Are Texas students prepared for life after high school?

Texas is booming thanks to economic opportunities that draw people to the Lone Star state. Texas leads the nation in job creation, drawing people from around the country and the world to the opportunities in our cities and towns.

Population data bears this out. Many more people move to Texas than leave it, a decades long trend. And those moving to Texas tend to be better-educated than those born and raised here, holding nearly twice as many bachelor degrees as Texas’ native workforce.

A strong state economy that is creating jobs is obviously good. But beneath this success lies a concerning question, are we equipping Texas kids to compete in the Lone Star economy as adults?

By 2036, 70% of all jobs will require a post-secondary credential of some kind. But only 22% of Texas eighth graders earn a degree or credential within six years of high school graduation. Only 40% of Texas students do math on grade level. Only 52% of Texas students read on grade level.

Our new report, The State of Readiness: Are Texas students prepared for life after high school, details how “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” as former President George W. Bush said, can far too easily become the harsh reality of economic disenfranchisement if we do not act. Too many Texas students do not have the knowledge and skills to succeed in their next grade, much less in the workforce.

Readiness means that a student has the skills and knowledge to succeed in their next step, whether that is the next grade or life after high school.

Readiness looks like fourth graders who can read well enough to learn science and social studies. It looks like high school students engaged in rigorous career education programs that will prepare them to access college and a career after graduation. It looks like college students who do not need remedial courses and can instead immediately take credit-bearing classes.

Right now, each cohort of Texas eighth graders stands to lose $104 billion in future earnings because of this lack of readiness for their futures. Low-income students (nearly 61% of Texas’ student population) will bear $67 billion of that loss. This is not readiness.

Public schools serve many functions – they are community hubs that serve families with a range of activities and supports. But we cannot lose sight of their primary goal, to ensure that all young Texans are prepared for their next steps and economic well-being. Texans invest more than $70 billion of taxpayer money toward that goal each year.

The stakes for our public investment are high, but the stakes for our shared future are even higher. Economic growth has for too long relied on attracting out-of-state talent. Texas cannot continue on a path of prosperity if young people growing up on its land are relegated to second-class status, unable to compete and capitalize on the opportunities of tomorrow.

This is a fixable problem. Success requires our leaders to commit to three actions.

First, we must stay committed to measuring the performance of every student with a statewide assessment like the STAAR exam, and then hold school districts accountable for those results, regardless of a student’s race, income or ability. Watering down the Texas A-F Accountability system – as some are demanding - simply lets the adults in the public school system off the hook and leaves students to deal with the lifelong consequences of a lack of readiness.

Second, we must enhance workforce data. The Texas Legislature created the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative in the last session, setting up the governance for a shared K-12, higher education and workforce data system. We need to commit to this project by investing in data infrastructures and further analysis, tools that provide parents and policymakers with actionable information about employment opportunities now and in the future.

Third, we need to ensure that students deemed college, career and military ready are truly ready. We must be honest with students, their families and ourselves about what options – from industry-based credentials to dual enrollment programs to degrees – are rigorous and provide value for students. These measures of readiness must be meaningful for young people stepping into their adult lives and not simply a box to check.

All young Texans deserve to be ready for the many opportunities that the Lone Star State offers its citizens. Parents need transparency about their children’s progress. And Texas needs the ingenuity, ideas and leadership of its young people. A clear-eyed look at readiness will help make that vision of Texas real.