Breakthrough provides a path to college, starting in middle school, for low-income students who will be first-generation college graduates. The program admits students as 6th graders and makes a six-year commitment to helping them graduate from high school and enter college. Breakthrough admitted its first class in 2002, and currently serves more than 240 students in grades seven through twelve. Our goal is for at least 95% of our students to graduate from high school and for at least 85% of them to go straight to college.
Why Austin needs Breakthrough
At Breakthrough students' neighborhood high schools--Lanier, Johnston, Reagan, & Travis--four-year graduation rates range from 35-45% Source: Texas Education Agency AEIS reports, 2003.
Only 6% of students from the nation's poorest families, those making less than $35,000 a year, earn a bachelor's degree by age 24 Source: U.S. Department of Education, "Answers in the Toolbox," 1999.
Low-income students are seven times less likely to go to college than affluent students Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Access to Postsecondary Education for 1992 High School Graduates."
