Graduation rates reached an all-time high in Austin ISD for the 2011–12 school year, according to a new report on graduation and completion rates from the Texas Education Agency. In addition to the overall rate climbing 2.5 percentage points to 82.5 percent for the district's class of 2012, all AISD student groups made progress in closing achievement gaps, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said this week.

"We're having our best performance ever even though we have dwindling resources, state accountability standards have increased dramatically, and we are in the middle of one of the biggest demographic shifts in school-age population that our region has ever seen," she said. "Our teachers and principals and administrators and support staff in this district have pulled every rabbit out of the hat, have worked themselves under extreme pressures from the state, financially and accountability especially, to ensure that every student group is doing better than [they did in] 2008."

In 2008, AISD's graduation rate was 74.3 percent, making the overall 2012 rate an 8.2 percent improvement since then, she explained.

Looking at specific groups, the graduation rate for English Language Learners—one of AISD's fastest-growing groups—was 64.1 percent, an increase of more than 3 percentage points year-on-year and an increase of more than 27 percentage points since 2008, Carstarphen said.

For economically disadvantaged students, the graduation rate increased from 77.1 percent in 2011 to 78.9 percent in 2012. For students receiving special education services, the graduation rate rose from 60.9 percent to 63.6 percent. African American, Hispanic and white students all saw gains as well, with African Americans seeing the most improvement from 74 percent in 2011 to 79.6 percent in 2012.

In 2012, the state of Texas implemented new standards and schools started making the switch to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. Carstarphen said that in 2013, students in AISD did better on the new assessments than students did in the "Big 8," a group of other large urban school districts.

"With the transition from TAKS to STAAR, grade levels at elementary, middle and high school grade levels, we're No. 1 or tied for No. 2 [compared with other Big 8 districts]," she said.

But as AISD's goal is to prepare students for life, Carstarphen noted some surveys have shown hope is a stronger predictor of post-graduation success than test scores. She pointed to the district's student attendance, which improved by 0.1 percent in 2013 to 95.2 percent. When students feel that teachers care about whether they show up to school every day, it gives children hope, she said.

"There's a lot that we can do—the way we think about it, the way we behave, the way we interact with [students]—that doesn't require any additional money but has a huge bang for its buck on student achievement," she said. "If they have that relationship, and in that caring relationship someone is reinforcing their strengths, what they bring to the table that makes them a great kid, that makes them more engaged and more hopeful. When those two things come together, you get better student achievement."