Three summer school graduates increased Mt. Zion High School’s graduation rate to 61 percent, enough for the school to meet the state’s goal and make adequate yearly progress.

“With a small school, just a few kids makes a big difference,” Principal Tracey Barrow said.

Barrow said to calculate the graduation rate for AYP purposes, the last three years’ graduations are averaged. Last year that averaged rate had to be at least 65 percent to make AYP. Mt. Zion’s average was 65.2 percent, allowing the school to squeak by, she said.

Making AYP is a relief because it gives the school some breathing room this year when the graduation rate requirement goes up to 70 percent, Barrow said.

“It takes a big load off you,” she said. If a school doesn’t make AYP for two consecutive years, it falls into the Needs Improvement designation “and you have to do a lot more. ... You have to revise your plan and come up with a way to improve (the problem area).”

In order to make a 70 percent average graduation rate, Mt. Zion will have to graduate at least 81 percent of its seniors this year. To graduate, students have to pass all the required courses and also pass a graduation test given at the end of their junior year. If they don’t pass a portion of the test, the students can retake that portion of the tests during their senior year.

“What really hurts us is the kids that haven’t passed one portion of the graduation test,” she said, adding that science and social studies are the biggest problems for the students in Mt. Zion as well as the rest of the state.

To try to remedy that, the school has started an after-school tutoring session for students.

“A lot of the seniors will not have a science class because you’re only required to have three science classes,” she said.

The tutoring sessions, offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, serve as a refresher course, reminding students of the facts they may have forgotten and strengthening their understanding of the subject overall, she said.

The school is also trying to get seniors who failed a portion of the test to retake early so they can have multiple chances to pass the test before the school year ends, Barrow said. The school offers several times during the year. This year, the school had the test in September. The school will offer the tests again Oct. 29 and will continue to offer it for those who need to retake, she said.

Another tactic the school is trying is a study skills class offered during the school day for students who could benefit.

“We put those seniors in there that failed a portion of the graduation test,” she said. “We can work with them and try to get them to pass the graduation test.”

The school also purchased software for students to participate in U.S.A. test preparation, an online tutoring service geared for the high school graduation test.