Education Receives Grant to Increase College Readiness
January 30, 2012
The $200,000 will fund outreach activities in the region to promote a college-going culture.
In addition to funding outreach activities, the grant will also provide $50,000 in scholarships to first-year college students.
Texas Tech’s College of Education, in collaboration with the South Plains Closing the Gaps P-20 Council, was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The grant will fund outreach activities to promote a college-going culture in the region. The College of Education Project FUTURE program, which serves sixth through 12th-grade students, will provide opportunities to learn about college and to consider careers as educators.
Janie Ramirez, outreach programs administrator for the College of Education and executive director for the South Plains Closing the Gaps P-20 Council, said the grant is important to Texas Tech and the community because it will help improve the academic achievement and graduation attainment of underserved populations in the region.
“The grant will bring greater awareness of the need to increase our college-going rates,” Ramirez said, “as well as provide students and parents with opportunities to take advantage of higher education.”
The program will work with 13 partnering school districts which represent 70 percent of the total student population in the region, or about 53,000 students, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.
In addition, the grant will allow work-study interns to conduct on-site mentoring services at 16 area high schools. The interns will assist students and parents with college preparedness by using the statewide resources of the Generation Texas campaign.
The grant will also provide $50,000 in scholarships to first-year college students. The scholarship will be matched by Texas Tech.
The regions college-going rate is 52.5 percent compared to the state’s average of 55 percent.
“Providing the region with resources that are going to improve these rates is critical to the economic success of the area,” Ramirez said.
The opportunity for the council to help jumpstart this effort and promote the Generation Texas campaign will directly affect the state’s ability to achieve the goals of Closing the Gaps in 2015.
The campaign features online college and career resources at www.GenTX.org.
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College of Education
The College of Education at Texas Tech University offers a full range of programs, including 9 doctoral degrees, 10 master's degrees, two bachelor's degrees and numerous specializations which can lead to careers in public or private education as teachers, professors, administrators, counselors and diagnosticians.
Programs in the college are housed in three departments.
The Department of Curriculum & Instruction offers advanced degrees that prepare leaders, researchers, and professors with the knowledge, skills, and practical application experience needed to analyze, construct, and evaluate curricula in ways that create optimal learning conditions for all learners. Language and literacy, bilingual education and STEM education are just a few of the specializations offered by C&I.
The Department of Educational Psychology & Leadership consists of a diverse group of academic programs that equip students with a comprehensive knowledge of learning, motivation, development, and educational foundations. The disciplines of counseling and school psychology are housed within the EP&L department as are programs to prepare future college administrators, primary and secondary school and district leaders, as well as practical and academic educational psychologists.
The Department of Teacher Education focuses solely on teacher preparation, ensuring that teacher candidates are ready for the classroom on day one. The Teacher Education Department is home to TechTeach, an innovative teacher preparation program that puts teacher candidates into public school classrooms for a full year and requires that students pass teacher certification tests prior to entering the classroom. Various paths to teaching careers, including fast-track distance programs statewide and alternative certification options, are also housed in this department.
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