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Kickstart College-Ready is a collaborative by IDRA and Region One Education Service Center (ESC). The program will open doors to college for students across the Rio Grande Valley. Launched in November 2025, the initiative will help school districts ensure all students have access to dual credit, career certificates and associate degree pathways.
Texas schools fail to graduate more than one of every five high school students. Less than half of high school graduates enroll in college. Usually, early college high school programs, which help make college more affordable, are only available to a subset of students.
Kickstart College-Ready integrates college-access strategies into all aspects of a campus. This includes advising, instruction, scheduling and college partnerships while honoring local needs and vision.
Kickstart College-Ready uses proven early-college models that keep students in school to not only earn high school diplomas but also to graduate college-ready, receive dual credit and even graduate high school with an associate degree.
The initiative will extend successful early college high school (ECHS) and Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) strategies into a schoolwide model where every student is part of a college-going culture.
The Texas Rio Grande Valley has high concentrations of poverty. This makes it even more important that students are not tracked into lower-level coursework or graduation plans that will fail to prepare them for college and careers. Students must have a fair shot at accessing advanced, dual-credit coursework that will kickstart their college journey.
IDRA and ESC Region One will provide on-site technical assistance, coaching and staff training to three Cameron County school districts:
- Los Fresnos CISD
- San Benito CISD
- La Feria ISD
The program also works in partnership with Texas Southmost College and Texas State Technical College.
In the process, IDRA will document the project to develop a framework that other schools can replicate nationwide.
The project is made possible by the generous support of Greater Texas Foundation.
