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Recommended Strategies from the Falfurrias Dialogue THECB GOAL 1: Close the Gaps in Participation B y 2015, close the gaps in participation rates across Texas to add 500,000 more students.Dialogue Recommended Strategies |
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• The statewide media campaign must be regionalized to reflect the linguistic, social and cultural values and characteristics of each region of the state. In South Texas and the balance of the Border Region the media campaign must be bilingual in Spanish and English. This campaign should also emphasize the availability of financial aid and target the parents as an integral part of the education experience at all levels.
• The participation numeric goals must be reconsidered to factor in the acute attrition rates in South Texas that diminishes the available pool of students that is able or willing to enroll in a post-secondary institution.
• The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency should fund a joint research effort to determine the root causes of both public school and post-secondary attrition. There must be a realistic definition of attrition to guide integrated and collaborative efforts by both public schools and post-secondary institutions to increase the number of graduates that enroll and succeed in a college or university.
• PTOs (Parent Teachers Organizations) in public schools must be given a significant role in the recruitment strategy for Closing the Gaps. It was recommended that every effort should be made to have these organizations work with the regional institutions and to have them meet on-campus as part of an outreach initiative.
• The family and business community are essential elements in the success for Closing the Gaps and strategies to involve them must be at the core of any outreach planning.
• High school seniors should be required to fill out a financial aid application during the fall semester of senior year as part of their individual development plan with the high school counseling office. This process would provide these students with a fall back option in case they decide to pursue a post-secondary course of study.
• The Closing the Gaps numeric goals must be revised to include the numbers of non-traditional students that receive training and educational development at regional community colleges and the Texas State Technical Colleges. This
will increase their ability to become fully employable members of the community and part of the region’s economic mainstream.
• All institutions should make the processes for registration and applying for financial aid less bureaucratic and more customer [student] friendly.
• Waive all tuition and fees for entering community college students since the majority of proposed Closing the Gaps ethnic enrollments are heavily clustered at this level. This action would result in both higher participation and retention rates for the targeted populations.
• That there should be a stronger emphasis on reading as part of the Recommended High School Program and that this initiative should be anchored in the P-K to Middle School tiers prior to entry to high school by Texas students.
The participants cited the reading shortfalls in public schools as a major impediment to success in the freshman year of the collegiate experience for a majority of students.
• The Texas Second Step Grant Program must be carefully reviewed and implemented as a core of the recruitment and financial aid strategy.
• The State must develop and fund regional capacity building collaborative sites at selected colleges and universities to provide continuous capacity building training for faculty and staff.
THECB GOAL 2: Close the Gaps in Success
By 2015, increase by 50 percent the number of degrees, certificates and other identifiable student successes from high quality programs.
Dialogue Recommended Strategies
• Expand collaborations and cross pollination efforts among all federally funded student support services in region [TRIO, GEAR-UP–Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, Title V, etc.]
• Develop a state set aside fund to support the post-federal funding transition of programs such as TRIO, GEARUP.
–Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, and Title V so that they may become an ongoing component of higher education institutions.
• Provide funding to encourage and support the extra-curricular participation of college and university faculty and staff in Pre-K to 16 outreach initiatives in public schools.
• Provide supplemental funding to those regions that will carry the majority of the effort to increase the number of under-represented populations. The demographic data indicate that the South Texas post-secondary institutions will be responsible for meeting at least 70% of the projected enrollment of Hispanic students to meet the Closing the Gaps goals. The same holds true for those urban institutions that will attend to the targeted goals for African-American students.
• There should be a "College Success Orientation Course" required of all entering freshmen in Texas to socialize them to the higher education experience. Many students drop out because they fail to access the many support services and academic resources that can make a difference in their academic development. This course should be on the common course manual and approved for funding by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
• An incentive program should be considered that would reward regional community colleges and senior level institutions with supplemental funds for attaining targeted outcomes in transfer and retention rates of at-risk students.
• There is a need to develop more masters and doctoral level educational leadership and community college instructional certification programs in the South Texas region. The community colleges and state technical college in this region do not have sufficient graduate training programs to expand the capacity of their faculty and staff to respond to a growing student population that has many special needs.
• Regional post-secondary institutions that are developing new instructional and training programs should receive capacity building funding that overlaps the current biennium funding cycle.
• The family and business community are essential elements in the success for Closing the Gaps and strategies to involve them should be at the core of any outreach planning and the media campaign.
THECB GOAL 3: Close the Gaps in Excellence
By 2015, substantially increase the number of nationally recognized programs or services at colleges and universities in Texas.
Dialogue Recommended Strategies
• Excellence is the outcome of a continuous development process that begins in the public schools and all colleges and universities need to be fully vested in their regional Pre-K to high school programs.
• The federally support services [GEAR-UP–Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, TRIO, Title V] that target at risk and under-represented students should be funded by the state during the last federal cycle so that a plan is put into place that results in a sustainable college and university based program.
• The state should not establish any more under-funded institutions that are facility rich but lack operational funds to serve their constituencies.
• This is a goal that can only be achieved if the other three Closing the Gaps goals are successfully attained.
THECB GOAL 4: Close the Gaps in Research
By 2015, increase the level of federal science and engineering research funding to Texas institutions by 50 percent to $1.3 billion.
Dialogue Recommended Strategies
• Research must be an essential element of all Texas institutions of higher education regardless of their ranking on the different research tiers.
• A research infrastructure is a critical component of a regional post-secondary institution’s role in the development of local economies and sufficient funds should be allocated to implement an achievable research agenda. Among the industries that are impacted by research in the South Texas region are those in biotechnology, medical technology, manufacturing, environmental sciences, transportation and cross-border economic development as well as those that attend to the needs of the education of the region’s school population.
• Research and teaching are part and parcel of the training and preparation of certified master and doctoral level professionals to meet the needs of the expanding South Texas regional economy. The development of more stand alone and collaborative graduate, masters, and doctoral programs should be funded in South Texas colleges and universities to meet emerging needs for certified professionals to work in the higher education institutions throughout the state.
• Research and development collaborations between senior institutions and community and technical colleges should be funded for the development, piloting and validation of instructional and training models and curriculum to address the needs of unprepared and under-represented populations in the South Texas region.
• Research funds should be allocated to the newly created South Texas health and medical training centers since quality medical education is not feasible without a strong research component.
• South Texas and other regional colleges and universities should not be isolated and insulated from the practice of research due to the lack of research funds that have been allocated to these institutions in the past.
• Research institutes along the Texas border should be allocated state funds to address the region’s emerging environmental, infrastructure, labor, economy, technology, housing, educational and health needs. There is a paucity of research on the emerging challenges and opportunities within this region and on the border with Mexico.
