Lake Travis Independent School District (ISD) has joined the Central Texas Student Futures Project, a multi-year research partnership between the Ray Marshall Center, area school districts, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and others aimed at understanding the factors that influence how students transition from high school to postsecondary education and the workforce. The purpose of the project is two-fold: 1) To provide educators and employers with comprehensive, longitudinal research on what high school students are doing after graduation, why they are making these decisions, and how a variety of educational, personal and financial factors are related to their success in higher education and the workforce; 2) To provide real-time data and capacity building to Central Texas ISDs in preparing students for the demands of adulthood and for success in the workplace.
The Student Futures Project arose from a need to address changing state demographics and projected shortage of college-educated young people in the workforce. The research utilizes a wide-ranging list of data sources – student demographic records and academic history, student surveys taken in spring before their high school graduation, and postsecondary education and employment records up to four years after graduation – to develop a comprehensive picture of where students are coming from and what they have done, what they are planning after high school, and where they actually go. The number of participating school districts has grown since the project’s launch as a pilot in 2005. With Lake Travis ISD, the project is now expanded to 12 Central Texas independent school districts with well over 10,000 high schools students participating annually.
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