Campus Diversity
“TCEP tackles difficult issues, like distributing education funds more equitably and reducing teacher and principal attrition rates.” —Former Texas State Senator Carlos Truan
TCEP’s work is partly supported by the Oscar and Anne Mauzy Endowment for Educational Policy established in 2005. Twice annually, TCEP convenes its advisory board which consists of notable state leaders such as Anne Mauzy, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes, former Senator Carlos Truan, former Representative Dora Olivo, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, Texas State NAACP President Gary Bledsoe, and philanthropist Bernard Rapoport. These leaders provide financial, organizational, and administrative guidance for the center’s growth. TCEP also plays a major leadership role nationally as the home for the National Latino/a Education Research Agenda Project (NLERAP), a national consortium of Latino/a faculty across the country that together contribute several decades of experience as researchers, practitioners, and community advocates. With generous funding from the Ford Foundation, TCEP has been facilitating the NLERAP national initiative that seeks to reform
teacher preparation through the Teacher Education Institute (TEI), a community-based, university-connected, grow-your-own, teacher preparation education pipeline project for high school youth in the following six states: Texas, Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Illinois, and New York. This initiative will increase the representation of grow-your-own Latino/a teachers by recruiting them as students from highneeds schools, providing access to university teacher preparation programs, and helping them to return to their communities to teach. This process consists of building local capacity to develop a robust, research-based curriculum that is culturally relevant and intellectually rich. Drawing on best practices from the field, it promotes multiple literacies, parental and community participation in school governance, leadership and political awareness, systemic change, and academic achievement for all students.
Dr. Angela Valenzuela (center holding the check) and Dr. Gregory Vincent (back row, fourth from left) celebrated receipt of a $300,000 Ford Foundation grant with the Texas Center for Educational Policy advisory board.
Division of Diversity and Community Engagement • The University of Texas at Austin
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