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Educating Citizens. |
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TxCC Board Status Report
Patricia Spencer Potyka NEXT BOARD MEETING: Please let me know what dates in April and May work best for you and I will coordinate with Charlie’s schedule. PATRICIA’S TRAVEL
STEM in Action Grant Final Report submitted February 16, 2010 – the project is now completed. Texas Campus Compact received the Wagner-Peyser grant and elected to partner with Austin Community College, in a pilot program aimed at imbedding service learning and civic engagement into the curriculum of secondary and post-secondary STEM courses with the goal of encouraging more Science-Technology-Engineering-Math students to consider a career in public education. This pilot program also provided opportunities for students at Austin Community College who are pursuing teaching degrees with certifications in STEM areas to participate in community service learning projects and to receive scholarships for continuing their education at four-year institutions, ultimately receiving bachelor’s degrees and STEM teacher certification, thus meeting a significant community need for certified science and math teachers. What follows is a summary report from Austin Community College. Outcomes are listed below.
The role of Austin Community College in this grant was to work with the lead partner, Texas Campus Compact, in support of the grant’s intended outcomes. One of the most significant obstacles was finding an appropriate forum for reaching secondary STEM teachers to expose them to the possibilities of service learning in the STEM areas. A workshop was offered through Region XIII’s Education Service Center; some of the secondary teachers who signed up were unable to attend, and the overall interest was rather spotty. Our hope is that the online modules developed by Austin Community College faculty (see links above) will reach more STEM faculty at both the secondary and post-secondary level and provide the resources for them to include service learning in their teaching toolbox. Another obstacle was the staffing turnover at Texas Campus Compact, coupled with the change in grant coordinators at Austin Community College two-thirds of the way through the grant period. The loss of two employees at TxCC who were overseeing the grant along with a change in ACC’s grant coordinator made continuity, timely communication, and follow-through difficult. A further challenge is to ensure the sustainability and effective dissemination of this program model. A Web site has been created but the question is how to drive interested STEM teachers to the Web site. The Service Learning community across Texas colleges and universities is close-knit, but spreading the word among Texas secondary STEM teachers is more problematic. In general, our experience shows that the majority of Austin Community College students who are interested in teaching as a career are likely to shy away from certification in Science, Technology, Engineering or Math. Thus an obstacle for any program model is how to overcome that trepidation and convince future teachers that they can be effective STEM teachers. One answer is to recruit teachers from STEM majors rather than recruiting STEM teachers from Education majors. If Service Learning is effectively incorporated into secondary and post-secondary STEM curricula, the recruitment may occur organically, which is the hope of those who shepherded this grant to its conclusion. Texas Campus Compact’s marketing and outreach garnered extensive, statewide, marketing coverage due to the following:Technology Implementation / Marketing Collaterals / Web siteIn order to make the most use of available web 2.0 technology, STEM In Action CI is using the TXCC meetup blog at www.education.meetup.com/96 as the go-to message board, online photo albums, professional development information repository, and to provide a venue for STEM In Action CI participants to discuss their service learning and civic engagement projects. TXCC also hosts a STEM In Action CI website at http://texascampuscompact.org/stem/index.html, where applications, brochure pdf, and other necessary program information can be found. We designed and created brochures for our STEM in Action community impact program model, along with coin purse, pens, lanyards, and seed packets – all of which carry the STEM in Action logo [created specifically for this program] as well as the logos of TXCC and ACC. These items have been distributed statewide and are also shown on our website: www.texascampuscompact.org Statewide press releases were sent to every community college and university in Texas as well as: Austin Chronicle, Austin American Statesman, Daily Texan, Higher Education Consortium, In Fact Daily, MyTexasNews.com, Nokoa Observer, TEA, Texas Observer, and Texas Weekly. Additionally, all press clippings are on our website as well as National Campus Compact’s website – www.compact.org. TXCC’s general ledger is divided and categorized. As a result of this grant award, we implemented new bookkeeping measures; we have secured Professional Management Services for all fiscal oversight. Our Stem in Action workgroup also hosted a Service Learning workshop for area high school teachers through the Region 13 Education Service Center, where high school teachers were able to participate in the creation of a service learning course, step by step, during a day-long training. As a result of this grant award, we were able to publish our state’s first service learning journal: The Compact Impact, in which best practices in service learning and civic engagement are identified and explored. In closing, our STEM in Action scholars were able to raise the TAKS average raw scores to around 30 to 31 (about 30% higher than April 2008) so we are confident that replicating this program model will indeed, have a direct, positive impact on creating more STEM field workers. This was Texas Campus Compact’s first grant award of this kind. Our STEM in Action CI program model is a direct response to the predicament our nation is experiencing with minority underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Both partners are pleased with the outcomes that we have accomplished and hope, that the Office of the Governor will consider extending a larger grant to us in the future. The incorporation of service learning into STEM education will enable us to positively impact the future productivity of Texas’ economy. Community-based civic engagement opportunities, centered on STEM competencies, will reinforce to participants the strong correlation that exists between STEM and workforce development. VISTA UPDATE STUDENTS IN SERVICE Our SIS will ensure that college students are addressing community based issues within the state of Texas, through mentoring and college access to central Texas’ lowest performing high school [HB 400 Schools] students. Our four goals will increase: college student enrollment and graduation rates; mentoring opportunities for students, to generate interest in teaching professions; minority student readiness in science, technology, engineering, and math; and improve faculty training in service learning. PRESIDENT’S HONOR ROLL – CONGRATULATIONS TEXAS CAMPUSES Advisory Council Meeting: February 26, 2010, 1:00 PM MEMBERSHIP UPDATE REGIONALIZATION NEW PARTNERSHIPS Leadership Austin – co-hosting a leadership breakfast for our central Texas members – had to Constitution Day with ACC – in the works – TXCC and ACC are in conversations WEBINAR SERIES This summer, I will be working on putting together a Webinar Series designed to highlight community and civic engagement activities across the state of Texas. LEGISLATIVE STRATEGY GRANT UPDATE UPCOMING EVENTS In his state of the union address, President Obama stated that, “The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education,” and our presence on college campuses across the state shows our commitment to enhancing quality education for all Texans. Our two day training will be modeled after the successful annual “Poverty Summit” put on at Baylor University, a member of Texas Campus Compact. Baylor’s summit focused on poverty in the community, and unique ways to address these issues. While our audience of VISTAs is smaller, the work itself is not. The result of this event will be threefold:
Our signed resolution will serve as a promise that Texas Campus Compact can and will take on in the years to come, as the premiere service learning organization in Texas. With the gracious support of our hosting member campuses, this event will be an exciting cap to the school year, and the VISTA service year. COMMUNITY SERVICE DIRECTORS CONFERENCE TO BE HELD THIS JULY – San Antonio, Texas SOCIAL MARKETING / MEDIA – Our intern, Courtney Medford, a junior at St. Edward’s University is managing our facebook group and serves as editor of our TX2 You Newsletter. Courtney has also created a blog detailing her internship with TxCC. I would also like to encourage each of you to join facebook, if you haven’t already J. BUDGET
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