Helping to raise awareness about the mismatch between local job openings and student aspirations is one of the goals of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce's annual Education Progress Reports, said Kimberly Reeves, vice president of talent alignment with the chamber.

On April 3 the chamber released its 2013 reports, which include K–12 student performance data from the 2011–12 school year as well as 2013 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, results, and highlights key factors such as graduation rates and college readiness.

As school counselors throughout Central Texas help students transition to new Foundation High School Program graduation plans under House Bill 5, part of the message the chamber wants to convey is what opportunities are available for students, Reeves said.

"We are in one of the fastest-growing communities in the country with a lot of high-demand jobs and a lot of mismatch between the jobs that we have and what kids think they want to do," she said.

The chamber has partnered with school districts and other Central Texas chambers for the past nine years to create the reports. This year the reports cover 12 school districts in Central Texas including Austin ISD, Pflugerville ISD and Round Rock ISD.

The reports examine the number of students who say they intend to attend college, how many students applied for financial aid, and the percentage of a school district's graduating class that is deemed college- and career-ready, a classification based on state performance measures.

Additionally the reports include direct-to-college enrollment rates—the percentage of high school students who actually went on to enroll in a university, community college or technical school immediately after graduating.

JoyLynn Occhiuzzi, RRISD's executive director of community relations, said RRISD has seen an increase in its direct-to-college enrollment rate.

"We still want to focus on the 29 percent of students who aren't going directly to college and see how we can help them overcome obstacles to enrollment," she said.

Districts statewide are continuing the transition to the STAAR exams. The reports reveal how fifth- and eighth-graders performed on those exams in math, reading, science and social studies.

"I think school districts probably are still a bit in shock over how much harder and more comprehensive the STAAR test is than the TAKS," Reeves said, noting standards are scheduled to become more rigorous in 2016.

AISD Chief Academic Officer Pauline Dow said AISD strategies for STAAR improvement include professional development, meetings about instruction best practices and designing curriculum to help students gain a conceptual understanding of materials.

"The office of academics and the assessment department collaboratively create benchmarks to measure student mastery of the taught curriculum mid-year, in time for teachers to analyze the assessment data to improve teaching and learning and student achievement," she said.

Overall the reports provide business owners, educators and parents with an overview of what is happening in local school districts, Reeves said.

"We have the highest graduation rates that we have ever had in the region," she said. "Even in the face of budget cuts, [school districts] are doing a good job meeting the standards. Now the standards are going to change, and they are probably going to be even more challenging. We have to be even more strategic with our decisions when it comes to budgets and programs and policies."

The chamber sends out the reports to new residents and businesses as well as real estate agents who can present them to prospective residents, she said.

In addition to the reports, the chamber offers initiatives such as its Financial Aid Saturdays, which encourage students who intend to go to college to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

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