IDRA Newsletter - VOL LIII, NO. 5 May 2026 - Focus: High School to College Pathways

Oct 15, 2026

IDRA Newsletter May 2026 examines Texas high school attrition as a long-term barrier to college access and student success. It presents reflections on how severe dropout losses unfolded across four decades, highlights findings from IDRA’s inaugural attrition study and its key questions on who leaves, why, and the full costs to Texas, and describes policy momentum including House Bill 1010. The issue also connects earlier evidence to current disruptions, emphasizing urgency for sustained, data-informed interventions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Focus: High School to College Pathways

Community-based College Access Tools to Bridge Barriers to College

Reflections by Students in IDRA Programs Point to Life-Changing Futures

4.3 Million Texas Students Lost Across 40 Years of IDRA’s Attrition Studies

IDRA President & CEO Reflects on Unrealized Potential, Renewed Urgency

IDRA N E W S L E T T E R ISSN 1069-5672 VOL LIII, NO. 5 May 2026 Focus: High School to College Pathways Community-based College Access Tools to Bridge Barriers to College .................................................................. 3 Reflections by Students in IDRA Programs Point to Life-Changing Futures............................................................5 4.3 Million Texas Students Lost Across 40 Years ofIDRA’s Attrition Studies IDRA President & CEO Reflects on Unrealized Potential, Renewed Urgency by Celina Moreno, J.D. I remember being shuffled onto squeaky risers with the rest of the roughly 1,000, mostly Latino, freshmen in my high school class for our panoramic class photo. Four years later, I was stunned to learn I was graduating in a class of only 500. Out of 1,000 students, 500 of my classmates were not graduating with the rest of us – an attrition rate of about 50%. A few years later, my high school became low-key infamous when newspapers quoted the Building a Grad Nation report that labeled my school as a“dropout factory”(Balfanz et al., 2010). The 500 lost students from my class are among the over 4.3 million students that Texas public schools have lost in the last four decades – more people than live in Los Angeles. This year marks the 40th year IDRA has tracked Texas high school attrition rates, which are an indicator of a school’s ability to keep high school freshmen enrolled through graduation. The attrition rates for the four years I was in highschool (1995-1999) were the highest on record: Texas lost more than half of their Latino students and Black students during that time. So many students paid the price in lost college opportunities and hampered career options. That lost potential motivated me in college to cover the education beat as a student journalist, study education policy as a graduate student, and pursue a career as an education policy and legal advocate. It is what made me want to lead IDRA, which has worked for over 50 years to ensure public schools prepare all students to access and succeed in college. IDRA’s inaugural attrition study, commissioned by the state and led by IDRA’s late President Emerita Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, answered three questions (2004). The first question: How many students are dropping out? The answer was over 86,000 students that year. The attrition rate for Latino students was 45%, by far the highest percentage of any racial/ethnic group at the time. The second question: Why are students leaving? Students left for many reasons, but feeling a lack of connection to school was an underlying theme of the study’s findings. And lastly: What is it costing Texas? The answer was: $17.2 billion over the lifetime of those students in foregone income, lost tax base, increased unemployment costs, increased criminal justice costs, and increased public assistance spending. On the other hand, IDRA found that for every $1 invested in keeping students in school, $9 would be returned. That was 1986. Before that time, no one knew exactly how many students in Texas were leaving school without a high school diploma. IDRA’s study put on paper what families could (cont. on Page 2) This year’s findings show a troubling disruption in the progress Texas schools have made to keep students on track to graduate. By not graduating one in five highschool students, Texas pushes a fifth of our students away from college. M ay 2026 i d r a n e ws l e tt er 1 Focus: High School to College Pathways (4.3 Million Texas Students Lost Across 40 Years of IDRA’s Attrition Studies, continued from Page 1) sense and what businesses complained of when they lamented not having a big enough talent pool from which to hire. Those without a highschool diploma have the highest unemployment rates (BLS, 2025a). They are twice as likely to be unemployed (NCES, 2026). And, over a lifetime, they will earn $200,000 to $250,000 less than high school gradua

FAQs

What does IDRA track in Texas to measure progress toward graduation?

IDRA tracks high school attrition rates, which indicate how well schools keep freshmen enrolled through graduation.

What were the three core questions in IDRA’s inaugural attrition study?

The study asked: how many students are dropping out, why students leave, and what the situation costs Texas over time.

How did Texas policy respond to IDRA’s early attrition findings?

Policymakers took the study seriously and passed Texas House Bill 1010 in 1987, which included dropout identification procedures, reporting requirements, and funding for interventions.

Oct 15, 2026

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