Leander, Round Rock ISDs 'pleased' with college readiness and enrollment

The Austin Chamber of Commerce released its 2012 Education Progress Reports on April 3, providing business owners, educators and parents with a snapshot of what is happening in local school districts.

Kwee Lan Teo Yam, vice president of education and talent alignment for the chamber, said that for the past eight years, the chamber has partnered with school districts and other Central Texas chambers to compile reports of student performance data relevant to the business community.

"This is the cohort that's entering the workforce or is already in the workforce," Teo Yam said. "This is what your businesses and your community can get to hire. Is it a community of students that have generally pursued some form of post-secondary education? How many graduate within four years? And if you hire them, are they going to need remedial math [refresher classes]?"

Questions such as these matter to local businesses as well as to companies considering relocating to Austin, she said, and the reports can be used to gauge the health of a district. The reports cover 11 school districts using data from the 2011–12 school year.

In addition to providing graduation rates, the reports examine the percentage of a school district's graduating class that is deemed college- and career-ready, a classification that is based on state performance measures. The reports provide 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.

In Leander ISD, 70 percent of students in the class of 2011 were college- and career-ready in both English and math, the largest cohort in the past four years. Superintendent Bret Champion said the district has worked to improve that number.

"We were pleased with the significant increases we've made in closing the achievement gap on the college and career readiness indicators, with regard to our economically disadvantaged students versus non-economically disadvantaged students," he said.

In Round Rock ISD, the district hopes to sustain the number of students enrolling in college.

"I was very pleased with the report overall, especially with the high college enrollment rate of 71 percent," Superintendent Jess Chvez said. "But it can always be improved, [and] that includes students enrolling in technical and trade schools, not just four-year college programs."

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