Houston’s graduates are making gains in college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) — but the progress obscures a troubling shift in how students are getting there.
by Sara Sands Francis, Mingyu Lu, Patrick Gill
CCMR measures whether students graduate prepared for life after high school, as defined by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Students qualify by meeting at least one of the following:
College Readiness: Scoring well on the SAT, ACT, or Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA); earning college credit through AP/IB exams or dual credit courses; obtaining an associate degree; or completing college prep courses in math and reading.
Career or Military Readiness: Earning an industry-based certification (IBC) through Career and Technical Education (CTE) or enlisting in the military.
CCMR overall scores are improving for nearly all districts and major charter schools across the Houston region. That improvement appears to be propelled by gains in college readiness. But when we examine the strongest CCMR indicators — those most closely linked to actual postsecondary success — our region still lags behind pre-pandemic achievement. And our largest districts continue to trail peer urban districts across Texas.
Continuous Improvement in CCMR, Powered by College Readiness
Across the Houston region, 80% of the graduating class of 2024 met CCMR criteria — up from 74% the year before. While this is two percentage points below the statewide average of 82%, many districts and charter schools exceeded both. KIPP Houston (98%), Harmony Public Schools (96%), and Channelview ISD (96%) all far surpassed regional and state averages.
Driving these results is a sustained climb in college readiness. Since last year, college readiness jumped 10 percentage points — a 20-point gain over the past two years, from 49% in 2022 to 70% in 2024. At the same time, the proportion of graduates who are career or military ready only has declined, falling from 16% in 2022 to 10% in 2024.
Not All Pathways Are Created Equal
This improvement masks an important problem: more students are meeting CCMR benchmarks through lower-rigor pathways that may not set them up for long-term success.
Students earning CCMR through high-rigor options — meeting the SAT or ACT, or completing Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses — has decreased compared to pre-pandemic levels. In particular, the upswing in college readiness rates appears to be driven largely by students completing college prep courses in math and reading, which jumped from just 2% of graduates in 2019 to 26% in 2024.
The implications are serious. Recent research conducted by a team of researchers convened by LONESTARP3 found that students earning CCMR solely through college prep coursework are actually far less likely to persist and earn a postsecondary credential than students who meet no CCMR indicator at all.
In other words: meeting CCMR standards only through college prep coursework is worse for long-term student outcomes than not meeting any CCMR standard at all.
Houston Still Lags Its Urban Peers
The gap is even more visible when we compare Houston-region districts to peers in the Texas Urban Council (TUC), a network of the state’s largest urban school systems. The TUC average for college readiness in the graduating class of 2024 was 75% — five points above the Houston region average of 70%.
Houston ISD, our largest district, reached 78% college readiness — above the TUC average, but still trailing districts like Pasadena (88%), Ysleta ISD (84%), Austin ISD (84%), and Fort Worth ISD (83%). Aldine ISD, at 51%, remains one of the furthest behind among comparable systems.
What Comes Next
As we work to return to and exceed pre-pandemic CCMR achievement, it’s not enough to celebrate rising numbers. We need to ensure those numbers reflect preparation that actually translates to postsecondary persistence and completion — the measures most closely tied to students earning a living wage.
That means holding schools accountable for high-rigor indicators: TSIA, SAT/ACT, dual credit, AP/IB, and earning an associate’s degree. The Texas Education Agency is aligned with this direction — TEA has proposed a new tiering of CCMR measures, set to take effect over the next few years, that would prioritize the indicators most strongly associated with postsecondary success.
Good Reason Houston will continue to track these trends and advocate for policies and school practices that move Houston students not just across the graduation finish line, but into the lives and careers they deserve.
Source: TAPR 2025. Produced by Good Reason Houston’s Research & Data Team.
Learn More
💬 Still have questions? Read answers to the questions our webinar audience asked most — including what a living wage means for Houston students, which credentials lead to strong outcomes, and how families can track how districts invest in student readiness. Available in English and Spanish. Read the full Q&A
📺 Missed the webinar? Read our recap of the Pathways to Possible webinar for highlights from the conversation.
