2013 ANNUAL REPORT
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
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VISION
FOUNDATION HISTORY
Greater Texas Foundation’s vision is for all Texas students to have equal opportunity to access and succeed in postsecondary education.
Greater Texas Foundation and its nonprofit p redecessor entities have a long history serving t he citizens of the state of Texas. T o learn about the foundation’s history, please visit our website at greatertexas foundation.org.
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
table of contents Executive Summary
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Staff
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Board of Directors
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GTF Fellows
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7 GTF Scholars: Update On First Leadership Conference & Scholar Feature Student Success By The Numbers Update
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Texas Success Center
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Craft of Grantmaking: New Mathways Project
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Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color
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Grant Activity
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Financial Activity
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Looking Forward
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MISSION Greater Texas Foundation supports efforts to ensure all T exas students are prepared for, have access to, persist in, a nd complete postsecondary education.
We put particular focus n helping underserved and o disadvantaged populations. We pursue our mission by forming partnerships, supporting research, sharing knowledge, and making grants.
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2013 ANNUAL REPORT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Dear Friends and Colleagues:
for all students to have equal opportunity to access and
Greater Texas Foundation’s vision is for all Texas students
systemic change.
to have equal opportunity to access and succeed in postsecondary education. Through our work, we are continuously learning about the challenges students face on the road to postsecondary completion. We continue to believe our vision is attainable, but the challenges are not insignificant. In last year’s annual report, we highlighted several lessons from our current strategy, including the importance of data and research in improving student outcomes and the critical importance of strong
succeed in postsecondary education, we need meaningful
For example, The New Mathways Project led by the Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin is leading a statewide, systemic reform of developmental mathematics at community colleges to improve completion and success rates for developmental math students. Another example is The Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color, a multi-institution statewide collaboration focused on improving Hispanic and African American male student
partnerships.
success across Texas.
As Greater Texas Foundation progressed through our
At the same time, we never forget that everything we support
five-year strategic plan, we also learned that to make the significant gains in student outcomes our state requires,
comes back to the individual. Whether it’s the college math student who is put on the right track or the young man whose
STAFF Erin Arnold, Accountant Amber Bass, CPA, Controller Judy Brock, Office Administrator Victor Gongora, Project Associate Allison Grainger, Student Assistant Leslie Gurrola, Strategy Manager Kristen Lindholm, Student Assistant Carol Miller, Grant Manager Wynn Rosser, Ph.D., President & CEO Elizabeth Springs, Student Assistant Kim Ulbricht, Executive Assistant Pictured from left to right: Bottom row: Kim Ulbricht, Judy Brock, Leslie Gurrola Top Row: Victor Gongora, Carol Miller, Wynn Rosser, Erin Arnold Not pictured: Amber Bass, Allison Grainger, Kristen Lindholm, Elizabeth Springs
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notably in our GTF Scholars program, where we have
Thank you for your interest in our work, and thank you for all you do to improve educational outcomes for Texas students.
the great privilege of getting to know the personal stories
Sincerely,
life is changed by a strong mentor, it’s the single student that matters most. You’ll see examples of the individual in our work, most
of our GTF Scholars, all graduates of Texas early college high schools. This year, we are pleased to highlight one of our second year scholars, Xander White, a biology and biochemistry double major from the University of
Wynn Rosser, Ph.D. President & CEO
North Texas. Last, but not least, we are excited to feature our first cohort of GTF Fellows, tenure-track faculty conducting research related to postsecondary preparation, access, persistence, and completion. You can read about how they are connecting their research to systemic change.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. J. Malon Southerland Board Chair & Chair, Student Loan Committee
Dr. Samuel Gillespie Vice Chair & Chair, Audit & Accountability Committee
Mrs. Judy Holt Secretary
Dr. John Moss Past Chair & Co-Chair, Charitable Activities Committee
Dr. Alonzo Sosa Co-Chair, Charitable Activities Committee
Mr. Ralph Rushing Chair, Investment Committee
Mr. A.D. James, Jr. Director
Dr. Terry Jones Director
Dr. Wesley K. Summers Director
Mr. Bill Youngkin Director
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GTF FELLOWS GTF Fellows was created for the foundation to have a role in building research and teaching capacity for Texas faculty working in areas related to the foundation’s mission and strategy. Over time, GTF Fellows will create a broad and deep network of highly talented and committed Texas researchers working to understand barriers for students and identify research-based solutions to help more Texas students access and succeed at the postsecondary level.
Following a competitive proposal process in 2013, the foundation selected four individuals for the first cohort of the GTF Faculty Fellowship Program (GTF Fellows). Each GTF Fellow receives up to $30,000 per year for a period of three years to support a proposed research agenda. Through the application process, each fellow is required to identify a mentor to assist them throughout the fellowship. Each of the selected fellows’ home institutions committed to a partial match for the program. Please read on to learn more about the first cohort of GTF Fellows.
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FELLOW 1
FELLOW 2
DR. EDNA ALFARO
DR. KALENA CORTES
Assistant Professor of Family and Child Development, School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas State University
Assistant Professor, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
MENTOR: Dr. Stephanie Brickman, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas Pan-American
MENTOR: Dr. Lori Taylor, Associate Professor, Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A&M University
RESEARCH TITLE: Mexican-Origin Student Success “The primary aim of my research is to identify factors that promote the academic success of Latino and Mexican-Origin students. To help guide my research I utilize Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, which states that people are a product of their individual characteristics as well as their environmental systems. Thus, in order to truly understand how we can foster students’ academic success, it is important to examine characteristics of the individual students (for example: how motivated they are to succeed academically, their gender, etc.) in conjunction with the characteristics of their environments (for example: cultural, university, and familial factors). These factors all work together to contribute to Mexican-Origin students’ academic success.”
DR. EDNA ALFARO
RESEARCH TITLE: Postsecondary Educational Opportunities in Texas: Evidence from Institutional and State Policies “Much of my research focuses on analyzing education policies, especially those designed to help disadvantaged students in both K-12 and postsecondary education. As part of my fellowship, I will analyze how specific institutional and legislative policies in Texas affect the opportunities for the state’s burgeoning minority population to pursue and complete a postsecondary education. The GTF Fellows program will not only give me the opportunity to focus on my research, but also to interact with scholars in other fields.”
DR. KALENA CORTES
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FELLOW 3 DR. MELISSA MARTINEZ
DR. LYLE MCKINNEY
Assistant Professor in Education and Community Leadership, Texas State University
Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Houston
MENTOR: Dr. Victor Saenz, Associate Professor, Program in Higher Education Leadership, The University of Texas at Austin RESEARCH TITLE: Increasing College Readiness and Creating a College Going Culture: A Case Study of Successful Texas High Schools that Predominantly Serve Low-income Students and Students of Color “Creating a college-going culture and ensuring a majority, if not all students, are college and/or career ready is critical in today’s schools. However, college readiness efforts are dependent on a school’s context, systems, and infrastructure and must account for individual needs of students. Acknowledging such distinctions is particularly crucial in my case study of three public high schools in Texas that are graduating a large portion of their students, who are predominantly students of color and from low-income households, college ready. While the schools serve students from similar demographic backgrounds and have some comparable systems in place to create a college going culture, each is engaged in unique efforts that account for their varying geographic locations, financial and human resources, and the creative and innovative practices each school has developed to cultivate such an environment.”
DR. MELISSA MARTINEZ
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FELLOW 4
MENTOR: Dr. Linda Serra Hagedorn, Professor and Associate Dean, College of Education, Iowa State University RESEARCH TITLE: Using Longitudinal Transcript Analyses to Better Understand Academic Momentum and Success Among Urban Community Colleges in Texas “Community colleges provide a pathway out of poverty and into the middle-class for thousands of citizens each year, but far too many students who enroll in these institutions drop out before reaching their educational goals. My research project informs current efforts at the national and state level to improve community college outcomes by more carefully examining how students’ course-taking behaviors can accelerate, and impede, program completion. The findings from this project are aimed at helping community colleges better understand how to structure course sequences, academic programs, and support services in ways that dramatically increase the rates of student success.”
DR. LYLE MCKINNEY
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GTF SCHOLARS:
UPDATE ON FIRST LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE & SCHOLAR FEATURE
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n 2010, GTF developed Greater Texas Foundation Scholars (GTF Scholars), a signature scholarship program designed for graduates of Texas early college high schools (ECHS) to successfully transition to a four-year institution of higher education and complete a baccalaureate degree. The program is the first of its kind in the nation. Participating universities include the following: The University of Texas at Brownsville, University of Houston, Texas A&M University, and University of North Texas. The program includes a comprehensive external evaluation led by a team of evaluators selected through a competitive proposal process: Barbara Goldberg, Barbara Goldberg & Associates, LLC, and Kim Stezala, Stezala Consulting, LLC.
The evaluation is both formative and summative. The ongoing evaluation has been vital to the implementation of the program as well as identifying areas for improvement that may have implications far beyond GTF Scholars, including college credits earned in high school transferring to universities and applying to degrees as well as general acclimation of ECHS students to a university campus. In spring 2013, 25 scholars visited the foundation for a three-day leadership development conference facilitated by Dr. Jennifer Williams, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. The leadership
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conference focused on personality and its role in leadership, personal values, values-based leadership, and leader behaviors.
GTF Scholar Feature
In fall 2013, the universities welcomed their second cohort of GTF Scholars to their campuses. For more information about the scholarship program, please visit www.gtfscholars.org. To read the research behind GTF Scholars, look for the “Dollars for Degrees” reports by FSG under the Research tab at www.greatertexasfoundation.org.
Each year, the foundation will highlight at least one GTF Scholar in our annual report. Please read on to learn about Xander White, a second year GTF Scholar from the University of North Texas. Why did you choose to attend an ECHS? It was a much better choice than the “regular” high school that I would have progressed through, and to be honest, I just wanted to be challenged. Later into the transition, I began to feel that it would better my chance to excel and reach my dreams of becoming a successful professional.
Why is a college education important to you? First and foremost, it has allowed me to interact with people from different backgrounds, cultures,
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and ideological upbringings, where we can converse, exchange and create new ideas which is what we will have to do all throughout life if we want to prosper.
What are your long-term education and career goals? I would eventually like to earn a master’s degree and possibly a doctorate in Genetics or Microbiology. With this education, my dream would be to work in a laboratory working to find alternative methods for treating bacterial infections or possibly genetic diseases.
Why did you choose to attend UNT? UNT was the best fit for me all around. It was the perfect size campus, the people seemed very open and diverse, and it was also financially affordable. To me it seemed like a diamond in the rough, and I couldn’t help but take the opportunity and earn my undergraduate degree from UNT.
What are some challenges you have experienced as a student at UNT? Very early on, it was challenging to get acclimated to the entire college environment and just learning my way around, but once I got situated at UNT, everything else just seemed to flow.
Xander White A SECOND YEAR GTF SCHOLAR
What are some of your successes as a student at UNT? One of my first and greatest successes at UNT was gaining an internship with a microbiology professor in his lab and performing research on “bacterial phage therapy” which is an area that I have always dreamed of working in. I am now on my way to publishing some of my own work under this professor. Another great success that I have achieved at UNT was being selected to be the student coordinator for the building of the UNT Homecoming Bonfire, which has been stressful but simultaneously rewarding knowing that I will have led one of the most prideful traditions at UNT.
How has being a GTF Scholar helped you? The financial aid was definitely helpful. Also, having other people that came from similar high schools that not only understood my situation, but could also relate to some of the challenges that we all faced coming into UNT was the most relieving feeling when I came to UNT.
Is there anything else you would like us to know? I appreciate everything that this organization has not only given to me but also allowed me to earn on my own. The best thing that anyone could have done for me as an incoming freshman was not handing me everything but giving me the tools and resources to go out and make my own future.
INSTITUTION: University of North Texas Major: Biology and BIOChemistry (Double Major) AGE: 19 Incoming college credits: 72 (58 applied to degree) ECHS Attended: Victory Early College High School (Houston, TX)
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Student Success BY THE NUMBERS
UPDATE O
ur 2011 annual report featured an overview and update on the Student Success BY THE NUMBERS initiative (SSBTN) by Byron McClenney and Kay McClenney, co-directors of SSBTN. The goal of SSBTN is to build the capacity of community and technical colleges to understand and communicate about data depicting student progress, engagement and success; to use those data in targeting and monitoring improvements in postsecondary preparation, access, persistence and completion; and to build an increasingly powerful culture of evidence to support and promote an effective student success agenda. The program – housed in the Program for Higher Education Leadership (formerly Community College Leadership Program) at The University of Texas at Austin – will come to a close in 2014.
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By the conclusion of SSBTN, institutional researchers and leadership teams from the 14 participating colleges (10 in rural locations) will have increased capacity to use student data (e.g. results from Community College Survey of Student Engagement and Survey of Entering Student Engagement), and institutions will have better resources and tools to strengthen their culture of evidence, “as revealed in broadened engagement of the campus community to use data to depict, understand, communicate about, and improve student success.” All colleges will receive final feedback based on observations and lessons learned from visits from the technical teams. To promote and ensure sustainability, participating colleges will be left with a number of data analysis tools, including a cohort-tracking guide. All these tools and resources are available on the CCCSE website (http://www.ccsse.org/center/ SSBTN) for use by all community colleges in the country. Indicative of the colleges’ commitment to student success, two colleges, Grayson College and McLennan Community College will be joining the 2014 cohort of Achieving the Dream.
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TEXAS SUCCESS CENTER In May 2013, the foundation approved a $300,000 grant to support the creation of the Texas Success Center in partnership with Kresge Foundation, The Meadows Foundation, Texas Guaranteed (TG) Philanthropy, and the Houston Endowment. The Texas Success Center (TSC) is affiliated with the Texas
student success efforts; and develop and propose public
Association of Community Colleges (TACC), a nonprofit
policy change to enhance student success.” The Center
advocacy organization whose membership includes all 50
will build on the momentum created by groups such as
public community college districts in the state. The Center’s
Achieving the Dream, Completion By Design, and Texas
mission is to “build the capacity of TACC member colleges to
Completes. The Center has counterpart organizations in
engage in and advance student success efforts at scale; build
Michigan, Ohio, Arkansas, New Jersey, California, and
the capacity of TACC to evaluate, support and scale college
Connecticut.
Kresge Foundation
The Meadows Foundation Texas Success Center
Texas Guaranteed (TG) Philanthropy
Houston Endowment
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For its inaugural year, goals for the Center included extending TACC’s relationships with member institutions, creating an advisory board, hiring an executive director, and creating a voice that was complementary to, yet independent from TACC in policy and program discussion. By years end, the advisory board reached nine members from various stakeholders in Texas’s college landscape including community college presidents, a commissioner of the Texas Workforce Commission, a school district superintendent, and leaders of other nonprofit organizations. In September, TSC hired its first executive director, Dr. Angela Oriano, who previously worked as the Associate Director for College Relations at the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) at The University of Texas at Austin.
As the Center moves forward, it will use a leadership-team approach with work groups dedicated to five main areas: Workforce and Skills Alignment, Measuring and Funding Success, College Readiness, Transfer and Articulation, and Texans in Community Colleges. The Center will operationalize its mission through: • Alignment of different innovation and success initiatives into a more coherent and comprehensive approach, including development of data infrastructure and key measures of success; • Acceleration of learning across institutions so that adoption of proven or evidence-based initiatives can be accelerated and information costs reduced; and
One strategy to increase engagement and commitment from the college districts is by hosting the Pathways to Progress Institute, set for fall 2014. The event will be a critical component for extending student success work identified as promising – and, in particular will be an important venue for disseminating ideas and innovations to Texas community colleges.
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• Advocacy for policies that support the success agenda, in the legislature and in relevant state agencies. Additionally, its initial goals for the first few years will include: • Measuring and Funding Success: develop data capacity at member colleges along with a coherent set of student success metrics; • College Readiness: expand college readiness efforts including supporting work with the Charles A. Dana Center and the New Mathways Project; and • Transfer Issues: continue progress on improving student transfer to Texas universities by helping to develop a research agenda to inform practice and policy recommendations.
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CRAFT OF GRANTMAKING: NEW MATHWAYS PROJECT In 2012, the foundation approved a $100,000 grant to The Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin to support the development of a strategic plan for executing The New Mathways Project (NMP) and in 2013 approved a $1,000,000 grant to continue its support of the statewide initiative to redesign mathematics developmental education. In making funding decisions, Greater Texas Foundation considers long-term outcomes and potential benefits to the target populations beyond the grant period. Although still relatively early in implementation, this grant realizes exceptional early outcomes and is a natural fit for the second grant featured in our annual report series “Craft of Grantmaking.�
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Amy Getz, Program Coordinator at the Charles A. Dana Center, provided the following update on the work.
The Problem Developmental education was designed to help underprepared students gain the skills they need for college success, but there is growing evidence that students referred to developmental education are more likely to end up with debt than with a degree or credential. Nationally, fewer than one in five community college students referred to developmental education ever complete a gateway college math course, and few of these students earn a degree within three years. Broadly speaking, the current policy narrative about developmental mathematics education is that it offers false hope for students, putting them on “a path to nowhere.� A radical overhaul of development mathematics education is required for states to improve the productivity of their higher education systems and increase rates of degree completion. The New Mathways Project (NMP) is an early stage innovation designed to replace existing developmental education models with high-quality, accelerated math pathways that integrate mathematical content, social and psychological supports, and research-based student success strategies. Through a comprehensive approach to course development, technical assistance, and policy change, the NMP has the potential to drive long-term systemic changes that dramatically increase the number of students who complete math coursework aligned with their chosen program of study and who successfully achieve their postsecondary goals. Texas community college leaders recognize the problem and have been working to address developmental education in their individual institutions and also saw a need to work collectively on the problem and determined to do so through the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC), which represents all 50 community college districts in the state. College presidents voted unanimously for TACC to partner with the Dana Center on the NMP, willingly increasing their dues to help fund the initiative. This is significant because working at scale across Texas can help ensure that reform does not create a system of haves and have-nots and ensure that all colleges in the state have access to supports they need to implement systemic and sustainable change. 14
Addressing the Problem The NMP is a systemic approach to improving student success and completion through implementation of processes, strategies, and structures based on four fundamental principles: 1. Multiple pathways with relevant and challenging math content aligned to specific fields of study. 2. Acceleration that allows students to complete a collegelevel math course more quickly than in the traditional developmental math sequence. 3. Intentional use of strategies to help students develop skills as learners. 4. Curriculum design and pedagogy based on proven practice. The NMP addresses the problem of developmental mathematics education in three key ways:
1. DEVELOPING CURRICULAR MATERIALS: The Dana Center is developing curricular materials to support pathways in statistics, quantitative literacy, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics preparation (STEM Prep). These pathways accelerate students to and through a credit-bearing mathematics course that is aligned to programs of study. For example, statistics is relevant for students interested in careers in allied health and social sciences. The Quantitative Literacy pathway is designed for students with non-STEM majors who are pursuing degrees in fields that require a general education or liberal arts math course, such as graphic art, journalism, or early childhood education. The STEM Prep pathway prepares students to enter the calculus track or technical programs that require strong algebraic skills. The NMP includes a bridge course that allows students starting in the statistics or quantitative literacy pathways to change to the STEM Prep pathway. The NMP is for students who have completed arithmetic or who are placed at a beginning algebra level. In traditional developmental sequences, students take a minimum of three courses to earn college credit and usually at least four courses before entering the calculus sequence. The NMP pathways reduce these sequences by at least one semester.
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The pathways have a common starting point—a developmental mathematics course that helps students develop foundational skills and conceptual understanding in the context of college-level course material. In the first semester, NMP students also take a credit-bearing, corequisite student success course that includes concepts from the learning sciences to help students acquire the strategies and tenacity necessary to succeed in mathematics, other college coursework, and future careers and lives as citizens. These success strategies are embedded within all the NMP courses to reinforce the concepts. For more information about the curriculum design standards, learning outcomes, and sample materials, go to www. utdanacenter.org/higher-education/new-mathways-project/ new-mathways-project-curricular-materials.
2. PROVIDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Colleges need support and specific tools to help them in the implementation process. The Center is developing and delivering high-quality technical assistance for institutions, faculty, and staff that guides and supports implementation at scale and helps ensure sustainability. This assistance includes a detailed implementation guide, templates for analyzing and
sharing data, and training materials for support staff such as advisors and institutional research staff. The NMP Implementation Guide and associated tools are available at www.utdanacenter.org/higher-education/ new-mathways-project/new-mathways-project-technicalassistance/new-mathways-project-implementation-guide.
3. ADDRESSING POLICY OBSTACLES: Individual colleges are not typically in a position to tackle potential policy obstacles such as articulation, placement, and accreditation. Nor are state-level actors positioned to work on issues of content and courses. One of the greatest strengths of the TACC–Dana Center collaboration is its ability to address issues that require state-level coordination based on input from professionals at all levels of the system. Together we are working with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to identify potential obstacles to scale. With the support of The University of Texas System, the Center has initiated an outreach campaign to four-year institutions called the Transfer Champion Initiative. For more information on our policy work (including resources), go to www.utdanacenter.org/higher-education/ higher-education-resources/policy-resources.
taken concurrently (1 term)
NMP Course Sequence Quantitative Reasoning MATH 1332 (1 term)
Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning
Frameworks for Mathematical and Collegiate Learning EDUC 1300 or PSYC 1300
Statistical Reasoning MATH 1342 (1 term)
non-transferable courses
transferable courses
STEM Prep Pathway (2 terms) currently in development
Students enter Calculus sequence
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NMP Implementation Implementing the NMP at scale across Texas is critical. To enable participation throughout the community college system, we are working with TACC to establish three development and implementation roles that give all colleges an opportunity to connect with each other and participate based on their own capacities and needs. Codevelopment institutions work closely with TACC and the Dana Center on the complex task of reengineering developmental mathematics and the gateway courses that are critical to student completion. A notable feature of the NMP is that colleges do not receive funding for the project and, in fact, have to contribute their own funding to support faculty and staff. The strong sense of local investment makes it more likely the initiative will be sustained over the long term, which contrasts to many reform efforts that only last as long as the grants that support them. The codevelopment institutions that were selected reflect the diversity of the state’s community colleges in terms of geographic regions, rural/urban settings, and institution size as well as the diversity of student ethnicity, socioeconomics, and ages. The codevelopers are Alamo System, represented by Northwest Vista College, Austin Community College, Brazosport College (Lake Jackson), El Paso Community College, Kilgore College, Lone Star College—Kingwood, Midland College, South Texas College (McAllen), and Temple College. NMP CODEVELOPMENT INSTITUTIONS
El Paso Community College
Kilgore College
Midland College Temple College
Austin Lone Star Community College College Northwest Vista College South Texas College
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Brazosport College
Active-learning sites implement the NMP in one to two years. These institutions typically have already started reform efforts and have built some level of faculty awareness and support. As an active-learning site, they have the opportunity to partner with a codevelopment college in a mentoring relationship. This approach enables the active learners to observe the implementation process and receive support for their own planning. Some active-learning sites are already working on “home-grown” initiatives in keeping with the NMP principles. The NMP serves as a vehicle to share information about these different reform efforts. Activelearning sites commit to supporting time and resources for faculty to make site visits to codevelopment institutions and to helping disseminate information. Capacity-building sites implement the NMP in three to four years. Faculty at these institutions often have not had many opportunities to learn about the principles behind the NMP. The Dana Center will provide materials for an outreach campaign to inform the faculty and provide opportunities for them to engage in the statewide conversation with their peers at other institutions. Capacity-building sites commit to identifying liaisons with whom the Center can communicate and to holding at least one event a year to disseminate information to faculty and staff.
Outcomes & Targets OUTCOMES The Dana Center has defined the following four outcomes for the NMP. Outcome 1: Redesign developmental mathematics education in Texas by developing and implementing three accelerated math pathways and a student success course. Outcome 2: Enable institutions to successfully implement developmental mathematics reform and NMP curricular materials. Outcome 3: Establish a supportive policy and statewide environment for successful NMP implementation and developmental mathematics education reform. Outcome 4: Demonstrate that NMP principles, tools, and services can be implemented successfully at scale, improve student outcomes, and accelerate time to degree.
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TARGETS The Dana Center has set the following goals for the implementation of the NMP model. These goals will be achieved by the end of Year 5 (2017). • Spread of Implementation at the State Level: Within five years, 75 to 100 percent of Texas community college systems will implement at least two NMP pathways. • Depth of Implementation at the Institutional Level: At least 25 to 50 percent of developmental mathematics students will be in an NMP pathway.
CURRENT STATUS Ten colleges implemented NMP courses in the 2013–2014 academic year. We only have very early, self-reported data on the persistence of students from the developmental math course into a college level course at this time. This early data is very promising although it is too early to publish conclusions. MDRC is the external evaluator for the NMP and will publish a full analysis of the certified data for the first year later. Our work with colleges to help them prepare for implementation is yielding excellent results. Fourteen colleges are preparing to implement in 2014–2015. Eleven colleges that originally enrolled in the lowest level of engagement as capacity-building sites decided to move up to active-learning sites. We see a great deal of momentum across the state. Momentum is accelerating our work with four-year institutions to address transfer and applicability issues. We planned to identify a small number of institutions to work with their community college partners on structures to support multiple pathways. In fact, every university that we invited participated enthusiastically, and we have already identified a number of institutions that want to be part of the next round of work.
LONG-TERM IMPLICATIONS This work has potential long-term implications in a number of areas: structure and content of developmental and gateway mathematics courses, pedagogy in mathematics courses, transfer policies, placement, and the ways in which colleges and systems operate. We see potential for broader impacts beyond the specifics of our project, including the following:
Increased opportunities for cross-institutional and intra-institutional engagement: We refer to this work as a beneficial virus. Colleges report that the cross-institutional work prompted by their NMP implementation has led to collaboration in other areas. This has also been true in the Transfer Champions work across multiple systems. New learnings about factors that support systemic change: We plan to share with the field the specific tools and resources that we use and contribute to a general understanding about the conditions and supports that help create a successful change initiative. Our experiences with scaling strategies will be useful and informative to others. Greater understanding of what it means to build a positive policy environment for mathematics pathways: We are already seeing an evolution of institutional and state policies in Texas to support a pathways model. This helps us gather information about the types of policies and the process by which policies are revised or created. There are certain types of resources that help establish a discussion about policies. While this work is currently focused in Texas, much of it can be generalized for use in other states and potentially for work in other fields. Support broader student success innovations: The NMP is a subset of a larger effort to improve student success and completion. We hope to connect our work with other innovations such as programs of study or metamajors and high-impact practices such as those identified by the Center for Community College Student Engagement. This is another example of the concept of the beneficial virus. The NMP can be a starting point for institutions to launch into a comprehensive plan to improve student success.
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TEXAS EDUCATION CONSORTIUM FOR MALE STUDENTS OF COLOR
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n 2012, Greater Texas Foundation approved a $335,314 grant to The University of Texas at Austin to support the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color, a statewide consortium to align existing programmatic efforts and stimulate new initiatives that will enhance the participation and success of Hispanic and African American males within Texas colleges and universities. The Consortium was officially launched in 2013. Dr. Enrique Romo, deputy to the vice president for diversity and community engagement and Consortium director, provided the following introduction of the work. In the summer of 2013, the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color (“Consortium”) was launched with the goal of proactively addressing the growing gender gap in educational attainment—a gap that has become a state and national education imperative. For example, in 20072008, females accounted for 66% and 61% of all bachelors
degrees awarded to African American and Hispanic students respectively (The College Board, The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress, 2011. https://youngmenofcolor.collegeboard.org/ research-landscape/higher-education). Funded by two new grant awards from the Greater Texas Foundation and TG as well as funding support from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Consortium is a statewide network of K-12 and postsecondary education institutions and practitioners that have rallied around this new imperative. Our member institutions collaborate, share expertise, advance research, and leverage resources in a coordinated effort to improve success rates for Hispanic and African American male students in K-12 and higher education. The Consortium seeks to align and coordinate existing programs and services that target underrepresented male
• The University of Texas at Austin (lead) • Texas A&M University (evaluator) • Austin Community College District • Austin Independent School District • El Paso Independent School District • El Paso Community College District • La Joya Independent School District • Lone Star College System (CyFair and North Harris) • Palo Alto College (Alamo) • San Antonio College (Alamo) • Northeast Lakeview College (Alamo) • Prairie View A&M University
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GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION
students across the education spectrum, and it further seeks to stimulate new male-focused initiatives within Texas school districts, colleges, and universities. Current Consortium members include two-year and four-year institutions across the state as well as public school districts. It is headquartered at The University of Texas at Austin in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and led by a team of researchers including: • Dr. Victor Sáenz, associate professor at The University of Texas at Austin and Consortium executive director; • Dr. Enrique Romo, deputy to the vice president for diversity and community engagement and Consortium director; and • Dr. Luis Ponjuan, associate professor at Texas A&M University and the chief external evaluator for this project. The goal of this statewide Consortium is to align existing programmatic efforts and stimulate new initiatives that will enhance the educational attainment of Hispanic and African American males within participating Texas public school districts, community colleges, and universities. The overall mission of the Consortium is to hold up our member institutions as exemplars of best practices for male-focused initiatives. This is being accomplished through an ambitious research agenda that is assessing organizational capacity,
• South Texas College • Tarrant County College District • Texas State University • University of North Texas (Denton) • University of Texas at San Antonio
scalability, and ability to implement and institutionalize male-focused programs at each of our Consortium institutions. The Consortium is engaged in a variety of objectives and activities, including: the dissemination of findings at state and national convenings, bi-annual meetings of Consortium membership to share the innovative ways in which each campus site is making progress toward advancing and enhancing the educational experiences of young males of color; and, an upcoming male student leadership summit that will focus on career and leadership development for males of color at Consortium institutions. Key Consortium activities include: 1. Creating a space for educational institutions to discuss and address the challenges for male students of color. 2. Conducting site visits to learn and understand how and what K-12 districts and post-secondary institutions are doing to address this issue. 3. Distributing empirical research via policy briefs, monographs, online portal for institutional tookkits, open access technology, and state and national conferences (e.g., research and practitioner-based).
The Consortium includes the following institutions:
Our primary expected outcome for this Texas-based research collaborative network of scholars and practitioners is to make positive gains in high school completion, enrollment into post-secondary institutions, and completion of a post-secondary credential for male students of color. Our ultimate aim is for the Consortium to serve as a force in encouraging more Texas educational institutions at all levels to implement male-focused student programs and initiatives in response to the statewide policy imperative that is focused on enhancing the participation and academic success of Hispanic and African American males.
GreaterTexasFoundation.org 19
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
GRANT ACTIVITY In 2013, Greater Texas Foundation’s board of directors approved 32 grants for a total of $4,097,559 in new funding to improve postsecondary outcomes for Texas students.
Postsecondary Education
(Preparation, Access, Persistence and Completion) $250,000 to Communities Foundation of Texas/Educate Texas (Dallas) in partnership with Jobs for the Future, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD, and Brownsville ISD, to support the Early College Expansion Partnership, a U.S. Department of Education i3 grant that will scale the Early College High School design in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. $1,250,000 to Communities Foundation of Texas/Educate Texas (Dallas) to support the Rio Grande Valley Focus (RGV Focus), a multi-year collective impact initiative in the Rio Grande Valley designed to dramatically improve educational and life outcomes for students by strengthening the pipeline from K-12 through postsecondary and into the workforce. $300,000 to Lone Star College System (The Woodlands) to support the Texas Reverse Transfer Initiative, a scale up approach to awarding associate degrees to students who transfer from community colleges to universities through reverse-transfer of college credit. $300,000 to Texas Community College Education Initiative (Austin) to support the creation of the Texas Success Center, housed within the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC), to build the capacity of TACC member colleges to engage in and advance student success efforts at scale; build the capacity of TACC to evaluate, support and scale college student success efforts; and develop and propose public policy change to enhance student success. $125,000 to The Aspen Institute, Inc. (Washington, D.C.) to support a design grant for inclusion of at least one Texas
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community in year one of the Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. $26,200 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station) to support the LTC Don Engelage Sul Ross Scholarship which will provide need based scholarships to the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University on behalf of LTC Don Engelage, former Greater Texas Foundation board member. $10,000 to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Services (College Station) to support the facilitator for the 2013 GTF Scholars Leadership Conference. $29,700 to Texas A&M AgriLife Research (College Station) to support the 2014 GTF Scholars Leadership Conference. $2,700 to Texas A&M University (College Station) to support a Bush School capstone group that will research the student perspective on the challenges of developmental education. $2,000 to Texas Tribune, Inc. (Austin) to support a one-day, one-topic event on public education at The Baker Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas on February 25, 2013. $23,000 to The University of Texas at Austin (Austin) to support the foundation’s Achieving the Dream funded colleges at the annual Board of Trustees Institute in March 2014. $187,000 to The University of Texas at Austin/Center for Community College Student Engagement (Austin) to support the development and implementation of an intensive institute, Engaging Latino Students for Transfer and College Completion, focused on helping institutions strengthen Latino student engagement and collaborate around the transfer process and college completion.
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION
Math & Science for Postsecondary Readiness $1,000,000 to The University of Texas at Austin/Charles A. Dana Center (Austin) to support the implementation of The New Mathways Project, which is aimed at improving completion rates and success for developmental math students.
• $87,009 to University of Houston (Houston) to Lyle McKinney for research titled Using Longitudinal Transcript Analyses to Better Understand Academic Momentum and Success Among Urban Community Colleges in Texas to examine the academic momentum and success of community college students in the Houston Metropolitan Area using longitudinal transcript data.
GTF Faculty Fellows Program
Other
The purpose of GTF Fellows is to build research and teaching capacity for Texas faculty working in areas related to the foundation’s mission and strategy. The following four research grants were awarded in 2013:
$2,500 to Bastrop High School (Bastrop) to support the Bastrop High School FIRST Robotics Team enter Texas FIRST Robotics Competitions.
• $90,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station) to Kalena Cortes for research titled Postsecondary Educational Opportunities in Texas: Evidence from Institutional and State Policies to measure how specific institutional and legislative policies in Texas affect the opportunities for the State’s minority population to pursue and complete a postsecondary education.
$150,000 to Rice University (Houston) for an additional year of support for the Completion of the Post-2010 Version of An America Challenged and The Texas Challenge, including completing the printed versions of the post-2010 analyses for the Texas and America Challenge documents; evaluating the results of the pre-2010 analysis; and creating an online baseline and projections data website.
• $90,000 to Texas State University (San Marcos) to Edna Alfaro for research titled Mexican-Origin Student Success to investigate the connections between demographic, relational, cultural, and environmental factors that inform trajectories of motivation and success throughout high school and college. • $90,000 to Texas State University (San Marcos) to Melissa Martinez for research titled Increasing College Readiness and Creating a College Going Culture: A Case Study of Successful Texas High Schools that Predominately Serve Low-income Students and Students of Color to study how the relationships, partnerships, leadership and family and community engagement at three high schools enable their success in meeting Texas’s college readiness standards..
GreaterTexasFoundation.org 21
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
Educational Matching Grant Program Distributed as part of the Educational Matching Grant Program, whereby the foundation matches eligible contributions made by officers, board members, committee members, and employees. $5000 to Austin College (Sherman) to support academic scholarships at Austin College. $10,000 to Baylor University (Waco) to support need based scholarships at Baylor Law School. $2,000 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station) to support need based scholarships at Texas A&M University. $10,000 to Texas A&M Foundation (College Station) to support need based scholarships at Texas A&M University. $2,000 to Texas A&M University (College Station) to support need based scholarships at Texas A&M University. $4,000 to Texas A&M University-Texarkana (Texarkana) to support need based scholarships at Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana.
$500 to Grants Managers Network (Washington, DC) to support the 2014 Annual Grants Managers Network conference in San Diego, CA.
2013 GRANT ACTIVITY: TOTAL GRANTS APPROVED BY FUNDING PRINCIPLE; TOTAL REQUESTS DECLINED Total Grants Approved in 2013 FUNDING PRINCIPLE
NUMBER OF GRANTS
AMOUNT OF FUNDING
Postsecondary Education (preparation, access, persistence, and completion)
12
$2,505,600
Math & Science for Postsecondary Readiness
1
$1,000,000
support engineering scholarships at Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana.
GTF Faculty Fellows Program
4
$357,009
Membership Organizations
5
$39,250
$10,000 to Tyler Junior College (Tyler) to support need based scholarships at Tyler Junior College.
GTF Educational Matching Grant Program
8
$43,200
Other
2
$152,500
TOTAL
32
$4,097,559
$200 to Texas A&M University-Texarkana (Texarkana) to
Membership Organizations $1,750 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR) to support a membership organization that connects funders with knowledgeable leaders, promising programs, experienced colleagues and actionable research in the education sector. $30,000 to Grantmakers for Education 2013 (Portland, OR) to support the 2013 Grantmakers for Education annual conference in Houston, Texas. $5,000 to Grantmakers for Education (Portland, OR) to support the Grantmakers for Education’s comprehensive strategic planning process to enhance and deepen the value the organization provides to its members.
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$2,000 to Grants Managers Network (Washington, DC) to support a national association with a mission to improve grantmaking by advancing the knowledge, skills and abilities of grants management professionals and leading grantmakers to adopt and incorporate effective practices that benefit the philanthropic community.
Total Grants Declined in 2013 FUNDING PRINCIPLE
NUMBER OF AMOUNT DECLINATIONS REQUESTED
Postsecondary Education (preparation, access, persistence, and completion)
12
$2,743,229
Math & Science for Postsecondary Readiness
4
$394,481
GTF Fellows
10
$847,021
Other
2
N/A
TOTAL
28
$3,984,731
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION
FINANCIAL ACTIVITY The full audited financial statements are available upon request.
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Balance Sheets Years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 Assets 2013 Cash and cash equivalents $ 14,225,132 Investments 229,516,022 Student loan notes receivable, net 96,614,957 Accrued interest and other accounts receivable 3,014,392 Land, property and equipment, net 8,279,966 Prepaid expenses 109,107 $ 351,759,576 Liabilities and Net Assets Line of credit and note payable $ 91,498,948 Accounts payable 399,875 Accrued interest payable 59,775 Grants payable 7,346,710
2012 8,191,548 210,896,292 112,651,136 1,219,054 8,447,312 129,302 341,534,644
Total liabilities Unrestricted net assets Temporarily restricted net assets
99,305,308 252,374,743 79,525
118,332,822 223,117,297 84,525
252,454,268
223,201,822
351,759,576
341,534,644
Total net assets
Commitments and contingencies
$
110,485,941 430,104 81,424 7,335,353
GreaterTexasFoundation.org 23
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Statements of Activities Years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 Unrestricted operating revenues: Interest on student loans $ Special allowance expense Interest on investments Unrealized and realized gain (loss) on investments in securities, net Other Net assets released from restrictions – satisfaction of restrictions
4,362,953 (1,384,758) 2,891,895
5,346,031 (1,737,181) 3,289,997
30,521,562 97,181 5,000
19,357,503 112,463 2,000
Total operating revenues
36,493,833
26,370,813
Unrestricted operating expenses: Interest on lines of credit Loan servicing fees Provision (recovery) for uncollectible student loans Salaries, wages and benefits Professional, consulting, rent and related travel Grants expense Trustee fees Miscellaneous expense
561,614 498,492 98,252 888,593 1,160,964 3,586,310 20,000 422,162
755,389 598,834 55,463 870,272 1,120,530 1,083,575 8,700 391,922
Total operating expenses
7,236,387
4,884,685
Change in unrestricted net assets Changes in temporarily restricted net assets: Net assets released from restrictions – satisfaction of restrictions
29,257,446 21,486,128 (5,000)
(2,000)
(5,000)
(2,000)
Change in net assets Net assets at beginning of the year
29,252,446 223,201,822
21,484,128 201,717,694
Net assets at end of the year
252,454,268
223,201,822
Change in temporarily restricted net assets
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2013 2012
$
GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION
LOOKING FORWARD: UPDATE AND ASSESSMENT OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN
I
n 2009, Greater Texas Foundation went through a strategic planning process under the guidance of FSG. During the process, the foundation examined current and projected educational needs in Texas and how the foundation’s efforts might best be aligned to address those needs. Specifically, the foundation learned a great deal about the challenges Texas students face on the road to postsecondary completion and how we can focus our efforts to help students overcome those challenges. As a result of the strategic planning process, the foundation refined its mission and vision to focus on postsecondary preparation, access, persistence, and completion for Texas students. In addition, the foundation developed a strategic portfolio to pursue the new mission with opportunities for investments in two major areas: postsecondary education
and math and science for postsecondary readiness. Finally, several potential roles for impact were outlined for the foundation: grantmaker, field builder/capacity builder, convener, partner, and knowledge builder. As the foundation nears the five-year point of its current strategic plan, we are assessing and updating the strategy for the period 2015-2019. The foundation’s board is committed to a focus on postsecondary preparation, access, persistence, and completion. How we approach our mission, though, may differ. Please be on the lookout in 2014 for updates and information as the foundation assesses and updates its strategic plan to ensure we remain thoughtful, strategic, effective, and appropriately adaptive in our work to improve postsecondary outcomes for Texas students.
GreaterTexasFoundation.org 25
2013 ANNUAL REPORT
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6100 Foundation Place Drive Bryan, Texas 77807 Ph: 979.779.6100 Fax: 979.779.6699