Tennessee is on pace to meet a goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the class of 2020, according to the Tennessee State Department of Education.

Central High School’s faculty has one goal in mind for its students, which is for all of them to leave Central with a diploma in their hands. The switch from block to traditional period schedule has been an adjustment for both teachers and students.

“The main reason we’re doing this (period schedule) is because academically, it’s better for the students. It’s better for the students to have an English, math, and science all year long instead of having it for a semester,” principal Finley King commented.

The purpose of the schedule change is to improve academic performances. Central’s graduation rate has decreased due to students not having the sufficient amount of credits to graduate.

“Central’s graduation rate has gone down a little bit, but there were some different factors in it. Students that have some problems end up transferring to the adult high school, so it has caused the number of students graduating from Central to go down a little bit. It does not mean our students are not smart enough or that we are not doing something right – it just indicates that students are taking advantage of the adult high school when they fall behind,” said Mr. King.

The new senior guidance counselor, Mrs. Lindsey Ruggles, knows the importance of students graduating high school. She has been sorting through students’ files making sure that they have the correct amount of credits and have taken all the required classes in order to graduate.

“With this new schedule, there are fewer credits being earned,” Mrs. Ruggles noted.

She hopes that students who have written out college take advantage of the Tennessee Promise and attend those two paid years of community college. Mr. King agrees and said if someone is going to pay for the first two years of college and a student can get more education for free, nobody should turn that down.