The Austin Independent School District (AISD) has made significant gains in all performance categories but needs to show more progress in certain areas, particularly in closing the achievement gap between minority students and Anglo students, according to the Greater Austin Chamber's first Community Progress Report. (The report is available in pdf format. Click here for a copy.)

The report, released today, was done by a Chamber task force that included a diverse selection of community and business leaders with the goal of determining the district's progress in graduating its students college and career ready.

To ensure success of Opportunity Austin, the Chamber's five year plan to create 72,000 new jobs and add $14 billion to the economy, Austin must be one of the premiere places in the world for primary employers to locate and grow their businesses. Austin will enhance its existing advantage if it eliminates achievement gaps and graduates most students ready for college and the workplace.

"While there are areas where we need to improve, overall, we have one of the best performing urban school districts in America," said Chamber Chair Kirk Watson of Hughes and Luce, LLP. "We are on the cutting edge in education and workforce development and by focusing on where we are and where we would like to be, we are putting ourselves in a competitive position."

Findings: AISD has made significant gains in all performance categories, with all student populations over the last few years. Key indicators for employers include high school graduation, completion of a well-rounded course of study, pass rates on TAKS (Texas Academic Knowledge and Skills) exit tests, college and workplace readiness. All of these areas have shown improvement—in some cases dramatic improvement. However, work clearly remains to ensure student achievement meets the expectations of the Board of Trustees and the community.

High School Preparation for College and Workplace
1. High School Graduation: AISD is making an average 2 percent gain per year, with significant progress for Hispanic students. However, at this pace, 100 percent graduation will take 10 years. A faster trajectory is needed.

2. TAKS Exit Passage: Between 2004 and 2005, AISD students nearly doubled the overall pass rate on the four TAKS tests required for graduation. African American students nearly tripled pass rates; Hispanics more than 150 percent. The TAKS represented a profound increase in academic expectations over the old TAAS tests. This objective appears on track for success because of administration and educator focus.

3. Recommended High School Program and above: Since 2000, AISD has made a concerted effort to increase student completion of this well-rounded high school academic course of study. It succeeded dramatically by tripling the overall student completion rate with Hispanic students increasing their completion rate by almost 250 percent and African American students' completion rate rising from 11 percent to 61 percent. This objective looks on track for success, largely because of the school board's policy.

4. College and Workplace Readiness: In 2004, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board defined a performance standard for college and workplace readiness on high school exit tests for math, writing and English. AISD has made single digit percentage growth in the first two years of this system up to almost 50 percent. Greater performance growth is necessary over time.

Middle School Preparation for High School
5. 8th Grade Reading and Math TAKS: Compared with impressive elementary and high school performance gains, middle school performance pales. Performance gains are in the single digits and overall pass rates remain low at 50 percent for math and 75 percent for reading. Gaps in pass rates between white and non-white students have remained large.

Elementary School Preparation for Middle School
6. 5th Grade Reading and Math TAKS: AISD performance gains in 5th grade have been significant, especially in math. Beginning in 2005, students needed to pass both reading and math TAKS tests to meet assessment requirements for promotion to grade 6. While performance gaps closed by between 20 percent to 25 percent in reading, they were cut nearly in half in math. Gaps remain significant, especially for English-language learners. The trajectory is promising, though the outcome is not yet assured.

7. 3rd Grade Reading and Math TAKS: AISD students have come close to mastering 3rd grade reading. Math requires additional work. Beginning in 2003, students needed to pass reading TAKS to meet assessment requirements for promotion to grade 4. In 2005, 94 percent of its students met the reading TAKS assessment requirement, including 86 percent of African Americans, 92 percent of Hispanics and 99 percent of whites. In math, pass rates are more modest and there has not been as much progress in narrowing the achievement gap.

Other Measures
8. College-level performance in high schoo:. Though not a primary function of K-12 education, many community members are interested in how many college courses AISD high school students complete before high school graduation. Overall, performance has been flat, with one in five completing college work. Performance gaps have slightly narrowed.

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Progress Report task force was headed by Susan Dawson, Chair, business volunteer. Task force members include Charles Barnett, Chief Executive Officer, Seton Network; Sheryl Cole, Cole & Powell LLP; Gwen Crider, former Executive Director, Austin Children’s Museum; Amy Jones, Principal, O'Connell Robertson & Associates; Ronnie Jones, Owner, Ronnie Jones Law Firm; Roberto Martinez, President, Martinez, Wright & Mendez, Inc.; Eliza May, President, Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Quality Quinn, President, Quality Quinn, Inc.; Rafael Quintanilla, Trustee, Austin Community College; Kali Rourke, President, Travis Community Education Foundation; Arthur Turner, President, Turner Industries; Josefina Villiacana, reporter, Ahora Si; and Theda Yager, community volunteer.

Data for this report was provided by AISD and the Texas Education Agency. The Chamber plans to produce an AISD Community Progress Report each year with the goal of including more districts and more data.

About the Chamber: The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the five-county metro area—building a better community since 1877. It has more than 2,700 business, educational and non-profit organizations as members, of which 80 percent are small businesses. The Chamber is all about economic prosperity in Central Texas. Opportunity Austin—the Central Texas Business Initiative, is in its second year of the effort to create 72,000 new jobs and a regional economic impact of $14 billion. In the first year, 16,200 jobs were created.