Some local school systems saw their graduation rates for 2011 decline from 2010, according to state counts released today.

The Alabama Department of Education released state graduation rates for the 2010-11 school year this afternoon.

The state saw a decrease in its overall graduation rate, falling to 72 percent in 2010-11 from 87.65 percent in 2009-10. Local school systems saw similar declines.

• Calhoun County - 78 percent, down from 85.49 percent
  
  
• Anniston - 58 percent, down from 71.43 percent
  
  
• Jacksonville - 86 percent, down from 98.29 percent
  
  
• Oxford - 90 percent, down from 96.51 percent
  
  

Piedmont City Schools, meanwhile, saw the county’s only rise in graduation rate, climbing to 97 percent in 2010-11 from 94.67 percent in 2009-10.

The state this year changed the way it figures the graduation rate, said Anniston City Schools Superintendent Joan Frazier. This year, the report includes a new category called no-shows, students who have attended a high school in the system at some point and would have been expected to graduate in a given year but whose status is unknown.

In Anniston’s case 43 students were unaccounted for in the 2011 class, and counted as no-shows. In the past, those students wouldn’t have been figured in the graduation rate, Frazier said.

While many local schools are handing out diplomas to the class of 2012 tonight, the numbers released today do not include counts for students graduating this year.