georgia Council for Administrators of Special Education (GCASE) recognized Marietta City Schools (MCS) as a leader in the state of Georgia for outstanding efforts to improve the performance of students with disabilities:

  • by meeting state target for reducing the number of students who drop out of school,
  • by meeting state target for graduates with regular education diplomas,
  • by meeting state target for educating young children in the least restrictive environment, and
  • by transitioning students to their desired postsecondary outcomes.
    
    
• The Governor's Office of Student Achievement awarded three Marietta City elementary schools state awards for student achievement and academic improvement. A.L. Burruss and West Side are two of only 26 elementary schools statewide earning Platinum level status for greatest gains in academic improvement, and the Marietta Center for Advanced Academics is one of 27 elementary schools across Georgia to earn Gold status for highest performance in student achievement.
  
  
• Seven Marietta City schools earned recognition as 2007-2008 “Title I Distinguished Schools”. Six of the seven MCS elementary schools achieving "2007-2008 Title I Distinguished Schools" status, namely A.L. Burruss, Dunleith, Hickory Hills, Lockheed, West Side and Park Street Elementary—have made AYP for four or more consecutive years. The seventh, Marietta Middle School has met standards for the third consecutive year and is in its first year as a “Title I Distinguished School.”

• In June 2008, Marietta City Schools (MCS) became one of Georgia’s first Charter School Systems.

• MCS is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School district. On April 23, 2008, the school district became only the second IB World School district in Georgia authorized to offer the IB Middle Years Program (MYP) for grades 6-10. With the addition of the IB Middle Years Program to the IB Primary Years Program (PYP) offering at Sawyer Road Elementary and the long-standing IB Diploma Program (DP) at Marietta High School, MCS is one of the very few school systems nationwide able to provide the full IB (K-12) continuum.

• Marietta City Schools provides all teachers with laptop computers. Teachers also use computers and other interactive technology tools in many of our classrooms from elementary to high school, sometimes on a daily basis, across all subjects and grades - in the preparation, delivery, and assessment of curriculum and instruction.

• Through the CyberSmart! Curriculum, students in grades K-8 learn about Internet safety, Cyber Citizenship, Computer Ethics, and netiquette. Our sixth and seventh grade students now have 1:1 computing access in at least one class per day, and across the district students rely on the use of classroom technology (interactive whiteboards, computers, printers, and other digital media) for learning.

• Fall 2008 continues the roll-up implementation of the eighth grade science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program and the fully authorized International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP).

• The district’s school choice initiative - Choice Academies program directly supports the district’s vision to be “…the school system of choice for families.”

• Marietta Reads!, the Marietta City Schools citywide effort to foster reading and literacy in the community, successfully helped Marietta ’s 2006 selection as an All-America City, because it helped the city demonstrate a program to benefit children and illustrate how the program has increased student test scores and book circulation.

High School Graduation Rate

• 13.7% Graduation rate increase for all students
  • Specifics: 63.1% in 2002-2003 to 77.8% in 2007-2008
    
• 23.8% Graduation rate increase for Black Students
  • Specifics: 51.3% in 2002-2003 to 75.1% in 2007-2008
    
• 11.8% Graduation rate increase for Hispanic students
  • Specifics: 48.9% in 2002-2003 to 60.7% in 2007-2008

Parent-teacher Conference Attendance

• Fall 2008: 91% attendance, Parent-teacher conferences (K-8)

Student Demographics

Asian	2.38%
American Indian	0.04%
Hispanic	29.00%
African-American	43.75%
White	19.43%
Multi	5.40%

Employees

• 1268, including 747 certified personnel (of which 645 are teachers)
• 99.3% Highly Qualified teachers (NCLB)