Teachers
whose students are learning the English language participate in an activity
facilitated by Frank Lucido and Candelario Huerta of Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi. (Photo by Jackie Christenson, East Central Independent School
District)
(San Antonio)—Three years after its establishment, a P-16 (pre-kindergarten through college) Partnership between The Texas A&M University System and three school districts in South San Antonio has reached about 20,000 students, 9,000 families, 400 teachers and support staff, and 60 administrators. The partnership’s goal is to help students improve their academic performance to prepare them for college-level work and entry into the workforce.
“This is an unprecedented effort to help provide basic services in South San Antonio that people in other places take for granted,” said Leo Sayavedra, A&M System vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, who oversees and coordinates grant support for the partnership. “We are working with the school districts that will be the main pipeline for students at Texas A&M University-San Antonio to prepare students academically, and with families to help them understand that higher education can be within their reach.”
The partnership, launched by Sayavedra; Ed Garza, a Texas A&M University graduate who was mayor of San Antonio at the time; and the superintendents of the East Central, Southside and Southwest school districts, was established in anticipation of the fall 2009 opening of the proposed new A&M System campus there.
Michael
Martin, Susan Stuver and Renee Berry, engineers with the Texas Engineering
Experiment Station, and other judges pose with recent science fair winners
and their teacher at Pearce Primary School. (Photo by Phil Chavez,
Southside Independent School District)
The partnership matches needs of the school districts—including teacher recruitment, leadership development, mentoring for new teachers, and community support services for students and their families—with resources within A&M System universities and agencies. A P-16 Council consisting of representatives from the three school districts, the A&M System, the mayor’s office, the CitySouth Management Authority and Palo Alto College, meets monthly to discuss the progress being made toward the partnership’s goals. Mike Holt and Irma Harper of the A&M System assist with teacher recruitment and novice teacher programs.
“I believe we have a professional responsibility as well as a moral responsibility to give qualified students in all parts of the state access to the kind of quality education that A&M System universities provide,” said Sayavedra. “Working with school districts and the families of students in South San Antonio, an area that has been underserved for generations, is part of our land-grant mission.”
Mary Cauble and Pam Winn, both assistant professors of education at Tarleton State University, provide professional development for principals and assistant principals in South San Antonio. Three of the 27 participants in the Aspiring Leaders Academy that Cauble and Winn coordinated last year have moved into leadership positions within the partnership districts.
“We have gained so much from the many resources provided from the A&M System and are now able to offer quality professional development in critical core subject areas as well as in instructional leadership,” wrote Sharon Doughty, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Southside ISD, in a letter to Tarleton President Dennis McCabe. “As a result of this valuable professional development over the past three years, we have seen significant increases in all areas of student achievement.”
Jean
Rodman, assistant professor of education at the Texas A&M University-Kingsville
System Center—San Antonio, talks with a potential student at a recruitment
fair held at East Central High School. (Photo by Jackie Christenson,
East Central Independent School District)
In addition, Frank Lucido and Candelario Huerta of the Institute for Second Language Achievement at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi have helped about 160 teachers in grades 6 through 12 with instructional strategies and have delivered certification programs for teachers of English as a second language. Students at the Texas A&M University-Kingsville System Center—San Antonio participate in field-based after-school programs and student teaching at schools in the three districts, and faculty are conducting research on literacy and family/community involvement with the schools.
Connie Sheppard of Texas Cooperative Extension is spearheading an effort to bring the services of more than 30 community agencies and businesses to the schools to benefit school counselors, nurses, social workers and family liaisons. These services are delivered through community fairs, student/family help cards and resource guides.
This fall, a pilot program will be introduced at one elementary school in each district that will follow select students and their families through middle school and high school to provide them with information about opportunities beyond high school and their benefits.
“Our goal is to empower parents to help each other by getting the whole community involved,” said Sheppard, Bexar County Extension agent for family and consumer sciences. “If parents as well as their children see the value of education and participate in the process, then the experience is much richer and their children are more likely to continue on.”
In addition, Fathers (or Families) Reading Every Day (FRED), developed by Stephen Green of Texas Cooperative Extension to increase the involvement of fathers and grandfathers in children's literacy and to improve these family relationships, has been implemented in the elementary schools, and Greg Taylor of Texas Cooperative Extension is helping the schools assess their programs that involve families and the community.
Through the Texas Rural Systemic Initiative sponsored by the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), JoAnn McDonald and Fernando Ruiz have delivered a variety of professional development activities for math and science teachers. In addition, under the leadership of Skip Mills, TEES director of San Antonio operations, several engineers have shared information about their profession and the importance of math and science with students and have served as judges in science fairs for talented and gifted students.
The A&M
System P-16 Partnership has become a model for other states and for Texas.
The Texas Education Agency and Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board this
year launched a statewide P-16 initiative to promote better communication between
public and higher education. Similar efforts are under way in California,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia and Nebraska. 