As a support organization for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), the College for All Texans Foundation (CFAT) works with foundations and corporate donors to provide the resources necessary for THECB initiatives. These efforts are designed to Close the Gaps in college participation and success by 2015 and improve the opportunities and economic well-being of our citizens.

The Texas Affordable Baccalaureate Project is partnership between CFAT, THECB, Texas A&M University-Commerce, and South Texas College, and is made possible by a Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant from EDUCAUSE. This $1 million, 2-year grant is designed to leverage technology in ways that will lead to scalable, low-cost degree solutions for all students, but especially those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

First-time students can earn a competency-based Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Organizational Leadership in as little as three years at a total student cost of approximately $13,650 and returning students in as little as one and half years at a total student cost of approximately $7,150. Cost savings will occur through using open educational resources, instructional technologies, alternative academic staffing models, and economies of scale. As student enrollment increases, tuition costs may be reduced because of economies of scale.

Advise TX is a college access program affiliated with the national College Advising Corps. This near-peer model for improvement of college access could well be likened to the “Teach for America” of advising in that it recruits highly talented recent graduates from partnering universities, intensively trains them as college advisers, and places them into high schools that have a high proportion of minority students, low college-going rates, and do not have school counselors dedicated to college advising. Advisers serve one to two years in these schools providing one-on-one assistance to students in matching their career goals and academic abilities to the best postsecondary options to help them achieve their dreams.

Partners in the project statewide include five Texas institutions – The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, Texas State University, and Trinity University – that have trained and placed advisers in 120 high-need schools across Texas since 2011.

GenTX is a statewide outreach effort to improve career-readiness and postsecondary application, attendance, and completion by leveraging proven social marketing techniques to motivate high school students to meet Texas’ College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) and teach them how to apply for college and financial aid using a social media web site (www.gentx.org).

The Texas Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) of the THECB is a project first funded by the Houston Endowment in 2007. It is an initiative of Commissioner Paredes motivated by the need for policymakers to have expanded access to objective research on topical higher education policy issues. HEPI staff and affiliated researchers produce reports, presentations, and briefs based upon original research and survey existing research to inform higher education policy related to Texas’ higher education goals. HEPI‘s areas of research include increasing cost efficiency and productivity, improving the measurement of learning outcomes, increasing Hispanic participation and success, and improving developmental education.

Quality Teacher Preparation

The Quality Teacher Preparation project forges a partnership between THECB and the Center for Research Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE). CREATE is a consortium of 45 universities working collaboratively and cooperatively with the THECB to provide opportunities for member institutions and the profession at large to systematically explore quality and effectiveness issues related to teacher preparation, retention, and student achievement. The program promotes and accelerates improvements in university-based teacher preparation programs by identifying exceptional teacher candidates and exemplary practices within existing programs and fosters broad scale application of identified best practices to improve quality and productivity of university-based programming.

License Plate Scholarships

As part of an effort to expand scholarship opportunities at Texas colleges and universities, THECB and CFAT Foundation launched the sale of the College for All Texans specialty license plate in 2008, an official State of Texas automobile license plate. Proceeds from plate sales will fund scholarships for Texas students. The Foundation and THECB are also moving forward by developing partnerships and programs to increase scholarship opportunities as part of our effort to close the gaps in participation and success for our citizens. The Foundation is working with corporations and organizations by encouraging them to contribute to the scholarship landscape in Texas and enable more students to stay in higher education and be successful.

The College for All Texans Foundation scholarship initiative is a focused effort to expand opportunities for Texas students who want to pursue a higher education degree or certificate.

 Grants and gifts to the Texans Education Fund will support matching scholarships for Texas students. The Foundation partners with programs on the local level to expand and enhance local scholarships. We select programs that will help meet the targets in Closing the Gaps by 2015 – such as underrepresented populations in higher education especially Hispanics and African Americans and students pursuing teaching certificates, especially potential teachers of math and science. If you are interested in contributing the College for All Texans Scholarship Fund the Foundation and we will work with you to see that your support helps increase access and ensure success!

Making Opportunity Affordable – Tuning Texas

Texas is one of 11 states to receive a one-year planning grant of $150,000 through the Lumina Foundation’s Making Opportunity Affordable (MOA) initiative to develop a strategic five-year plan for improving the state’s productivity in higher education. The THECB used this grant to look at ways to change the formula funding methodology in the state to an outcome based formula and to improve the process and success of students enrolling in 2 year Community Colleges and transitioning to two years at a Texas University (2+2 articulation). The states selected for this grant were eligible to compete for a $2 million Opportunity Grant to implement their plans over four years and Texas successfully won this award.

 Previous Programs and Partnerships

 College for All Texans AmeriCorps*VISTA Program

The AmeriCorps*VISTA program began in December 2006 as a pilot program in San Antonio, Texas to provide twelve K-12 campuses with a fulltime VISTA member to promote a college-going culture and establish and create sustainable GO Center programs for students, their families and the surrounding community. A Go Center is a college readiness/preparation site using materials and resources provided by the THECB . A community partnership was developed with Communities In Schools of San Antonio (CIS-SA) to host VISTA members on targeted K-12 school campuses. In coordination with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the VISTA program expanded to the Houston area with twenty-two members serving eight high schools and their fourteen feeder middle school campuses. In FY09 and FY10 the Foundation provided much of the matching funds required for this effort.

College for All Texans AmeriCorps State – Go Initiative

This program addresses the state’s initiative of Closing the Gaps by 2015 to encourage a college going culture and increase the college going rates among students in low performing high schools. The program was started September 1, 2007 with a grant from OneStar Foundation. Partnerships have been established with 37 schools in 19 school districts across Central and South Texas. Forty AmeriCorps members have been placed in new and established GO Centers where they provide assistance with college readiness and college preparation to high school students throughout the school year. Program funding through the Foundation ended August 31, 2009.

Enabling Data-Driven P-20 Policy and Practice

Designed to enable informed, data-driven decisions for setting educational policy and improving educational practice in Texas by improving the capacity for education research in the state, this project is funded by a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant that began in 2008. The project will provide short term support for a new education research infrastructure and allow THECB to build long-term research capacity by supporting a strategic planning process. This project provided short-term support and long-term planning for sustainability for the state’s Education Research Centers.

Go Center Partnership-Houston

A THECB program designed to increase the college-going rates in eight Houston high schools; this program includes the development and management of Go Centers as a primary outreach mechanism to meet statewide enrollment goals. Go Centers are locally-manage college and career awareness centers that provide a place for students and their parents to have Internet access as well as personal guidance from a college mentor, community member, or other adult. The program pulls together school district College Access Coordinators, full-time academic advisors, college mentors, and AmeriCorp*VISTA members to develop activities to promote a college-going culture in the seventh largest school district in the US. This was a pilot project, largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mobile Go Centers & Satellite Go Centers

In 2005 the AT&T Foundation awarded the Foundation an eight-year grant to equip Mobile Go Center and Satellite Go Centers with the electronic technology necessary to connect students, parents and others via the Internet to information and support for planning for, applying to, funding, and succeeding in college. Mobile Go Centers, managed and operated by institutions of higher education, are large trailers equipped with satellites and laptops that can go into the community and provide college preparation services. As the result of the seed sown by this grant, eighteen Mobile Go Centers have been constructed and put into operation across the state of Texas. Grants from the Greater Texas Foundation, AMD, the Houston Endowment, Sid Richardson Foundation, Dodge Jones Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Zachry Foundation, Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, Texas Pioneer Foundation, and others have funded the construction of Mobile Go Centers.

A Satellite Go Center is a college preparation center in a community space operated by a nonprofit organization. Currently the THECB partners with the United Way of Texas (UWT) to help set up and oversee these centers. Technology grants from the AT&T funds make these centers possible. Currently over 20 Satellite Go Centers across Texas visit Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, libraries and community centers, sharing information about how to plan, prepare, and pay for college.

Wiley’s Way

Wiley’s Way, a bilingual chapter book in Spanish and English, targeted at 4th, 5th and 6th graders, was written and illustrated by twelve high school students with the goal of encouraging children, especially those who might not otherwise aspire to a college education, to begin thinking about college at an early age. Published by the University of Texas Press in 2004, the book was part of the College for All Texan’s campaign to promote a college going culture in Texas. The project was largely funded by the Houston Endowment and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Wiley’s Way continues to inspire children today.

Elementary School Curriculum (TEKS based): Wiley’s Way Teachers Guide