Opportunity Austin funds a multi-million dollar regional effort to improve the direct college enrollment rate up to the national average of 70 percent, deepening the supply of local talent to power the next generation of economic growth. 2016 has been an exciting and successful year for the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee and its partners. We are grateful to the leadership of former Chamber Board Chair and Bazaarvoice CEO Gene Austin, 2016 Chamber Education Chair Shaun Cranston and DTC70 mediator/HuschBlackwell Partner Julian Rivera and the whole Chamber Education Council. We are also grateful to the higher education leaders, superintendents, senior K12 leaders, Trustees, principals, counselors and teachers who work so hard every day to give our children a chance at a good life.

2016 Milestones

DTC70 Partnership Draws National Recognition:

The Austin Chamber and its partners are working to achieve our goal of a regional 70 percent direct to college enrollment rate. The partnership has been recognized by the White House, ACCE, and NLC as a best practice or strong regional model in 2015 and 2016, a testament to all of the work you do.

DTC70 Partnership Improves Student Financial Aid Awards, Research Shows:

Over the last two years, national researchers from leading universities partnered with the Austin Chamber and eight local school districts to conduct a study on the effectiveness of text messaging campaigns on FAFSA filings. They recently released a study finding that when Texas students were reminded by text message to complete key college financial aid completion steps, they filed their FAFSA earlier and received up to $2000 in additional aid. You can read more about the success of this program here.

DTC70 Summer Melt Program Expands Support to 10,000 Graduates:

To remove college enrollment barriers, last summer DTC70 partners in nine school districts supported 10,000 high school graduates. The collaboration provided ground-breaking, real-time data on student completion status of key Austin Community College enrollment milestones to school district counselors, to more effectively target assistance. Counselors also supported students heading to other in/out of state colleges. Harvard University and UT-Austin Ray Marshall Center evaluations demonstrated DTC70 partners improved direct college enrollment rates for first generation, low income and underrepresented students who received summer college transition support by four to 10 percentage points.

DTC70 ISD Partners Led State on FAFSA filings

• Record Class of 2016 FAFSA filing rate. 80 percent of high school seniors who submit their FAFSA directly enroll in college. For over a decade, the Austin Chamber has worked with districts, businesses and over 150 volunteers to assist families in the FAFSA completion process through its Financial Aid Saturdays Program. This past spring, DTC70 partner districts achieved a 50 percent Q1 FAFSA filing rate for the Class of 2016 and topped the state in first-time FAFSA filings for this period yielding over $130 million in financial aid to help students and parents afford college.
• Most ambitious FAFSA plan to date. For the first time, FAFSA is now open for submission beginning on October 1, thanks to the U.S. Department of Education, national advocates and the Austin Chamber of Commerce. The Austin Chamber sponsored 22 FAFSA completion events this fall with district partners. More than 1,300 students/parents attended. Through December 12, 2016, 41% of Class of 2017 submitted FAFSA, ahead of South Texas's 33% rate. Success is tied to our ACL Fest student incentive, which yielded over 900 FAFSA registrations for our first weekend alone. In 2017, C3, Alamo Drafthouse and SXSW will offer incentives to high-performing campuses. Thank you to all our partners for making these contests possible.

2017 DTC70 Targets:

DTC70 Data Work: In 2017, the DTC70 Partnership will work to:

• improve data automation among the ISDs and our partner One Logos to empower our schools with actionable data to support postsecondary readiness and enrollment;
• expand student outcomes data to include military enlistment;
• expand access to 50 states to track wages and employment;
• explore equivalent means to measure college/career readiness;
• advocate for funds such that Texas Education Agency can shrink the time between October graduation file submission and late January high school graduation data release.

DTC70 Leadership Work: Superintendents are working to prioritize their budgets to achieve DTC70 success. In the FY17 (current year) budget, Austin ISD hired an additional counselor on each high school campus. Round Rock ISD intends to do the same. All districts have extended counselor contracts to provide college transition supporting during the summer.

2017 Texas Legislature K12 Objectives: The Chamber will work for outcomes which benefit our students, our partnership, our taxpayers, our region and our state:

• Reform or replace the “Robin Hood” method of school finance. Governor Abbott recently joined the chorus of voices that want to address school finance in the upcoming session. He joins Speaker Straus and members of both the House and Senate in wanting to address the outdated and ineffective school finance laws. This has us optimistic that positive change may be on the way.
• Fund TEXAS Grant: $3,000 college scholarships for college-ready graduates who have financial need.
• State fund at least one college prep exam. After the TAKS test was eliminated, high school students had to pay to take a college readiness assessment like the SAT, ACT or TSI. The Chamber encourages the Legislature to fund at least one iteration and publicly report student results to campuses in close to real-time.

Austin ISD Master Facilities Plan: The Austin Chamber will also support AISD Administration and Trustees as they plan for the future and implement their first master facilities plan, aimed to modernize and effectively utilize their 120+ facilities.