OUR KIDS. OUR TOMORROW.

For campus and district level data, please visit data.commit2dallas.org.

PK Enrollment

• Quality early learning for all children can change the economic outcome of our community in one generation. When we ensure that all students receive the best education, from the very beginning, we set them up for success for the rest of their lives.
• 90% of the brain is developed by the time a person is five years old. – Zero to Three® National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
• Research shows a strong correlation between quality early learning and regional prosperity and for every $1 invested in early childhood a community saves $7 in long-term costs such as educational remediation, criminal justice, and welfare. – James Heckman, 2008, “Schools, Skills, and Synapsis
• Children of racial groups experienced a gain after attending Pre-K. Hispanic students exhibited an eleven-month gain in letter/word recognition and six-month gain in applied problem solving compared to the corresponding gains (nine-months and three-months respectively) for white children. – William Gormley, Jr., Deborah Phillips, and Ted Gayer, “Preschool Programs Can Boost School Readiness,” Science 320 (June 27, 2008), pp.1723-24.
• Children who attend Dallas ISD Pre-K are 2.3 times more likely to be Kindergarten Ready. – Dallas ISD English reading assessments for Fall 2015.
• Texas Education Agency Texas Academic Performance Reports and Head Start of Greater Dallas
• Number of eligible students is calculated by estimating the number of eligible 1st graders using the campus economically disadvantaged rate. 1st grade is the first year children are required to attend school in Texas and vast majority of students in Pre-K meet eligibility requirements through economically disadvantaged status.
• Free Pre-K Eligibility: A student is considered eligible for Pre-K if they meet any of the following criteria:
  • Eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch (185% of Federal Poverty Line)
  • Unable to speak and comprehend the English language
  • Homeless
  • Has ever been in foster care (conservatorship of Texas Department of Family Protective Services)
  • Child of an active duty member of the armed forces who is ordered to active duty or the child of a member of the armed forces who was injured or killed while serving
• Impact on Kindergarten Readiness: Dallas ISD ISIP English Reading Assessments for Fall 2015. Kindergarten Ready was determined using a cut score of 184 (40th percentile).

Kinder Ready

• Kindergarten readiness is closely linked to future academic achievement and life success, though indicators for this outcome area often differ across school districts and states.
• Data from Maryland shows that as a child’s kindergarten readiness scores improve, third-grade reading and math scores rise accordingly. – Maryland State Department of Education. 2010. Getting Ready: The 2010-2011 Maryland School Readiness Report. Annapolis, Maryland: Department of Education.
• Across states, school-entry academic and attention skills are highly correlated with later academic achievement in elementary school. – Duncan et al. 2007. School Readiness and Later Achievement. Developmental Psychology 43(6):1428 –1446. 3) Storch, Stacey A., and Grover
• Elementary school reading levels appear to be predominantly determined by the reading skills children bring from kindergarten, meaning that kindergarten literacy levels predict reading ability throughout a child’s educational career. – Whitehurst. 2002. Oral Language and Code-Related Precursors to Reading: Evidence From a Longitudinal Structural Model Developmental Psychology 38(6):934-947
• Children who were Kindergarten Ready in the Fall of 2011 in DISD were 3.2 times more likely to meet the postsecondary readiness benchmark 4 years later on the 3rd grade reading STAAR assessment in DISD. – Dallas ISD English reading assessments for Fall of 2011 and STAAR assessments for Fall of 2015.
• Kindergarten Ready: The percent of students deemed Kindergarten Ready in the county based on the assessments administered at the beginning of the year in Kindergarten. The assessment and the measure vary by district but must be chosen from the approved list provided by the Texas Education Agency. Independent School Districts providing Fall 2015 data include: Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Dallas, DeSoto, Duncanville, Grand Prairie, Highland Park, Irving, Lancaster, Mesquite, Richardson, and Uplift Education. For Dallas County count of students, rate applied to all Kindergarteners.
• Footnote: Dallas ISD ISIP English Reading Assessments for Fall 2011 and Spring 2015 3rd grade STAAR Assessment. Kindergarten Ready was determined using a cut score of 184 (40th percentile) and 3rd grade reading proficiency was determined using college ready standard.
• Dallas ISD ISIP English Reading Assessments for Fall 2015. Kindergarten Ready was determined using a cut score of 184 (40th percentile).

3rd Grade Reading

• In the early grades, children begin to transition from learning to read to reading to learn. At these grade levels, the reading curriculum becomes more complex in both meaning and vocabulary. Historically, teachers and researchers have noticed that most children’s growth in reading skills tends to stall at third or fourth grade.
• Early grade reading is a particularly crucial milestone, as basic reading skills are being reached and measured. Though state indicators for grade level reading vary, data shows that disparities in literacy during the early grades are linked to persistent achievement gaps. If children are behind by third grade, they generally stay behind throughout school. – Schorr, Lisbeth, and Marchand, Vicky. 2007. Pathway to Children Ready for School and Succeeding at Third Grade. Cambridge: Project on Effective Interventions at Harvard University.
• One longitudinal study found that students who do not read at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers. – Hernandez, Donald. 2011. Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. New York: Foundation for Child Development and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
• Reading at grade level is one of the strongest predictors of later success in school. Students at or above grade level reading in earlier grades graduate from high school and attend college at higher rates than peers reading below grade level. – Lesnick, Joy et al. 2010. Reading on Grade Level in Third Grade: How Is It Related to High School Performance and College Enrollment? Chicago: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
• STAAR Indicators: Texas Education Agency – 2014-2015 STAAR Aggregate Data http://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/staar/aggregate/

4th Grade Math

• Elementary math lays the foundation for all future mathematics, as students need a stronger understanding of arithmetic and finite number sets to effectively tackle more complex concepts, such as algebra and infinite number sets.
• Research indicates that an early understanding of math concepts is the most powerful predictor of later school success. Early Math skills were found to be more predictive of later reading ability than early reading skills. – Duncan et al. 2007. School Readiness and Later Achievement. Developmental Psychology 43(6):1428 –1446.
• Knowledge of fractions and division uniquely predicts subsequent knowledge of Algebra and overall math achievement more than four years later. – Psychology Science, July 2012. Early Predictors of High School Mathematics Achievement.
• Research has shown that students in the lowest quartile of math achievement at ages 6, 8, and 10 are less likely to attend college than students who struggle in other subjects. – Magnuson et al. 2009, Early School Adjustment and High School Dropout. SRCD.

8th Grade Science

• A strong foundation in math and science at the middle school level can dramatically impact future workforce opportunity.
• According to the U. S. Department of Commerce, STEM occupations are growing at 17%, while others are growing at 9.8%. – Why STEM Education is Important for Everyone. Science Pioneers.
• Health care workers with associate degrees to doctors of medicine will average 20% more in lifetime earnings than peers with similar degrees in non-health care. – Why STEM Education is Important for Everyone. Science Pioneers.
• According to the U.S. Labor Department, 10 of the fastest growing occupations require science and math. – Why STEM Education is Important for Everyone. Science Pioneers.
• According to a report by the website STEMconnector.org, by 2018, projections estimate the need for 8.65 million workers in STEM-related jobs. – What is STEM Education? www.livescience.com
• At all levels of education attainment, STEM job holders earn 11% higher wages compared with their counterparts in other jobs. – National Governors Association, December 2011. “Building a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education Agenda”

Algebra 1

• Middle grade math has become an important milestone for high school persistence, academic achievement, college attainment, and general preparedness for the workforce.
• Basic algebra has been referred to as the “gatekeeper subject” because of its correlation to both college and career success. Taking algebra in middle school opens the gateway to completing advanced mathematics courses in high school which, in turn, is highly valued for admission to many four-year colleges and universities. – American Institutes for Research. (2006). The Gateway to Student Success in Mathematics and Science.
• Students who leave high school without adequate mathematics preparation and skills require postsecondary remediation coursework later on. – Great Schools, Why is algebra so important?, http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/354-why-algebra.gs
• Approximately 23% of entering college freshmen fail placement tests for college level math courses and are placed in non-credit-bearing remedial courses. – Achieve. 2006. Do All Students Need Challenging Math in High School? Washington, D.C.: Achieve.
• Economists estimate that if the U.S. could raise math proficiency to Canadian levels, economic growth would improve by 1.5% annual and over the long run add $75 trillion to the U.S. GDP. – Hanushek, Eric and Peterson, Paul. January 2012. Math Matters. Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

College Readiness

• SAT/ACT exams administered in the 11th and 12th grade help determine a student’s likelihood to succeed in college-level work. As nationally normed tests, these indicators allow our community to compare the progress of our school systems against those from around the country.
• 58 percent of students who do not require remediation upon entering college ultimately earn a bachelor’s degree, compared to only 17 percent of students enrolled in remedial reading and 27 percent of students enrolled in remedial math. – National Center for Education Statistics, “The condition of education 2004, indicator 18: Remediation and degree completion,” Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education (2004).
• A strong correlation exists between SAT/ACT scores and first year college GPA and retention rates; SAT/ACT scores also help identify the need for remedial work. – Patterson, B., & Mattern, K. (2011) Validity of the SAT for predicting first-year grades; The College Board
• The three year graduation rate at Texas community colleges for full time students requiring remedial work is only 10 percent. – Complete College America, 2013. “Complete College Texas: Is Texas utilizing Game Change strategies to boost college completion? Not fully.”
• College Ready: The percent of students who graduated from high school in 2015, who took the SAT or ACT, and who scored at least a 24 on the ACT or 1110 on the SAT (reading and math). Per the Texas Education Agency Texas Academic Performance Reports. Scores of at least a 24 on the ACT and 1110 on the SAT translate to a high likelihood of receiving a B- or C+ grade or better in higher education.

High School Graduation

• High school graduation is associated with higher earnings, college attendance and graduation, and other measures of personal and social welfare. As college education increasingly becomes a necessity for upward mobility, graduating more students from high school is critical.
• High school graduation is not only a precursor to college enrollment; it is also a major indicator for earnings throughout adulthood. On average, high school graduates make at least $10,000 more annually than individuals who did not complete high school. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-dropping-out-of-high-school
• Over a lifetime, high school graduates earn 33% more over their lifetime than those who drop out. – Carnevale, Anthony. Nicole Smith and Jeff Strohl. Georgetown University, 2013. “Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements Through 2020”
• Unemployment rates for high school dropouts are higher than high school graduates. In 2012, approximately 12 percent of individuals who dropped out of high school were unemployed, compared to the national average of 8.1percent. – U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
• If the number of high school dropouts in the 50 largest U.S. cities were cut in half, the extra earnings of those high school graduates would add up to $4.1 billion per year. High school dropout rates also correlate strongly with poverty; high school dropouts are almost twice as likely to live in poverty as high school graduates. – Curran, Bridget, and Reyna, Ryan. 2009. Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date. Washington, D.C.: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.

College Enrollment

• Postsecondary enrollment marks one of the critical transitions in the cradle to career pipeline. Low-income students and students of color are less likely to pursue education beyond high school.
• By 2020, 65 percent of jobs nationally will require some form of postsecondary education. – Carnevale, Anthony. Nicole Smith and Jeff Strohl. Georgetown University, 2013. “Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements Through 2020”
• Students from lower income schools enrolled in college at an average rate of 50 percent, compared to 65 percent of students from higher income schools. – National Student Clearinghouse. Tracking the Road to College Success: Inaugural National High School Benchmarks Report, https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/HighSchoolBenchmarks2013.pdf
• Research has shown that “low income students, even those with high academic performance levels, are less likely to enroll in college, more likely to attend two year colleges when they do enroll, and less likely to apply to more selective institutions compared to their more advantaged peers with similar academic preparation.” – National Student Clearinghouse. Tracking the Road to College Success: Inaugural National High School Benchmarks Report, https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/HighSchoolBenchmarks2013.pdf
• All education beyond high school is valuable, be it career certificates or two-year, four-year-degrees. Postsecondary Enrollment: The percent of students who graduated from high school in 2015 and enrolled in a postsecondary institution within one year after graduation. Fall 2016 National Student Clearinghouse Reports provided by Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, DeSoto, Duncanville, Grand Prairie, Highland Park, Irving, Lancaster, Mesquite, Richardson, and Uplift Education. Coppell’s class of 2014 included in this year’s data with the Dallas County reduction in enrollment applied.

College Persistence

• Often students begin higher education with strong ideals but the transition proves very difficult. Supporting students during this critical period is essential for improving degree attainment.
• Nearly 5 in 10 low-income students who do not complete their college degrees leave after their first year of college or leave as a result of their experiences during that year (Syracuse University, 2004. Access without Support is Not Opportunity: Rethinking the First Year of College for Low-Income Students.) and as many as 1 in 3 students nationally do not return for their second year of college (U.S. News and World Report, https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return )
• Slightly over 1.5 million first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students began their undergraduate careers at four-year colleges and universities in the fall of 2006. However, only four in ten (39 percent) actually achieved their goal of earning a bachelor’s degree within four years, and six in ten (59.2 percent) completed their degrees within six years. – 2013 Digest of Education Statistics. National Center for Education Statistics
• Of the 857,607 first-time students who enrolled at two-year public institutions in fall 2007, only 26.5% completed degrees or certificates from their starting institution within six years. – Completing College: A National View of Student Attainment Rates, Fall 2007 Cohort. National Student Clearinghouse
• Postsecondary First- Year Persistence: The percent of students who graduated from high school in 2014, enrolled in a postsecondary institution within one year after graduation and enrolled for a second year. Fall 2016 National Student Clearinghouse data available for Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, DeSoto, Grand Prairie, Highland Park, Irving, Mesquite, Richardson, and Uplift Education.

College Completion

• Postsecondary degrees are more valuable than ever. The benefits of postsecondary education span across social and economic domains.
• An associate or bachelor’s degree holder earns on average $442,000-$1,051,000 more over a 40-year career than a high school graduate. – Census Salary: Synthetic Work-Life Earnings by Educational Attainment
• According to the Lumina Foundation, the number of jobs requiring an associate degree has grown by 1.6 million and the number of jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree has grown by 2 million since the end of the recession. – The Lumina Foundation. A Stronger Nation through Higher Education, http://www.luminafoundation.org/stronger_nation/report/main-narrative.html
• Society benefits from a more educated population, including: lower instances of child abuse, lower rates of criminal behavior, and fewer teen pregnancies among children of college-educated parents. – Riddell, W. Craig. 2006. The Impact of Education on Economic and Social Outcomes: An Overview of Recent Advances in Economics. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
• Postsecondary Completion: The percent of students who graduated from high school in 2010 and obtained a postsecondary degree six years after high school graduation. Fall 2016 National Student Clearinghouse data available for Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Dallas, DeSoto, Grand Prairie, Highland Park, Irving, Mesquite, Richardson, and Uplift Education.