Good Reason Houston’s annual ConnectED convening unites more than a thousand Houstonians to rally behind a new regional North Star goal: to double the rate of public school graduates earning a living wage by 2040. Attendees from various sectors, including Pre-K-12 education, higher education, non-profit organizations, corporations, and philanthropy, all focused on a unified education continuum. This continuum follows student success from the first day of pre-K to the first day on the job, advancing an integrated, measurable cradle-to-career framework with clear milestones at every stage of a student’s journey. Encapsulated in our new Education Snapshot, the indicators track student progress across their educational and early career journey in three areas: Early Education, Core Development, and Postsecondary Success.
Our Education Snapshot ties the effectiveness of our pre-K-12, higher education, and workforce development systems to the ability of young people to pursue lives filled with choices and long-term economic opportunities. The young people reflected represent our region’s next generation of thinkers, creators, and leaders. Our region’s economic vitality depends on our ability to ensure they graduate from our public school system with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for long-term success. Currently, only one in five of our high school graduates in the Houston region are projected to earn a livable wage as young adults, according to our original research. We know Houston can do better. And we’re committed to getting there. The Education Snapshot provides an overview of where we are in supporting our students on their path to prosperity, autonomy, and opportunity.
In this blog and the three that follow, we break down the indicators in more depth (for notes on our methodology, visit here). The numbers help us see our strengths. With coordinated effort, we’ve begun to turn the tide on enrollment in early education experiences to reading and math achievement to college and career readiness. However, collective action is needed to ensure our students make the leap from high school to postsecondary opportunities. By embracing the indicators shared in the Education Snapshot, we can hold ourselves accountable as a community to building systems that support our students throughout their educational journeys and strengthen the entire Houston region.
EARLY LEARNING
Pre-K Enrollment: Number of tuition-eligible children in quality programs
Kindergarten Readiness: Percentage of pre-K students meeting readiness benchmarks
Grades 1-3 Reading & Math: % scoring Meets/Masters
CORE DEVELOPMENT
Grades 4–8 Reading & Math: % scoring Meets/Masters
Algebra I: Middle school students scoring Meets or Masters on Algebra I
End of Course (EOC) Reading & Math: % of Students Meets/Masters
Readiness: Achievement of SAT, ACT or TSIA benchmarks
POSTSECONDARY
Graduation: High‑school completion rate, including IGC considerations
Enrollment: Postsecondary entry within two years of graduation
Completion: Degree or credential earned within three to six years
Living Wage: Students earning a living wage 6 years post-high school graduation
From the First Day of Pre-K…
Pre-K is the first entry point into public school and sets a foundation for academic success later on. Generally, our students who need the most support ensuring they are ready for kindergarten qualify for free public pre-K programs. This includes children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and those whose first language is not English.
Though the rate of public pre-K enrollment among eligible 3- and 4- year olds declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Houston region has made steady progress in returning to pre-pandemic enrollment levels. Still, less than half of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in public pre-K programs in 2024.
Kindergarten Readiness is an indicator of how well prepared students are when they enter the public school system. Do they have the foundational literacy and numeracy skills needed to start strong? We look at the percentage of assessed incoming kindergarteners who met early readiness standards in reading and math.
In 2024, nearly 60% of incoming kindergarteners were assessed as school-ready, up from 52% in 2023. Students who enrolled in public pre-K programs were even more likely to enter kindergarten school-ready.
Meeting grade level expectations in both reading and math early in elementary school enables students to build upon their knowledge and skills in later years. Research has long found that meeting grade level standards on math and reading by third grade is a key marker of students’ long-term academic success. Diverging from the traditional way of reporting student math and reading achievement separately, we look at the number and percentage of third graders that meet or master grade level standards in math and reading on STAAR together. Our region’s third graders were slightly less likely to meet standards in both math and reading in 2024 than in 2023, although this number will likely rise when the 2025 data becomes available given the widespread progress we saw on STAAR last school year.
To Core Development Years…
- Reading and math progress in grades 4-8: Progress in reading and math across elementary and middle school is crucial for student success. From 2023 to 2024, there was slight progress in 4th-8th graders meeting state standards in both subjects, with 2025 data pending.
- Algebra 1 in 8th grade: Algebra 1 in 8th grade is critical for long-term success, linking to higher postsecondary credentials and livable wages. In 2024, 31% of Houston 8th graders took Algebra 1, up from 29% in 2023, and this is expected to grow due to Senate Bill 2124.
- High school course completion: High school graduation requires advanced math and English skills. More students met Algebra 1, English 1, or English II EOC standards in 2024 than in 2023, and this progress is hoped to continue.
- College readiness: College readiness is vital, even for those entering the workforce, as postsecondary credentials significantly increase the likelihood of earning a livable wage. The percentage of graduates meeting TEA’s college readiness standards (ACT/SAT, TSI) steadily increased, with 60% of 2023 graduates meeting standards, an 11-point gain from 2022.
To the first day on the job
Where our gains for students in pre-K-12 grades shine bright spots on our investments in those subjects, our lack of gains in the postsecondary success part of the continuum highlight where we need to bolster our efforts.
High school graduation rates in the Houston region have consistently been near 90%. However, college enrollment for 2021 graduates within two years of high school dropped to below 50% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though rates are slowly recovering. Postsecondary credential attainment within six years of high school has held steady at 27% for graduates between 2012-2017. Given the decline in college enrollment since 2017, this credential attainment rate is unlikely to rise without significant intervention. This is particularly important as graduates with postsecondary credentials are 3-5 times more likely to earn a livable wage. Our research released in January 2025 found only 20% of 2017 Houston-region graduates earned enough to qualify as a living wage in 2023, six years after high school
As we look to the future, we invite you to explore where we are today on our journey to our first major milestone: Increasing the number of students in the Houston region on the path to economic mobility by 45,000 by 2028. Join us in this work. Whether you’re an educator, business leader, policymaker, or concerned community member, you have a role to play in ensuring every Houston student has a path to economic mobility.