A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

A CELEBRATION OF COLLECTIVE IMPACT IN THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY A Report on Educational Initiatives in South Texas

A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

Your Guide to a Defining Event 2 YOU’RE INVITED

Celebrate Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley 4 IN HONOR OF EQUITY

An Entire Community is Lifted Up 12 CONTIGO

The History and Power of Collaboration 18 MILESTONES OF MATURIT Y

A Time of Progress 24 A COMMUNIT Y CELEBRATION

Knowledge, Access, Innovation, Tools, Training 38 UNIQUE AND SPECIAL GIFTS

What a Community Can Take into the Future 44 OUR CO-HOSTS

Special Thanks and Acknowledgement 48 PLEASE JOIN US

Moving Forward Together

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

YOU’RE INVITED

Celebrate Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley Since 2004, Educate Texas, a strategic initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas, has been investing and working in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to increase postsecondary readiness and access to help make every student successful in school, in the workforce and in life. Educate Texas began by introducing the Early College High School (ECHS) model into the region, which offers students the chance to earn college credits while still in high school, and by establishing the first T-STEM academy to foster learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

For the last 15 years, with generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Greater Texas Foundation and others, Educate Texas has been able to expand and evolve our initial approach so that school models are just one part of the equation. We’ve built on the one-to-one collaborations between individual partners that characterized the RGV at the onset of our work, and partnered with RGV-based leaders to establish RGV FOCUS. RGV FOCUS is a community partnership that exists to make sure all children in the Rio Grande Valley get the education they need and deserve to achieve meaningful careers and lives. The partnership is composed of education, workforce, community and civic leaders, who have agreed to combine efforts and serve as a unified and more powerful force to support students in a seamless and comprehensive way on their path to college and career success.

To achieve the change we seek, RGV FOCUS follows a "Collective Impact" (CI) approach—a process that provides a structure for how we can best work together to reach our agreed-upon goals. This approach has proven to be a natural fit with the communal, relational culture of the RGV, where partnering and cooperating to achieve solutions and success is simply a way of life. In fact, as we reach our 15-year mark in the RGV, it brings to mind the significance of a major milestone among Latino communities, the Quinceañera, which celebrates a young girl’s transition from childhood to adulthood at the age of 15, as well as the friends and family who have supported her along the way. The Quinceañera is a way of coming out to the world, and we see this as a similar moment for our CI work in the RGV, as we recognize the potential for communities across the country to adopt this successful approach.

We cordially invite you to join us.

¡Bienvenidos!

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

IN HONOR OF EQUITY

An Entire Community is Lifted Up

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

In preparation for her Quinceañera, a young woman focuses on her talents, learns how to overcome her limitations, and pulls in her community to give her the strength and confidence to step forward bravely and face life’s challenges.

It is our belief that if communities who implement CI are encouraged to see themselves as already possessing the skill sets, resources, capacity and commitment to achieve change, a sense of empowerment will overcome the tendency to feel inadequate or ill-equipped that often comes from looking at areas of challenge in a community. This transforms the perspective from a deficit-based view to an asset-based view of the work, creating a foundation for reinforcing and strengthening skill sets to reach success.

Just like a young girl looks forward to her Quinceañera, RGV students look forward to achieving a degree or credential to improve the lives of themselves, their families and their community. Students in local school districts face systemic challenges in earning their educations. Much of RGV FOCUS’ work has been in identifying supports that are successful and replicating them across the region. To achieve equity, Educate Texas believes each student should have access to the opportunities and resources they need to be successful in the classroom. Implicit in our work is the acknowledgement that each student starts at a different level and needs different supports. In practical terms, this means that one of the key challenges of educating these students is to find a way to meet the needs of students wherever they are, utilizing community-wide and non-traditional resources. This is not simply a question of serving a traditional Hispanic community or pursuing a moral imperative to address social and economic inequities. Our efforts represent an acknowledgement that shared prosperity depends on doing whatever it takes to support and encourage our young people—particularly Hispanics, who make up 97% 1 of public pre-K–12 students and 92%2 of public higher education students in our region—to pursue education and develop the training and skills needed to succeed.

Achieving Equity The national narrative about equity in communities like the RGV has been constrained by the traditional frameworks of gender, race/ethnicity, and/or socioeconomic status. But telling the story of achieving equity in an ethnically homogeneous region goes beyond those traditional frames. In fact, when equity is evaluated in the context of a specific community, like the RGV, the regional results help shift the national narrative to focus on Latino achievements and assets.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

To establish a relevant equity framework for our CI initiative, we looked more critically at who was driving success in relation to outcomes and how they achieved this success. We built our first Bright Spots analysis model to identify where the “good” was happening. The model achieved this primary purpose, and at the same time, it became the catalyst to rethink the practice of data output/dumping. This resulted in a new equity-informed data literacy strategy to help partners rigorously interpret data and turn it into a useful tool.

Campus Bright Spots in 3rd Grade Reading 3

2018 % STARR 3rd Grade Reading at "Approaches" Standard

Valley View Elementary Valley View South Elementary

100%

FJ Scott Elementary Austin Elementary Putegnat Elementary Gallegos Elementary

80%

60%

40%

20%

0% 0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2018 % Economically Disadvantaged

When we unveiled the Bright Spots model, our education leaders looked at the spread of their schools' academic progress across the scatterplot, noting both those above and below the prediction line based on socioeconomic status.

Their initial tendency was to compare across each other’s districts or counties.

However, this tendency was put in check with a simple question: What explains the disparity of performance among schools within your own district?

For the Leadership Team, this has been a game changer. The resulting change in perspective is groundbreaking in how it has allowed us to understand the broader culture of our community and redesign how we support our students.

Given the homogeneity of our community, all students can achieve at high levels if some can.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

2018 Top 10 Campus Bright Spots in 3rd Grade Reading 3 Enrollment

Econ. Disadv.

3rd Grade Reading

% Points Above Prediction

Putegnat Elementary

492

96%

93%

FJ Scott Elementary

618

90%

Valley View Elementary

455

Austin Elementary

Campus

District

County

27%

Brownsville ISD

Cameron

96%

27%

Roma ISD

Starr

89%

96%

27%

Valley View ISD

Hidalgo

362

94%

92%

25%

Edinburg CISD

Hidalgo

Gallegos Elementary

678

98%

90%

24%

Brownsville ISD

Cameron

Valley View South Elementary

376

86%

94%

23%

Valley View ISD

Hidalgo

Wilbur E. Lucas Elementary

433

84%

93%

21%

Valley View ISD

Hidalgo

E. Vera Elementary

438

86%

92%

21%

Roma ISD

Starr

Vermillion Road Elementary

832

98%

86%

21%

Brownsville ISD

Cameron

Villareal Elementary

362

75%

96%

21%

Los Fresnos CISD

Cameron

2018 Top 10 District Bright Spots in 3rd Grade Reading 3 Econ. Disadv.

3rd Grade Reading

% Points Above Prediction

County

Valley View ISD (Hidalgo)

85%

92%

27%

Hidalgo

Roma ISD

88%

84%

20%

Starr

Los Fresnos ISD

78%

84%

15%

Cameron

Brownsville ISD

95%

75%

14%

Cameron

IDEA Public Schools

89%

75%

11%

Hidalgo

Edinburg CISD

85%

76%

11%

Hidalgo

Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD

88%

73%

9%

Hidalgo

Vanguard Academy

84%

75%

8%

Hidalgo

Lasara ISD

81%

75%

7%

Willacy

Monte Alto ISD

88%

71%

7%

Hidalgo

District

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

About the Rio Grande Valley The RGV is one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, home to more than 1.35 million people. 4 It comprises the four southernmost counties of Texas—Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr and Willacy. The population is young (median age is 30) 4, Latino (91%) 4, bilingual and bicultural, and 32% of residents live below the poverty threshold. 4 The public education system supports 37 public school districts 1 and four public institutions of higher education (IHE) 1, serving more than 360,000 pre-K–12 students 1 and nearly 72,000 higher education students 2 . The student population is 98% Latino and 88% economically disadvantaged.

The median age of the population in the Rio Grande Valley4

1.35m

91%

People call the 4,275 square miles of the Rio Grand Valley home4

37

Starr

Willacy

Hidalgo

Cameron

Public Independent School Districts1

and

Students in public pre-K–12 (97% Latino)1

Latino Teacher Population in the RGV5

of the population in the Rio Grande Valley is Latino4

In the RGV, 32% of the population lives below the poverty threshold,4 compared to 16% in the state4

360k 90%

30

4

and

27%

VS.

Public Institutions of Higher Education1

VS.

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Latino Teacher Population in Texas5

$

72k

Public Higher Education Students (92% Latino)2

9%

Latino Teacher Population in the US5

A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

The RGV is also fertile ground for economic opportunity. As a long-time leading citrus producer with access to the Gulf of Mexico, the region has traditionally relied on farming and tourism. Now, the region is attracting investments that are driving an economic transition from an agriculture-based economy to one that focuses on healthcare, education, advanced manufacturing, retail, aerospace, and oil and gas. This shift towards jobs that require higher education degrees and credentials is an important reason educational achievement is crucial; for this generation, earnings and job security are connected to higher education, as businesses seek candidates with these qualifications.

Nationally, Hispanics are the fastest-growing, youngest age group and are expected to comprise 25% of the United States population by 2045. 6 As the Hispanic population continues to grow in our state, expanding the number of educated Hispanics may be the difference between our state experiencing rising prosperity or slipping behind. To this end, we must work diligently to expand Hispanic postsecondary enrollment and graduation rates at our community colleges and four-year universities. A well-educated workforce is central to helping the RGV continue to thrive.

Demographic Profile of U.S. Population, 2045 6

Demographic Profile of RGV Population, 2045 7 <1% <1% 1% 4%

4% 8% 13%

50%

25%

White

93%

Hispanic

Black

Asian

Other

Since 2000, two plans have been put in place to strategically address postsecondary educational disparity in Texas. The first, “Closing the Gaps (CTG): The Texas Higher Education Plan” was adopted in October 2000 by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) as the state’s 15-year higher education plan. The Plan’s goals were to close the gaps that existed then in four major areas: participation, success, excellence and research. All types

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of higher education are included in the Plan: public, independent and career; two-year and four-year (including health-related). As the Plan concluded, Texas came within about 25,000 students of reaching the ambitious statewide CTG participation goal of enrolling approximately 630,000 more students in fall 2015 than in 2000. The actual increase of more than 605,000 students was 96% of the targeted increase. Hispanic enrollment increased the most of all targeted ethnic groups at 137%. Completions of bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degrees, associate degrees and certificates by Hispanic and African American students increased nearly fourfold and threefold, respectively, from 2000 to 2015. 8

Following CTG, the THECB launched its next strategic plan, 60X30TX, motivated by the recognition that by 2030, approximately 60% of Texans ages 25-34 will require a higher education credential to be gainfully employed. 9 Today, only 43.5% of young Texans between the ages of 25-34 have an associate degree or higher. 10 To reach the goal, increased parity across traditionally underrepresented populations is essential. Completion benchmarks for Latinos, who are expected to comprise 52% of Texasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; population by 2030, are 138,000 by 2020, 198,000 by 2025, and 285,000 by 2030.9 To support this effort, Educate Texas created the 20x2020 Student Success Plan with a goal to positively impact 20 percent of the nearly 7 million public school and higher education students and the 350,000 public education teachers in Texas by 2020 within our statewide portfolio of work in four key impact areas: college and career readiness, effective teaching, higher education and CI. The RGV has been a key driver for these efforts since the beginning of this strategic plan, and the success of this CI initiative has been a significant step forward, as we continue to press toward a more prosperous Texas for all.

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CONTIGO

The History and Power of Collaboration

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

The Quinceañera is a pivotal moment designed to recognize and honor a young woman as she comes of age and takes her place in society. Similarly, the pinnacle of achievement for CI is to empower a community to leverage its inherent strengths and expand opportunities for its members to succeed beyond their expectations. As it matures, the RGV FOCUS CI initiative is revealing its potential to fulfill this promise.

Propelling Change Educate Texas began in 2003 as the Texas High School Project, and introduced the Early College High School (ECHS) model to the state of Texas with a multi-million-dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

ECHS models enable high school students to earn free credit for college while finishing high school, giving students a head start toward a degree or postsecondary credential. This model has been particularly effective in the RGV, where the majority of students are the first generation in their families to attend college.

In 2010, Educate Texas, in partnership with Greater Texas Foundation, Houston Endowment and The Meadows Foundation, engaged FSG to conduct a research study analyzing the state’s historical postsecondary performance. The research identified five regions—Central Texas, El Paso, Houston/Gulf Coast, Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex and South Texas—as areas of focus, since they are home to more than 80% of students within the state. 11 The resulting Texas Regional Action Plan established a framework for prioritizing investments and initiatives that would accelerate postsecondary success across the state.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

All partners gained important insights into the unique challenges of each region and identified opportunities to better align their individual experiences, resources and investments to support shared goals. At the same time, the partners learned about the Collective Impact (CI) concept and expressed interest in further evaluating this model that had been utilized in other cities, like Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston, as a possible framework for future work.

Leveraging this action plan and the CI model, the partners initiated conversations with state and national funders, service providers and partner organizations to explore the creation of regionally-structured, public-private partnerships focused on improving postsecondary outcomes. As a result of the lessons learned about CI, Educate Texas restructured its working models in order to capitalize on the regional assets and opportunities for scaling. Specifically, Educate Texas focused its efforts on two regions—the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and the RGV in South Texas—in order to concentrate resources and improve impact.

Educate Texas worked with StriveTogether and FSG, two national thought leaders in CI, to better coordinate and collaborate stakeholders’ efforts in its goal of shifting the educational and economic trajectory of these regions.

About Collective Impact Collective Impact is a framework that unites cross-sector community members to drive social change that achieves equity, forging a transparent path forward and removing barriers to education and postsecondary success for all students.

In order for the CI framework to be effective, regional assets must be leveraged around a shared vision and goals to strengthen each step of the educational pipeline. There must be a common agenda, common progress measures, mutually reinforcing activities, ongoing communications and a backbone organization.

In the RGV, as in many communities, CI engages a Leadership Team to identify regional assets and needs, and to adopt a collective vision, goals, strategies and metrics. This team reflects the demographics of the RGV and comprises key leaders from public pre-K–12 districts and postsecondary institutions, community-based organizations and the workforce. The Leadership Team is supported by action networks and advisory bodies, which lead the implementation of the vision and strategy. Within this framework, the Educate Texas staff, known as the RGV FOCUS backbone, works with the Leadership Team and supports the action networks and advisory bodies as a neutral convener, thought leader and facilitator.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

COMMON AGENDA

CO MM AGE ON ND A

• Common understanding of the challenge • Shared vision for change

SHARED MEASUREMENT • Collecting data and measuring results • Focus on performance management • Shared accountability

SH ARED MEA SU REME N T

REINFORCING ACTIVITIES

BA C SU KB PP ON O RT E

• Differentiated approaches • Coordination through joint plan of action NG RCI NFO TIES REI IVI ACT

US N IO N AT TI IC N N CO MU M CO UO

CONTINUOUS COMMUNICATION • Consistent and open communication • Focus on building trust and relationships BACKBONE SUPPORT • •

Administrative core and partner Convener, facilitator, capacity builder and catalyst for the thought, strategy and purpose of the initiative

Making It Happen In 2012, following a year of planning and preparation that set the common agenda and shared measurements, Educate Texas launched RGV FOCUS to transform college readiness, access and success across the RGV. RGV FOCUS comprises public school districts and higher education institutions; philanthropic entities; and workforce, community and civic leaders. We work with the community to monitor students’ progress along the cradle-to-career educational pathway and align strategies and resources that ensure students are ready for postsecondary education, attain a degree or credential, and ultimately pursue a meaningful career in the RGV and beyond.

The Leadership Team agreed that the on-the-ground work would be achieved through a system of action networks, each related to the agreed-upon RGV FOCUS strategic priorities. Each network was activated according to community need and backbone capacity.

In 2013, the Leadership Team identified that preparing students to enter and be successful in college was the highest priority. Two action networks were created to address this challenge: College and Career Readiness, and Culture of Attending College. The Culture of Attending College Action Network was activated to develop a regional strategy for college access counselors to

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

increase early college awareness, pre-college advising on admissions and financial aid application completion. Teaching Excellence, our first Partner Led Action Network (PLAN), was established to provide teacher data to our superintendent partners and to build a strong, research-focused plan to explore how to better serve teachers to support and teach Hispanic students.

In a Collective Impact effort with RGV FOCUS, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s (UTRGV) College of Education & P-16 Integration is the first and only PLAN. In this capacity, the partner is most empowered to determine and drive the outcomes of a particular action item. Currently, with thought and capacity building partnership from the RGV FOCUS backbone, the Teaching Excellence PLAN is working to ensure that all learners have access to highly effective teachers by including Teaching Excellence at the center of college for all, student achievement and regional transformation. The work of Teaching Excellence is guided by the following three priorities:

• •

Research and Learning focuses on creating a culture of inquiry

Career Exploration focuses on shifting the positionality of the field of education to build a strong pipeline of talent as early as high school

•

Teacher Preparation focuses on improving quality of the clinical experience and readiness of new teachers in the field.

The action networks are composed of high-level practitioners assigned or recruited by their organization’s Leadership Team member, and the structure has proven to be a successful strategy in moving our work forward efficiently.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

MILESTONES OF MATURIT Y

A Time of Progress

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

The Quinceañera is more than just a celebration. It is a transition to adulthood with all the rights and responsibilities that entails. As RGV FOCUS reaches maturity, we must build on lessons learned, deepen our relationship with partners and plan for the future. The work of RGV FOCUS, with counsel and support from StriveTogether and FSG, has been thoughtfully emerging since 2012 in a series of phases.

2012–2015 In Phase One, FSG was engaged to support the development of a vision for the RGV and convene a Leadership Team with membership that was inclusive and representative of RGV stakeholder groups across the four counties. The first step was to gain broad acceptance of CI in the region based on a solid foundation of strong relationships with educational leaders, which had been previously established through the adaptation of ECHS and other initiatives in the RGV. Leaders from Educate Texas and the Greater Texas Foundation shared the groundbreaking Stanford study on CI with these partners and held several discussions to determine if this new model was the right fit in the RGV. Though many individual collaborations between school, workforce and community leaders existed, CI appeared to be the way to scale these efforts from one-toone to one-to-many, transforming the approach from disconnected to strategic, aligned and self-reinforcing.

Still, there were potential challenges. Prior initiatives attempting to unite the RGV had been unsuccessful. Educate Texas sought to learn why, and found that the initiatives had been too big, too bold and too aggressive in trying to bring everyone to the table. Implementing CI would require taking more disciplined and thoughtful steps to bring coherence and build capacity. For example, it was important to show data for the whole region versus by school district or college, so that stakeholders could see themselves in the aggregation while understanding that the region would rise or fall as one.

The geography of the RGV would also play a role. Its four counties are split between the upper and lower valley with a pronounced sense of territorialism.

The counties are further divided by their urban and rural environments, with a significant disparity in resources. It was important to level the playing field in discussions; rural districts needed to be recognized for the role they had to play and the valuable contributions they could make. It started by acknowledging the rural districts’ ideas and desire to excel, though they were lacking in some resources, including research and auxiliary supports. Bolstering support began

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

with strengthening the teaching corps, partly by encouraging IHEs to offer equitable distribution of teaching intern candidates to the rural and urban communities. Support also included improving data capacity and making data more actionable for individual campuses, as rural districts did not have the staff and technology needed for customized, relevant data analysis.

Ultimately, CI was fully embraced when key leaders endorsed it, including Juliet Garcia, president of UT Brownsville, and Shirley Reed, president of South Texas College, who were already changemakers and innovators in the RGV. Danny King, superintendent of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, and Steve Flores, superintendent of Harlingen Independent School District, added the commitment of the upper and lower valley respectively, while key community organization leaders, like Tracy Wickett of the United Way of Lower Cameron County, also signaled their support.

With regional acceptance and engagement assured, the Leadership Team was formed, comprising the presidents of all RGV IHEs, key representatives from workforce and community organizations, and superintendents from districts that represent all of the pre-K–12 students in the RGV.

2016–2017 Phase Two encompassed priorities, processes and plans. First, strategic priorities were developed for the RGV based on regional data and national best practices.

Next, a vetting and due diligence process was established to inform the selection of Educate Texas as the “backbone” organization to support the work. Finally, an implementation plan was created to focus on Dual Credit, Dropout Prevention and Recovery, and College Access. Each focus area is discussed in further detail later in the report.

Also, due to the importance of public accountability and transparency, as well as maintaining community engagement with CI, Educate Texas developed an annual scorecard and other reports to help share information and results. This enabled us to present what may be a surprising development to some: The RGV is outperforming the state in several areas.

2018–Present As part of Phase Three, Educate Texas and RGV FOCUS leadership underwent a six-month strategic refinement to identify key areas for impact and growth over the next five years. The new plan is to build on areas of exceptional strength

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

(partnerships, data literacy, the effective teaching action network, and a strong backbone organization) while adding new partners and building action networks around early childhood development and workforce alignment.

Phase Three also includes the recruitment and hiring of new leadership for the backbone, and an expansion of staff efforts to focus on building capacity with local "Civil Rights and Equity Organizations" (CREO). Lastly, during Phase Three, the backbone will begin creating a long-term sustainability plan for RGV FOCUS.

An invitation to a Quinceañera is also a recognition. While the event honors a special young woman’s coming of age, it simultaneously acknowledges everyone who had a role in guiding her to this moment, who invested in her future and who want the very best for her. She radiates the sense of promise and purpose instilled by her entire community. Her invitation asks you to share the moment, to see the person she has grown to be and to celebrate all that you have worked for and achieved together. A similar sense of community pride and feeling of joy is present when the RGV is invited to come together and see the progress of the previous year when the annual CI scorecard is revealed.

It’s a chance to reflect, to celebrate all that’s possible and to anticipate an ever-brighter future.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

A COMMUNIT Y CELEBRATION

Knowledge, Access, Innovation, Tools, Training

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

While a Quinceañera features certain universal traditions, each young woman adds personal touches to reflect her own personality and her family’s unique attributes and relationships. In the same way, RGV FOCUS brings a regionalized and contextualized set of perspectives to the StriveTogether Theory of Action, a CI best practice model developed in an urban setting with a midwestern perspective. Our unique challenge has been to adapt it to the RGV, a homogeneous region along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Our work is informed by regional priorities, and although these may not be unique to our region of the country, they are unique in a national context, and our efforts to design new processes and solutions to address them are significant.

These solutions demonstrate our ability to adapt, innovate, contextualize and operationalize best practices to serve our community. These, in turn, are now informing the national CI field itself. RGV FOCUS has tested many strategies in pursuit of the vision to help all learners achieve a degree or credential that leads to a meaningful career in one of the many industries of opportunity in the RGV. The following represent the most significant of these efforts.

College and Career Readiness College- and career-ready high school graduates should have the skills, knowledge and abilities needed to achieve what’s next in life—whether they plan to pursue higher education or start a job. In many communities, knowledge and skills have been fostered and cultivated throughout childhood with an eye toward higher education. But in the RGV, historically, students have struggled against multiple challenges to access and pursuit of higher eduction. An important part of RGV FOCUS has been to improve access to higher education and map the way forward.

Creating New Possibilities: The Early College High School Model In 2003, Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) launched the Texas High School Project, now Educate Texas, to introduce the Early College High School (ECHS) model to the state of Texas to address the declining graduation rates for Texas high school students and the low percentage of minority, low-income, firstgeneration students earning higher education credentials (two- or four-year, or technical college). ECHS was piloted in the RGV by Educate Texas in 2004,

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

where, with funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we played a key role in bringing school districts and higher education partners together with the Texas Education Agency to launch the ECHS model. We also provided technical assistance and help with professional development to designated campuses. To date, there are 37 Early College High Schools in the Rio Grande Valley.12

By blending high school and college coursework, an ECHS gives students the opportunity to earn up to two years of college credit (60 hours), tuition free, while earning a high school diploma. The objectives are to engage potential first-generation college attendees, provide dual credit at no cost and offer academic counseling to help students develop the skills needed for post-high school success. The ECHS model provides students with highly personalized attention and encourages lasting relationships with teachers and classmates. The experience creates a culture of attending college that encourages students to continue their higher education journey. In the RGV, a free college experience in high school dramatically increases the likelihood of postsecondary enrollment.

Getting Prepared: College Readiness Action Network Originally, the intention of the College Readiness Action Network was to assist school districts with their efforts to increase the number of students who could take college-level, credit-bearing courses during high school, reducing the number of students who needed developmental or remedial classes upon entering postsecondary studies. After some exploratory meetings, it was determined that due to school districtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; already robust efforts in this area, the Action Network needed a different focus.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

In early 2014, RGV FOCUS attended a presentation from the Texas Education Agency about the requirements of the 83rd Legislatureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House Bill 5 mandate, which included requiring school districts to partner with at least one IHE to develop and implement college prep courses in Math and English for those students not yet demonstrating college readiness. Recognizing the potential challenges of four regional, public IHEs needing to align with and support 37 public school districts in the RGV to create individual college preparation courses, RGV FOCUS volunteered to lead a regional approach to address the new House Bill 5 mandate.

RGV FOCUS brought together all the regional, public IHEs (one university, two community colleges and one technical college), the Region One Education Service Center and the 37 public school districts to design two college prep courses, one in English and one in Math. These courses can be implemented by all 37 public school districts and are designed to help 12th-grade students meet college readiness requirements, allowing them to enroll in college credit courses immediately upon high school graduation. School districts have access to the curriculum free of charge.

Teachers are trained yearly on the curriculum, while an open-source English textbook has been made available as an iBook, and free access to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (UTRGV) Math platform has been granted to participating schools. The RGV is the only region in Texas that responded to the mandate through a collaborative process that included all of the IHEs. This strategy has played a role in the decreased number of students needing remediation upon entering higher education, and is considered to be a best-in-class model.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

Staying the Course: Dropout Prevention and Recovery The RGV is known for innovative approaches to reducing high school dropout rates, including the “Back on Track” work by Pharr-San Juan-Alamo (PSJA) ISD that has been well-documented by Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Educate Texas and successfully replicated by several other districts. When Superintendent Danny King moved from Hidalgo to PSJA, he discovered that many students were falling short of the number of course credits required to receive their high school diplomas. Though many students had attended for four years and assumed they had finished, they had not actually graduated. The odds of enticing them back were slim, and simply emphasizing the importance of a high school diploma was not sufficient. Some were already working, and others would be too embarrassed to find themselves in this situation.

Superintendent King wanted to create the opportunity for students to return not for a GED, but for a diploma, while taking college courses for dual credit with the intent to advance to college to improve their job prospects and open more doors. King partnered with Reed, president of South Texas College, to accommodate students, both from an educational and a social standpoint, by creating the “Back on Track” program. A separate campus was established using space in a local retail center, which was designed as a training center rather than a traditional classroom. King and Reed also developed special coursework and thoughtfully selected teachers with a heart for at-risk youth. King and his staff then embarked on a valley-wide system of campaigns to draw students to the new campus, including outdoor boards and door-to-door outreach.

Because of these programs, we have gained a deeper understanding of practices at schools that serve returning high school dropouts and students who are behind on credit hours, as well as different models at the district level for supporting opportunity youth, those aged 18-24 who are not enrolled in school or working.

During the fall of 2014, RGV FOCUS convened leaders from four school districts that demonstrated innovative and effective models for supporting our most at-risk youth through the Dropout Prevention and Recovery Action Network.

To gain a deeper understanding of each program’s strengths and challenges, we used JFF’s “Back on Track” Self Assessment to gather information for sharing with school districts and IHEs. We modified this Self Assessment with support from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) to encourage partners to think creatively about supporting students who come from dropout recovery academies as they apply to college, transition and complete their first year. We also used technical assistance from JFF and CCRC during many one-on-one meetings with school district and IHE staff to help them with issues related to attendance, retention and high-quality instruction.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

Our drop-out prevention and recovery work is an example of work which has achieved a level of sustainability and scale and may not require additional RGV FOCUS backbone support. Although the Leadership Team identified this as a priority area, we found that this strategy was well established and institutionalized in the RGV. Districts are committed to serving opportunity youth and have built multiple models, including standalone schools, programs and support services, to meet the needs of this population. With limited resources in the backbone team, it is critical to understand that continuously reprioritizing work is important to the successful engagement and sustainability of the CI work. The highest and best role for the RGV FOCUS backbone to play is to elevate and share lessons learned within the Educate Texas network and with program partners.

Doing the Homework: FAFSA/TAFSA The RGV FOCUS backbone activated the Culture of Attending College Action Network in 2013 to develop a regional strategy for college access professionals to increase early college awareness by providing resources and pre-college advising on admissions and financial aid application completion.

Given that completed Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a strong indicator of likely college attendance,13 the Action Network mobilized two working groups focusing on encouraging more high school seniors to complete a financial aid application—either the FAFSA or, for DREAMers and other undocumented students, the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA).

This work also required a shift in cultural mindset, and La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) was uniquely positioned to help. LUPE was founded in 1989 by farm worker and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez as a community union, rooted in the belief that members of the low-income community have the responsibility and obligation to organize themselves to advocate and articulate for the issues and factors that impact their lives. The LUPE office in the RGV was launched in 2003 by Juanita Valdez-Cox, who recognized the need for a community organizing model to advance the objectives of farmworkers and “colonia,” or unincorporated area residents in the region.

LUPE was prepared to serve as a conduit to Latino families, particularly parents who may not be formally educated themselves or view college as the next step for their children, especially as higher education may appear to be too expensive. From a Latino cultural perspective, landing a job is often a result of personal relationships, and once a job is secured, an individual tends to stay for the length of their career.

Yet, in the knowledge economy of the U.S., college is an essential step. LUPE is

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a trusted partner who reinforces this message and connect families to resources they might not know exist, which starts with completing the FAFSA or TASFA. RGV FOCUS partners worked together to increase FAFSA and TASFA completion in three significant ways: First, partners developed a single process for state aid applicants to submit financial aid applications at local IHEs and built a counselor toolkit for DREAMers, which resulted in a 26% increase in state financial aid submissions.14 Second, partners facilitated a federal policy change to include 19-year-olds in the formula for calculating FAFSA completions. Previously, the Department of Education only included students in the FAFSA completion calculations if they were 18 years old or younger. Some students in the region were not being counted as having completed the FAFSA because they turned 19 before the beginning of their first year in college. With this new age consideration, virtually all eligible seniors in the RGV are completing FAFSA. Third, in a collective response to the new federal financial aid application calendar and “Prior-Prior Year” tax return policy, Educate Texas and RGV FOCUS convened the leaders from the four public IHEs in the region to discuss aligning their financial aid calendars. As a result, all the IHEs began distributing aid packages in November, directly following the new FAFSA application window.

With these innovations developed, the focus turned to supporting students in completing FAFSA. One approach adopted by the Action Network is called “Super Saturday”. Financial aid, admissions and enrollment professionals at each of the four IHEs host financial aid completion events at their respective campuses on the same date, so that students can receive assistance in filling out the FAFSA/ TASFA and complete their college applications.

We also learned that a FAFSA is not deemed “complete” until the student has submitted the FAFSA and any and all required supplemental documentation. If a student is requested to provide additional documents, the student has been selected for a process called “verification”. Our school district partners have reported an increase in the number of students being selected for verification.

If a student is selected, they are not considered FAFSA complete and are not yet qualified to receive a financial aid package. One school district partner indicated that 30–40% of their seniors were being selected for verification, a number that more than doubled from the previous year.15 For the current year, the Action Network has developed a number of tools for counselors, students and families to assist in completing their financial aid applications. A guide for counselors outlines ways to support students through the verification process, and a guide for students and parents provides steps to obtain a tax transcript or an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) if needed.

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Our efforts to support FAFSA completion include providing monthly completion progress reports to school districts and on-the-ground resources for schools and students. Additionally, Educate Texas, RGV FOCUS and our partners are continually advocating for effective policies related to FAFSA. Overall, 71% of the RGVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than 20,000 high school seniors completed the FAFSA for the class of 2017,16 up from the previous ceiling of 59% in the 2011-2012 academic year, 16 also our baseline year. In comparison, the statewide average was 60%.16

Capacity Building: Data and Convenings The RGV FOCUS backbone is striving to help the RGV FOCUS partners build capacity for problem solving. Through the CI approach, the backbone works to ensure all voices are heard, perspectives and knowledge are shared, and a broad understanding rooted in data is achieved to eliminate or alleviate the systemic challenges faced by students in the region. Our most important role is convener, as we bring together a cross-sector team of leaders from education, the workforce and the community to form partnerships between organizations, and maximize their impact and minimize duplication of efforts.

With everyone at the table, we become greater than the sum of our parts and develop strategies to help realize a vision that reflects our collective values.

Sharing Knowledge: LUPE In addition to the college prep course requirements, the 83rd Texas Legislature's House Bill 5 required 8th grade students to select an endorsement, or course

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of study similar in concept to a college major, that would provide the student with knowledge and experiences in one of five areas:

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) • Business and Industry • Public Service • Arts & Humanities • Multidisciplinary Studies Ideally, each option would be available at every high school in the state, but at a minimum, each high school is required to offer the Multidisciplinary Studies endorsement.

The shift in graduation requirements provided a crucial opportunity for RGV FOCUS partners, led by LUPE and the Culture of Attending College Action Network, to share information about this change with the community. LUPE responded to House Bill 5 in two phases. First, LUPE developed a survey and hosted community focus groups to gauge community knowledge of House Bill 5 endorsements. Parents wanted to know more about graduation requirements in general, which endorsements aligned to which majors, and how to prepare and get students into college. As a result, LUPE developed a blueprint that mapped House Bill 5 endorsements to college majors, but discovered that the blueprint didn’t apply to all high schools because not all endorsements are offered at each campus. LUPE requested the support of the Culture of Attending College Action Network to determine the best way to help students, and the Action Network recommended that LUPE build a presentation and companion document to stress the importance of students taking rigorous coursework, including four courses in each of the four core areas of Math, Science, English and Social Studies that included Algebra II and English IV, to better prepare for college.

In the second phase, at the suggestion of the Culture of Attending College Action Network, LUPE developed two 10-page booklets, one in English and one in Spanish, addressing important topics related to high school graduation and going to college. LUPE made presentations to focus groups of parents to further refine the materials, and is now developing a series of shorter presentations and video presentations to host on social media. LUPE is also developing a train-the-trainer model to help parent-leaders engage with other parents in their communities. RGV FOCUS has been instrumental in sharing these resources across the region and as examples of best practices in other CI communities.

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Increasing Opportunity: South Texas College Just a little more than 25 years ago, Texas Southmost College in Brownsville was the only option in the region for pursuing higher education. While this helped to serve lower valley students, upper valley students either had to travel to Brownsville or leave the region, both options that were typically unworkable due to the large size of the region. In reality, most students did not continue their formal education after high school. This left the RGV significantly behind the rest of the state in the number of adults with some college credentials.

The number of adults in the upper valley with a college degree trailed the rest of the state by more than half.11 The region recognized the need to change the status quo and advocated for the establishment of a new community college. With the support of thenGovernor Ann Richards, South Texas College (STC) opened in 1993 and, since then, has dramatically shifted the higher education landscape in South Texas.

The embrace and rapid expansion of ECHS, the availability of dual credit and additional supports like bus service have heightened the impact. The number of dual credit programs offered by STC, as well as its number of graduates, are among the highest in the state in its peer group of very large community colleges. 2 Additionally, STC awards over 6,000 degrees annually.17 Today, STC comprises six campuses: Nursing & Allied Health (McAllen), Technology Campus (McAllen), Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence (Pharr), Mid-Valley Campus (Weslaco), Pecan Campus (McAllen) and Starr County Campus (Rio Grande City).

The work of STC, along with Texas Southmost College in Brownsville and Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, has taken the region from severely behind the state to becoming almost even with the state in the number of adults with a college credential.17,18 It is through these types of partnerships and innovations that the RGV has transformed from a community lagging behind the state and nation to one of the most innovative educational regions, providing success for overwhelmingly large populations of low-income, mostly Latino, firstgeneration students.

Effective Teaching The 2012 Texas Teaching Commission report reaffirmed that the single most important school-based factor in student success is the quality of teaching in the classroom. Critical to teacher effectiveness is a well-designed system that prepares, recruits, develops, evaluates, compensates and retains the best teachers.

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Unlike the rest of the state and country, in the RGV, teachers' demographics largely mirror the students they serve. This is critical to our region because studies have often concluded students, especially non-white students, tend to benefit from having teachers who look like them. Additionally, studies also show that teacher diversity can make a difference in studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance and their interest in school.19 Key statistics of teachers in the RGV include:

Average Years of Teaching Experience 1

First-Year Teachers with No Experience 1

12%

VS.

in the RGV

8%

9

in the State

10%

11

VS.

in the RGV

Average Annual Turnover Rate 1

in the State

VS.

in the RGV

17%

in the State

Where do RGV teachers earn their certifications?

7%

42%

1,200

20%

Certifications awarded in 2017 20

30%

University Programs

For-Profit Alternative Certification Programs

Non-Profit Alternative Certification Programs

Latino Teachers 1,5

90% in the RGV

VS.

27% in the State

VS.

Other Programs

Latino Students 1,5

9%

97%

in the Nation

in the RGV

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VS.

52% in the State

VS.

26%

in the Nation

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In partnership with UTRGV, RGV FOCUS is aiming to ensure that effective teaching is at the center of student achievement and regional transformation.

UTRGV’s College of Education and P-16 Integration (CEP) is the Partner-Led Action Network (PLAN) for Teaching Excellence. The PLAN is bringing together cross-sector partners to:

• Connect and support leaders across sectors and at all levels around effective teaching

• Collaborate with the action network to identify necessary data and outcomes to inform the work

• Advocate for support from partners to nurture the work • Identify resources to inform the work of the network In 2016, RGV FOCUS and UTRGV held a “Convening of Leaders” which included more than 50 P-16 education leaders. The group interviewed key stakeholders and conducted a review of current critical issues to inform the work of this Action Network. Three priorities surfaced:

• • •

Disrupting teaching and learning Envisioning career exploration Reimagining teacher preparation

RGV FOCUS supports the Action Network by convening Special Interest Research Groups (SIRGs). With UTRGV’s designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, UTRGV’s College of Education and P-16 Integration (CEP) launched the SIRG initiative to discover what it means to be a Hispanic-Serving College of Education (HSCOE). Through these efforts, they are working to articulate what this designation means for the college, and how it can support this identity through its curriculum, pedagogy, scholarship and community engagement.

The goal of some of this research is to inform how to better serve a population of primarily Latino undergraduate and graduate students training to become teachers, and how best to prepare them as educators to teach a predominately Latino student population.

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The day of a Quinceañera is full of activity, and everyone has a role, especially the young woman’s closest female family members. Her mother, sisters and godmother will help her to dress. She’ll visit the home of her maternal grandparents to receive a blessing from her grandmother. When she arrives at the church, her aunts and godmother may bestow a few last bits of sparkle, like earrings, a necklace or a bracelet blessed by her priest. Throughout the day, she’ll lean on this community of women for ceremonial guidance, and they’ll make sure she is perfectly prepared for her big moment.

In the same way, the Promotoras of the RGV, who hold honored, matriarchal positions in the community—and serve as activists, advocates and organizers— were ready to guide and support UTRGV when it opened the new College of Education building. At first, the minimalist, hyper-modern approach to the décor felt slightly at odds with the culture of the community. To help make it a more meaningful and relatable environment for everyone the university serves, leaders called on the Promotoras. In collaboration with the university’s facility managers, the Promotoras planted beautiful gardens in the courtyard to create a lush green space welcoming of students and their families. Once the Promotoras finished their work, the College of Education was ready to make its official debut in the community.

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UNIQUE AND SPECIAL GIFTS

What a Community Can Take into the Future

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As with a Quinceañera, where godparents play a special role in the celebration by bringing unique gifts, Educate Texas and RGV FOCUS have brought together different and unique skills, offerings and connections to elevate the mission.

Parents and Students as Expert Stakeholders In order to build better policies, practices and systems, it is critical to solicit input from the people who will be most affected. To this end, with our support, LUPE developed a guide for parents and students to improve understanding of the process of going to college. At the suggestion of and with assistance from our community-based organizations, we held parent and student focus groups to determine the guide’s readability and usefulness. Those focus groups countered our original assumptions about what parents and students needed to know. They did not need us to tell them to speak with their counselor; rather, they needed the counselor to understand how to answer the questions they had.

In creating a subsequent student and family engagement strategy, LUPE staff held focus groups with parents and students before designing their materials.

Engaging stakeholder input from the beginning was an important reason the strategy succeeded.

Data Literacy Strategy For data to be useful, it has to be turned into a tool that everyone knows how to use. Simply providing data to partners may rely on incorrect assumptions about a partner’s capacity to use that data. Through the multiple data analysis protocols we have implemented with our partners, they are now aware that we must look beyond the face value of data we produce or receive from others to ensure we understand the entire story. The data we produce and use must be clean and consistent, actionable and able to be shared. Data narratives, paired with a data literacy strategy, strengthen the ability to derive meaningful information. Data literacy skills include:

•

Knowing what data is appropriate to use for a particular purpose, and understanding data analytics tools and methods and when and where to use them.

• Interpreting data visualizations, such as graphs and charts.

• Thinking critically about information yielded by data analysis and recognizing when data is being misrepresented or used misleadingly —understanding the context (when, where and how) matters in challenging data assumptions in the aggregate.

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•

Communicating information about data to people lacking data literacy, an ability sometimes referred to as data storytelling.

• Generating new insights and meaning from analysis and triangulation of multiple sets of data narratives.

A data literacy strategy translates to moving from a culture of data compliance to a culture of data inquiry, and this transition is crucial to establishing a truly authentic data-informed culture of innovation.

Although RGV FOCUS is a place-based CI initiative, we still rely on external partners to support and add value to our work. An example of this is our various data partnerships that support different aspects of our strategy, including the Commit Partnership (Commit), a CI initiative located in Dallas, Texas; CREATE, a think tank at the University of Houston; and E3 Alliance, a CI initiative located in Austin, Texas.

Commit is our data partner, undertaking a substantial portion of our data strategy work. We played a key role in creating and establishing Commit, and we have collaborated with them since their inception. They travel to the RGV quarterly to attend our Leadership Team convenings and support our strategic plan. Much like RGV FOCUS, Commit is a community navigator and connector, working to ensure that all Dallas-Fort Worth students receive an excellent and equitable education that prepares them to flourish.

CREATE, whose mission is to advance the quality and effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in Texas universities, supported us by providing data to build the first phase of the Teaching Excellence Strategy at RGV FOCUS. CREATE continues to work with us to build out the Teaching Excellence landscape in the region, which will provide valuable insights into teacher preparation, recruitment, onboarding, demographics, continued development and retention.

E3 Alliance is partnering with us to build out our 3D Growth model strategy and capacity. 3D Growth measures a student’s growth, rather than merely looking at an individual student’s proficiency. This alternative approach compares students across Texas with a similar history of academic achievement, so that the performance measurement of schools, teachers and students is more accurate and impactful. E3 Alliance is also developing training to design district- and campus-specific action plans with high-impact interventions for improving student performance.

We have learned key lessons through these and other partnerships, which have taught us to seek their learnings and to leverage, adopt and align their work to enhance our own work.

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Bold Conversations, Bold Results Bringing everyone to the table for open and revealing discussions can be challenging, but bold actions require bold conversations. The RGV FOCUS Leadership Team took a hard look at the disparities both within and among districts, and these bold conversations led to bold results. One example of this is the Culture of Attending College Action Network, gathering five financial aid leaders from the regional public IHEs to examine their financial aid policies, which led to the creation of a guide to support DREAMers with financial aid applications, an earlier financial aid awarding calendar, and a significant increase in financial aid application completions. 15 Another is the College Readiness Action Network answering the charge laid out in House Bill 5 to work with all the public IHEs to develop and implement free, region-wide college prep courses so that all RGV students graduate college-ready.

Additionally, the UTRGVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College of Education took a deep dive into how to truly serve Hispanic students. First, they explored what it means to be a Hispanic Serving College of Education (HSCOE) and University by launching the Special Interest Research Group Initiative (SIRG). The university also has a book under contract with Routledge focused on this topic. Further initiatives included the National Convening of Hispanic Serving Colleges of Education and an expansion of SIRGs beyond the College of Education to encompass the entire university.

These actions were not simple. Community leaders had to stretch their own capacity to engage in educational dialogue and even question their role in the work. There were times when leaders were challenged to reflect deeply on their practices in support of all students. Yet they continue to engage, because they

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see that this investment is paying off. Bold conversations in the RGV have led to bold results, continually improving outcomes for students.

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OUR CO-HOSTS

Special Thanks and Acknowledgement

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

The Quinceañera celebration elevates a young woman, while also recognizing and honoring the family and community that raised her. In the same way, CI elevates a goal while celebrating and recognizing all the partners that contribute to those efforts. In fact, partnerships are at the heart of CI. As with a Quinceañera, CI is about bringing everyone together for a common purpose to create and guide a shared vision for success. Friends and family share the expense and honor of the celebration.

Support Through Commitment RGV FOCUS would not be possible without the leadership and support of these critical investors:

As original investors in the Texas High School Project, the foundation was seminal in the creation and broad adoption of both the Early College High School and Texas-Science, Technology, Engineering and Math models which were particularly beneficial for low-income students of color in the RGV. Over the past 15 years, through thoughtful partnerships, the foundation has invested substantially to support promising initiatives in the region, and has helped shine a national spotlight on the incredible work being done in the RGV.

As the parent and partner of Educate Texas, the Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) has supported the RGV FOCUS backbone, as well as many community-wide initiatives that increase dual credit and effective teaching in the RGV. CFT’s integrated services team and deep connections across the region have helped create a stable foundation for the backbone to flourish.

As a national investor in creating more equitable communities, Ford Foundation supported the replication of innovative programming for at-risk youth and the RGV FOCUS backbone’s sustainability.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

A founding partner and investor of Collective Impact in the RGV, Greater Texas Foundation (GTF) has been instrumental in the development of the four-county improvement strategy and has made a long-term commitment to sustaining this work through support of the backbone. GTF’s commitment to investing in postsecondary access and success has been amplified regionally through their separate and significant support of the ECHS model and the Texas College Access Network.

W i t h a fo c u s o n i n c re a s i n g c o l l e g e - g o i n g a n d c o m p l e t i o n r a t e s fo r underrepresented students in higher education, Lumina Foundation has included and elevated the RGV in their community of practice and supported work to re-engage dropouts and disseminate lessons learned.

As a leader in promoting education in the state of Texas, The Meadows Foundation has supported numerous initiatives in the RGV that have promoted the use of data to advance improvements in the region. Through strategic investments and thought partnership, the Foundation has helped elevate the success of RGV FOCUS amongst both philanthropic and program partners.

¡ Muchísimas gracias!

In addition to these state and national funders, many of the local school districts, institutions of higher education and businesses have contributed in-kind resources by way of office space, convening space and expertise to support this initiative.

RGV FOCUS is extremely thankful to our funders, who work side by side with us to support our work and help us achieve our goals. This overwhelming support and enthusiasm for education in the RGV is what it takes to give our children the academic foundation they need to succeed in the classroom, which will lead them to success in their careers and in life.

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

PLEASE JOIN US

Moving Forward Together

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

PLEASE JOIN US

Moving Forward Together There is much to celebrate about the accomplishments and the maturing Collective Impact work in the RGV. When it comes to developing the best methods for educating Latino students, our sustained focus from pre-K to career and our investments in models designed to serve low-income and firstgeneration students and their communities have raised the bar for Texas and the nation. Still, achieving equity and improved educational outcomes through Collective Impact necessitates sustained investments in organizations who are actively engaging in equity and education work. Organizations with backbone teams, like Educate Texas, catalyze efforts by engaging partners and providing resources. Investing in backbone organizations provides the best long-term return on investment and ensures that every voice is heard in the Collective Impact process. With that in mind, we cordially invite you to join our celebration and help us to continue reaching important milestones for the RGV and beyond, forging a path to a thriving and prosperous future for all.

RSVP For more information about how to support Collective Impact or RGV FOCUS, visit edtx.org, or rgvfocus.org or contact us at edtx@cftexas.org.

ยกContigo!

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A Celebration of Collective Impact in the Rio Grande Valley

Data Sources 1. Texas Education Agency, Texas Academic Performance Report, 2018 2. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Accountability System, 2018 3. Texas Education Agency STARR Aggregate Data at "Approaches" Standard, 2017-18 Economic Disadvantage Data from TEA Texas Academic Performance Report, 2017-18 4. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2017 5. National Center for Education Statistics, 2018 Tables and Figures, 2018 6. William H Frey Analysis of US Census Population Projections Released March 13, 2018 and Revised September 6, 2018 7. Texas Demographic Center, TX Population Projection and Estimates 8. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, College for All Texans: Closing the Gaps Final Progress Report, June 2016 9. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 60x30TX, Texas Higher Education Strategic Plan: 2015-2030, July 2015 10. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 60x30TX Progress Report, July 2019 11. FSG, Texas Regional Action Plan, 2010 12. Texas Education Agency, 2018-19 Designated Early College High Schools, 2018-19 13. The Brookings Institution, FAFSA Completion Rates Matter: But Mind the Data, 2018 14. Self-Reported IHE Data 15. Self-Reported ISD Data 16. US Department of Education, FAFSA Rates as of September 22, 2017 17. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2019 Texas Public Higher Education Almanac 18. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2010 Texas Public Higher Education Almanac 19. Harvard Kennedy School, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Minority Teachers: How Students Benefit From Having Teachers of Same Race, 2017 20. Turnover, Experience, and First-Year Teachers: TEA TAPR 2017 Report; Certifications Awarded: SBEC 2017 Report; Certification Distribution: RGV Proprietary CREATE Dataset

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In 2012, in support of their belief that education is the foundation of a thriving community, Communities Foundation of Texas and its education initiative, Educate Texas, partnered with Valley-based leaders to establish RGV FOCUS so that all children in the Rio Grande Valley have the education they deserve to achieve meaningful careers and lives.

In addition to RGV FOCUS, Educate Texas’ efforts in the Rio Grande Valley include work supporting Texas Regional STEM Degree Accelerator, Investing in Innovation (I3) Early College Expansion Project, and the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) College and Career Readiness School Models Network of T-STEM Academies, Early College High Schools and Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH)/Industry Cluster Innovative Academies (ICIA).