Graduation rates reached an all-time high for all three school districts in Northwest Austin, according to the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce's annual Education Progress Reports for the districts.
Isabel Shelton, director of Education and Talent Alignment for the chamber, said the GACC has partnered with school districts and chambers of commerce for 10 years to produce its Education Progress Reports. This year's reports, which will be released at a luncheon April 27, give business owners, educators, parents and the community a bird's-eye-view of area school districts.
"Our hope is that this year we'll increase our visibility by making [reports] a little more clear and accessible to families, the business community [and] educators," she said, noting reports have been streamlined.
The reports cover 11 Central Texas districts, said Drew Scheberle, senior vice president of Federal/State Advocacy and Education/Talent Development.
Scheberle said the reports are the largest regional effort in the country to help report on progress at the school district level of items of greatest importance to the business community: whether students are graduating from high school, whether they are prepared for college and careers, and whether they are enrolling at a university, community college or technical school immediately after graduating—known as direct-to-college enrollment.
Examining progress
Reports include student data from the 2012-13 school year and from 2014. AISD has seen slight year-over-year increases in graduation rates, post-secondary enrollment, and college and career readiness, said Edmund Oropez, AISD interim chief schools officer.
"We've created alternative pathways for students that were struggling to graduate. As an example we've put two dropout-prevention schools at Lanier and Travis, which are our Premier high schools," he said.
AISD's direct-to-college enrollment rate was flat for the class of 2014. Oropez said chamber research indicated when a student takes an SAT or ACT prep course or prepares online for such tests, he or she is more likely to go directly to college. As a result, AISD offers free software allowing students to take such prep courses.
"We're hoping that educators will fully embrace the need to lift the direct-to-college enrollment rate," Scheberle said.
Pflugerville ISD spokeswoman Amanda Brim said the chamber's report offers a good snapshot of information and provides insight to community members of the successes of students and staff members. One of those successes is an increase in the overall graduation rate from 83 percent in 2009 to 93 percent in 2013.
In Round Rock ISD the graduation rate has also improved since 2009, increasing from 88 percent to 95 percent in 2013. JoyLynn Occhiuzzi, executive director of community and governmental relations, said the district hired an additional counselor at each high school to provide more services to improve college readiness.
"High schools work to ensure all students have access to college resources with the support of a district college-access coordinator, who works with at-risk and economically disadvantaged students to set up college plans," she said.
For the 2014-15 school year, Occhiuzzi said the district implemented a policy in which each high school student meets with his or her counselor to discuss progress toward goals.
Mitigating mismatch
More students are prepared for college and career than ever before, Scheberle said, yet not all those students actually enroll.
Eighty percent of students who file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, enroll in college, but 40 percent of students in Central Texas are meeting financial aid deadlines, said Gilbert Zavala, vice president of Education and Talent Development.
"We're working with districts to increase the proportion of timely [financial] aid filers, and we have set a target to get them to 50 percent this year," he said. Partnering with C3, the chamber offered 10 scholarships of $1,000 to students participating in its Financial Aid Saturdays program who were able to complete their FAFSA before the March 31 deadline.
Categories of job openings in Central Texas are also included in the report.
There are about 7,000 job openings in computer science, yet only about 5 percent of students in Central Texas indicate they plan to study computer science in college, Scheberle said.
Zavala added that 62 percent of current job openings in Central Texas—40,000 jobs—require an associate degree or bachelor's degree.
"[Our focus] is really improving educational and economic opportunities for students," Zavala said.
The reports can be accessed online at www.austinchamber.com/edureports.
