TEMPLE, Texas — Temple High School will be celebrating a significant milestone going into graduation next week with 100 percent of the students on the THS campus in the Class of 2026 being considered College, Career, and Military Ready based on the state of Texas’ CCMR requirements.
There are a number of ways that students can qualify as college, career, or military ready. Students can meet requirements in ELA/Reading and Math on the Texas Success Initiative (TSI), reach certain scores on standardized college admissions tests like the SAT or ACT, or earn an associate’s degree before graduating from high school. Earning industry-based certifications and completing a certain number of credits in Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses also qualifies students. Earning specific scores on International Baccalaureate (IB) or Advanced Placement (AP) exams or completing required hours of dual credit or dual enrollment courses qualify students who participate in advanced academics. Students may also enlist in the military and special education students who graduate with a completed Individualized Education Program (IEP), or an advanced graduation plan also are recognized as CCMR ready. The CCMR numbers not only signify the student readiness for post-graduation paths, but they are also important to a campus’ accountability ratings with the state of Texas.
“Our goal has always been to prepare students for life after high school and this validates that we did it,” said Dr. Jason Mayo, Principal of Temple HS. “In the eyes of the state, one hundred percent of our kids are ready to go off to college, career, and the military. That is something we can celebrate, and we are really proud of the hard work we put in. Every kid is important, and their future is important to us. I am really proud of our team and happy to see what the kids do after they leave Temple High School.”
Temple High School will be celebrating the achievement later this week. THS students will receive their CCMR cord to wear during the Temple ISD graduation ceremony during a CCMR breakfast on Thursday, May 21st, at 8:30 am in the THS student center.
“We are really excited that our students will get a chance to celebrate their hard work,” said Dr. Barbara Epperson, Associate Principal of Temple HS. “It also helps build confidence in our students that when they enroll in college, they are ready, or if they enlist in the military, that they are prepared, and the same thing with the workforce, because they already have certifications, and in some cases, job offers. Students take a lot of pride in the CCMR cord and have been asking about them since August.”
Temple High School has made a concentrated effort to improve the campus’ CCMR numbers. The school formed a CCMR team three years ago to bring experts in the process to the same table. There has also been an implementation of a tracking system to follow student progress, the introduction of individual plans for each student, and formal meetings to discuss progress by examining the current cohort of students.
“We brought everybody to the table through our CCMR working group, which is really important because we’re not only able to look at the big picture, but we can also look at each individual student, and have those one-on-one conversations,” said Robert Richardson, CCMR committee team member at Temple HS. “We implemented a tracking system that has really allowed us to keep up with every student and know exactly where they are. We are also catching the students earlier. We know that CCMR guidelines are changing for the classes that are coming up, and we are looking at ways our students can continue to meet the expectations that are set by the state.”
Temple High School administrators, staff, and students are already hard at work toward continuing the success of these CCMR initiatives. Nearly 50 percent of the Class of 2027 is also college, career, or military ready and the campus has also already completed some members of the Class of 2030 with the extension of the program to some eighth graders.
This is the second consecutive year that Temple High School has posted a CCMR percentage of 98 or better. School representatives were also selected to present about the school’s approach to CCMR at the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) Midwinter Conference earlier this school year.