The Austin Chamber of Commerce released its 2012 Education Progress Reports on April 3, revealing that fewer students are meeting standards of state testing but that the region has made slight gains in graduation rates and college and career readiness during the past five years.

The chamber has partnered with school districts and other Central Texas chambers for the past eight years to compile annual reports of K–12 student performance data. At a luncheon at the Frank Erwin Center, Shaun Cranston, Education Progress Reports Task Force chairman, explained the chamber's core pillars are economic development, transportation and education.

"If we don't create a talented and educated workforce, the jobs that are being created by the economic development and the transportation system that's getting them there would be worthless," he said. "We spent a considerable amount of time, effort and resources to talk about what is the road we're taking as a community to get our youth where they need to be for industry."

Regional findings for 2011–12

This year, the reports cover 11 school districts in Central Texas including Austin ISD, Eanes ISD, Hays CISD, Hutto ISD, Lake Travis ISD, Leander ISD, Pflugerville ISD, Round Rock ISD, and San Marcos CISD. Local results will be included in upcoming editions of Community Impact Newspaper.

Regional high school results included:

  • Graduation rates rose from 85 percent in 2010 to 87 percent in 2011. Regional high school graduation rates increased 7 percent during a five-year period, Cranston said, adding that despite that improvement, 1,700 students in Central Texas still did not graduate in 2011–12.
  • The percentage of graduates deemed "college- and career-ready," a classification based on state performance measures, rose from 47 percent in 2007 to 60 percent in 2011, Cranston said.
  • Direct-to-college enrollment rates—the percentage of graduates that went on to enroll in a university, community college or technical school immediately after high school—have remained relatively flat for the past five years and was at 64 percent in 2011.
  • For the first time this year, reports also shared students' State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness performance data. Fewer students in all districts were able to meet the higher final 2016 standards, which are considered to be on track for college and career readiness on the STAAR, according to the reports.

State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, said testing has become a source of frustration for teachers, parents and students in local districts and added he opposes House Bill 5, a recently passed public education bill that cuts the number of standardized tests for students and allows them to seek specialized tracks of education rather than defaulting into college preparatory programs.

"We've attached such high stakes to the tests that we've created a culture of testing rather than learning," he said.

Cranston explained the purpose of the reports is not to compare local districts but to assess the performance of students and help prepare them to take their place in the global workforce.

The full reports can be accessed at www.austinchamber.com/edureports.