College, Career, or Military Readiness Outcomes Bonus (CCMR OB) Funding Timeline and New Early Counts File

The purpose of this communication is to provide updates on the College, Career, or Military Readiness Outcomes Bonus (CCMR OB) funding timeline and announce the publication of a new Early Counts file based on stakeholder feedback.  

Background

Under House Bill 3 (HB 3), 86th Legislature, 2019, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) annually awards districts CCMR OB funding. Funding is awarded based on the number of annual graduates who demonstrate college, career, or military readiness in excess of a threshold for three cohorts: 1) annual graduates who are economically disadvantaged; 2) annual graduates who are not economically disadvantaged; and 3) annual graduates who are enrolled in a special education program.  

Districts receive the following amounts for qualifying graduates that exceed the threshold performance set for each group (the threshold performance matches performance within each group meeting the CCMR standard at the 25th percentile of 2017 performance statewide). Graduates who were enrolled in a special education program count towards either economically disadvantaged or non-economically disadvantaged in addition to the special education group.

College ready is defined as:  

• Earns an associate degree, or  
• Meets Texas Success Initiative (TSI) criteria and enrolls at a postsecondary institution immediately following high school.  

Career ready is defined as:  

• Meets Texas Success Initiative (TSI) criteria, and 
• Earns an industry-based certification (IBC) or earns a level I or level II certificate.  

Military ready is defined as enlisting in the Armed Forces of the United States or the Texas National Guard. However, this indicator has been suspended due to data reporting discrepancies. The military enlistment indicator is scheduled to return for 2024 accountability based on a new data collection.  

CCMR OB Funding  

CCMR OB funding in the Summary of Finances (SOF) report is based on qualifying graduates from two years prior. For example, fiscal year 2024–2025 CCMR OB funding will be based on qualifying graduates from the Class of 2023. Districts are paid during the fiscal year based on Legislative Payment Estimates (LPE). District Planning Estimates (DPE) are periodically updated as data becomes available. Final counts are incorporated as part of the settle up process. CCMR OB funding sources and timelines are shifting, beginning with Class of 2022 as noted below. 

New Early Counts File and Class of 2022 CCMR OB Funding Timeline 

Currently, TEA publishes a Final CCMR OB report and Final Counts by district. The Class of 2021 CCMR OB Counts by District and Class of 2021 CCMR OB State Report were published in August 2023 on the Performance Reporting Resources webpage.

Based on feedback from stakeholders, TEA has started calculating new “early counts” for CCMR OB. Early counts are based on actual data for the graduating class. Early counts: 

• Include final data for graduates that met TSI criteria, earned associate degrees, and earned IBCs,  
• Include data from the National Student Clearinghouse for graduates that enrolled at a postsecondary institution immediately following high school, and 
• Do not yet include data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) for postsecondary enrollment. 

TEA has published an Early CCMR OB Counts by District 2022 Graduates file on the Performance Reporting Resources webpage. School year 2023–2024 CCMR OB funding in the DPE column of the SOF reports reflects these early counts.  

Once data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is received and processed, a Final CCMR OB Counts by District 2022 Graduates file will be published within a few months and will be incorporated into the SOF reports to settle up fiscal year 2023–2024 CCMR OB funding. The CCMR OB Student Listings file will be released to districts in TEA Login (TEAL) after final CCMR OB counts are available. In addition, TEA will be adding a CCMR OB report to the Texas Performance Reporting System (TPRS).  

Future CCMR OB Funding Timeline and Early Counts

Future year CCMR OB funding will be based on early counts until final counts can be determined.  

CCMR OB funding for the Class of 2023 will be paid out during the 2024–2025 fiscal year, which starts September 2024. Early counts for the Class of 2023 will be published as early as possible before September 2024, so that fiscal year 2024–2025 payments (LPE) are based on early Class of 2023 counts, rather than an estimate based on previous year data. DPE will be updated around April 2025 with final counts, which will be used for near-final settle up.  

For Further Information

For questions regarding CCMR OB criteria and questions about allowable and strategic uses of OB funding, please contact the College, Career, and Military Preparation Division at (512) 936-6060 or ccmp@tea.texas.gov.

For questions regarding the early counts file, please contact the Performance Reporting Division at performance.reporting@tea.texas.gov.

For questions regarding funding, please contact the State Funding Division at (512) 463-9238 or sfinance@tea.texas.gov.