The Blueprint for Educational Change is the Central Texas community’s effort to build the most successful educational pipeline in the country to ensure our competitiveness and quality of life as a region.
The Blueprint is a first of its kind regional plan that addresses the needs across the entire educational continuum from kindergarten through post- secondary and on to career and lifelong success.
The community’s promise is that all Central Texas children will start school ready to learn, have equal levels of academic potential and be fully prepared after high school graduation for college, career, and lifelong success.
The Blueprint for Educational Change’s goals are:
1. All children enter kindergarten school ready.
2. We eliminate achievement gaps while improving overall student performance.
3. All students graduate college-and-career ready and prepared for a lifetime of learning.
4. Central Texas as a community prepares children to succeed.
Goal #1 – Children enter kindergarten school ready.
The foundation for success in education and in life is laid in early childhood. Yet over 40% of Central Texas children are 18 months behind by the time they enter kindergarten, not knowing a single color or letter, while others are writing, counting, and talking in complete sentences.
Ensuring that all Central Texas children enter school ready to learn will return each $1.00 investment over 13 times, according to MIT.
Draft Blueprint Objective:
- 70% of children enter kindergarten school ready by 2015.
- 95% of children enter kindergarten school ready by 2020.
Action Strategies* |
Draft Success Indicators* |
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*Objectives and Success Indicators are under development by Blueprint partners. They represent objective measures to evaluate and track our progress over time.
Goal #2 – Central Texas eliminates achievement gaps for all students while improving overall performance.
Central Texas enjoys high performance rates in many districts on many indicators of student achievement, yet large gaps among ethnic and socioeconomic groups remain. As Hispanic, Black and Economically Disadvantaged students often have passing rates 30 points lower than the average on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests.
Demographic and economic projections for the region tell us that we can only be globally competitive if all our students succeed.
Draft Blueprint Objective:
- 8th graders across all subpopulations achieve 20% higher outcomes on state assessments, both passing and commended by 2015.
Action Strategies* |
Draft Success Indicators* |
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*Objectives and Success Indicators are under development by Blueprint partners. They represent objective measures to evaluate and track our progress over time.
Goal #3 – Students graduate college-and-career ready and prepared for a lifetime of learning.
90% of the fastest growing jobs require some post-secondary education yet only 2/3rds of our 9th graders graduate high school, and only 43% of those are ready for college level classes without remedial work.
To succeed in the 21st century and build a world-class economy, Central Texas must have the best-prepared graduates - those who have the academic skills, creativity, and job skills needed to succeed in life.
Draft Blueprint Objective:
- 95%+ graduation rate by 2015.
- 20,010 more students enroll in college by 2010.
- Double the number of students who are college-and-career ready by 2015.
Action Strategies* |
Draft Success Indicators* |
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*Objectives and Success Indicators are under development by Blueprint partners. They represent objective measures to evaluate and track our progress over time.
Goal# 4 - Central Texas as a community prepares children to succeed.
Studies have shown that over 50% of a student’s performance is driven by factors outside of schools including socioeconomic conditions, parent education level, and cultural expectations.
Communities that support education both inside AND outside the classroom create a culture of learning that raises the performance level of all students and strengthens the system of education and the community.
Draft Blueprint Objective:
- Community based organizations, parents, local industry, and education work together to create successful conditions for learning and achievement.
Action Strategies* |
Draft Success Indicators* |
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*Objectives and Success Indicators are under development by Blueprint partners. They represent objective measures to evaluate and track our progress over time.
