State of Education in Austin: Politics, Progress and Possibilities

November 9, 2016 | Hyatt Regency Austin | 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

For the 11th year, the Austin Chamber of Commerce will present the State of Education luncheon in Austin. Leading up to the 2017 Texas Legislature, this edition will focus on education politics, the progress our local school districts and educators have made on the nationally recognized DTC70 Initiative and possibilities that lie ahead. We will have exciting news ahead on speakers. Stay tuned for details here. Sponsorship opportunities are available with Lon Breedlove.

Austin Job Growth Remains Strong This Summer

In June:

• Metro Austin again led Texas in year over year job creation with 38,000 net new jobs...a 4% job growth rate.
• Austin is 4th among the Top 50 U.S. metros.
• Austin remains the fastest growing U.S. region and June is the first month of full-time employment for newly minted college graduates, so the unemployment rate remained at a seasonally adjusted 3.1%.
• Austin represents nearly 25% of all Texas job growth.
• Austin has approximately 40,400 open positions.

Get the full story here.

Groundbreaking partnership at Austin Community College with Texas A&M University and Chevron

Together, they are addressing a significant and growing need for engineers. You’re invited to a press event announcing the start of the Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy at ACC.1:30 p.m. Monday, September 12, on the social staircase at ACC Highland Campus (6101 Airport Blvd.).

In Texas alone, the projected need for engineers is 62,000 by 2022. Through this new partnership, as many as 100 students per year can begin their academic careers in ACC’s Engineering Program and transfer seamlessly to the College of Engineering at Texas A&M in College Station.

ACC is hosting a reception for Academy partners at 1 p.m., just prior to the announcement. RSVP to riverbat@austincc.edu.

DTC70 Partnership Helps New HS Grads Enroll in College

This summer, counselors in 10 school districts extended their work year half-time to help more than 10,000 new high school graduates navigate the final process into direct post-secondary enrollment. Over 40,000 text messages and replies were exchanged between counselors and students to resolve college going obstacles. School districts selected their best counselors for the summer-based personal assistance. Austin Community College provided real-time enrollment data to high school counselors so they could guide students through remaining enrollment tasks. Results will be announced at State of Education.

Who’s Our New Local Workforce Solutions Leader?

Congratulations to Tamara Atkinson, the new Executive Director of Workforce Solutions Central Texas. Tamara has been a long-time leader at Workforce Solutions and is on point for the development of the region’s first workforce development plan, in partnership with the City of Austin, Travis County and the business community. She is focused, outcome-oriented, positive and the unanimous choice of the Workforce Solutions Board. The Chamber’s Talent VP Kwee Lan Teo is also on the Board. Thank you to Alan Miller, long-time executive director, for his service to Austin.

Next Generation Commission on Assessment and Accountability

In 2015, the Legislature created the Next Generation Commission to provide big-picture and long-term recommendations on how to use technology to alter our education testing. Last month, the Commission released a draft report and voted 9-1 to make it "long-term recommendations" to the Legislature.

The Commission made several important recommendations:

• Affirm that testing is not evil. The state must evolve to utilize technology to reduce the need for a single day of paper testing.
• Test high school students on college/career readiness and incorporating those results into the college/career readiness indicator (Domain IV)
• Reduce the amount of content in the state’s standards (an aspiration since the early 1990s)

The Commission unfortunately called on the Legislature to allow students who have not demonstrated minimal academic readiness to graduate anyway through an ad hoc committee. Six thousand Texas students used this loophole in 2015, even after the Legislature reduced the number of end of course exams required to pass from 5 down to 3. No data on use of this loophole is yet available for 2016. The loophole is scheduled to be eliminated in 2017.

The Commission featured a number of leaders with Austin ties. Chair Andrew Kim is a former Manor superintendent. Pauline Dow is a former chief academic officer at Austin ISD. The anti-testing group TAMSA's Theresa Trevino was the sole vote against the recommendations.

Austin Community College: Is It Making Progress?

Yes. In June, the Austin Chamber and Austin Community College released its 2016 Progress Toward Excellence Report on key indicators of greatest interest to area business. Led by Capital One Market President Mike Perrine, the Progress Report highlighted key performance:

• Enrollment is stable when community college enrollments fall in strong economies.
• Course enrollment and completion is up in the critical field of Information Technology.
• Course enrollment and completion in the critical field of health care remains stable, though changes in the employment market toward requiring a bachelor degree in nursing.
• ACC has invested in data and analytics to guide and improve student success, doubling the graduation rate to 9%.

ACC President Richard Rhodes has asked that the Chamber convert its Task Force into a standing committee to advise him on business issues, which we agreed to.

What Did the Chamber Talk with National Leaders About in June?

The Chamber met with U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Central Texas committee chairs Lamar Smith and Michael McCaul and Congressional leaders Lloyd Doggett, John Carter, Roger Williams, Bill Flores, Blake Farenthold, Will Hurd, Joaquin Castro, and Henry Cuellar, among many others.

On education, we met to support reauthorization of Perkins and Higher Education Act with specific attention to federal financial aid, data transferability and outcomes. We met with the U.S. Department of Education on multiple issues key to Central Texas. The 60 person Austin Chamber-led delegation was led by Heldenfels Enterprises CEO Fred Heldenfels IV, former Lt. Gov Ben Barnes and Pete Winstead. The Chamber teams included 17 CEOs, as well as UFCU CEO and 2016 Chamber Chair Tony Budet and Brookfield executive and 2016 Education Chair Shaun Cranston.

Other Important Stuff the Chamber is Working On:

• Mobility Bond – In June, the Chamber supported the strong leadership of Austin Mayor Steve Adler to secure an 8-3 vote to put a $720 million mobility modernization bond on the November ballot. The language is now approved and will be on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.
• SH45SW – Also in June, the Chamber's Transportation Council led by HTNB Executive Carlos Lopez supported CTRMA in their vote to accept bids to initiate construction of SH-45SW. Bidding is underway and we are hopeful SH-45SW will begin construction in September.
• Direct Flights – In August, the Chamber’s Air Services Task Force, led by Dell, Inc. Executive Doug Driskill, is pleased to support direct air service to Guadalajara on Volaris Airlines and Mexico City on AeroMexico. Earlier this summer, Condor Airlines initiated seasonal roundtrip service to Frankfurt, Germany.
• Austin Affordability – The Chamber’s Distinct 512 local advocacy committee, chaired by Seton Family of Hospitals CEO Jesús Garza, unveiled on August 8 at Austin City Council a regional affordability agenda focused on creating incentives for more middle skill job creation, additional housing supply to mitigate price increases, and enhanced investment in social and workforce services.
• Attracting Diverse ‘Primary’ Companies – The Chamber, through Opportunity Austin, worked to relocate ClearDATA’s U.S. headquarters to Austin in the critical biotech sector.