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College for All Texans Foundation (CFAT) Programs & Partnerships
As a support organization for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) CFAT works with foundations and corporate donors to provide the resources necessary for THECB initiatives. These efforts are designed to Close the Gaps in college participation and success by 2015 and improve the opportunities and economic well-being of our citizens.
College for All Texans AmeriCorps*VISTA Program
The AmeriCorps*VISTA program began in December 2006 as a pilot program in San Antonio, Texas to provide twelve (12) K-12 campuses with a fulltime VISTA member to promote a college-going culture and establish and create sustainable GO Center programs for students, their families and the surrounding community. A Go Center is a college readiness/preparation site using materials and resources provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. A community partnership was developed with Communities In Schools of San Antonio (CIS-SA) to host VISTA members on targeted K-12 school campuses. In coordination with a grant from the Gates Foundation, the VISTA program expanded to the Houston area with twenty-two (22) members serving eight (8) high schools and their fourteen (14) feeder middle school campuses. In FY09 and FY10 the College for All Texans Foundation, the fiscal agent for this Coordinating Board program, is providing much of the matching funds required for this effort.
College for All Texans AmeriCorps State - Go Initiative
This program addresses the state's initiative of Closing the Gaps by 2015 to encourage a college going culture and increase the college going rates among students in low performing high schools. Started September 1, 2007 with grant from OneStar Foundation. Partnerships have been established with 37 schools in 19 school districts across Central and South Texas. 40 AmeriCorps members have been placed in new and established GO Centers where they provide assistance with college readiness and college preparation to high school students throughout the school year. Program funding through the Foundation will end as of August 31, 2009.
Enabling Data-Driven P-20 Policy and Practice
Designed to enable informed, data-driven decisions for setting educational policy and improving educational practice in Texas by improving the capacity for education research in the state, this project funded by a Bill & Melinda Gates Grant, will provide short term support for a new education research infrastructure. Further, the project will allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to build long-term research capacity by supporting a strategic planning process. This project will provide short-term support and long term planning for sustainability for the state's Education Research Centers.
Go Center Partnership-Houston
A THECB program designed to increase the college-going rates in eight Houston high schools; this program includes the development and management of Go Centers as a primary outreach mechanism to meet statewide enrollment goals. Go Centers are locally-manage college and career awareness centers that provide a place for students and their parents to have Internet access as well as personal guidance from a college mentor, community member, or other adult. The program pulls together school district College Access Coordinators, full-time academic advisors, college mentors and AmeriCorp*VISTA members to develop activities to promote a college-going culture in the seventh largest school district in the US. This is a pilot project, largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that if proved effective can be replicated statewide.
Higher Education Policy Institute
The Texas Higher Education Policy Institute produces comprehensive and objective analyses to inform higher education policy and practice in Texas as the state works towards achieving the goals of the its higher education plan, Closing the Gaps by 2015. Through symposia, surveys of existing research, and original research, it develops recommendations to enhance the human capital of Texas with a particular focus on traditionally underrepresented populations. The main foci of work at the Institute include
- Increasing higher education efficiency
- Defining and measuring excellence in higher education
- Increasing minority participation and success.
- Improving developmental education
Making Opportunities Affordable (MOA)-Texas
Texas is one of 11 states to receive a one-year planning grant of $150,000 through the Lumina Foundation for Education's Making Opportunity Affordable (MOA) initiative to develop a strategic five-year plan for improving the state's productivity in higher education. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will use this grant to look at ways to change the formula funding methodology in the state to an outcome based formula and to improve the process and success of students enrolling in 2 year Community Colleges and transitioning to two years at a Texas University (2+2 articulation). Lumina made grants to 11 states to promote making college more efficient and cost effective. The states selected for this grant will be eligible to compete for a $2 million Opportunity Grant to implement their plans over four years.
Mobile Go Centers & Satellite Go Centers
In 2005 the AT&T Foundation awarded us an eight-year grant to equip Mobile Go Center and Satellite Go Centers with the electronic technology necessary to connect students, parents and others via the Internet to information and support for planning for, applying to, funding and succeeding in college. Mobile Go Centers, managed and operated by institutions of higher education are large trailers equipped with satellites and laptops that can go into the community and provide college preparation services. As the result of the seed sown by this grant, eighteen Mobile Go Centers have been constructed and put into operation across the state of Texas. Grants from the Greater Texas Foundation, AMD, the Houston Endowment, Sid Richardson Foundation, Dodge Jones Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Zachry Foundation, Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, Texas Pioneer Foundation and others have funded the construction of Mobile Go Centers.
A Satellite Go Center is a college preparation center in a community space operated by a nonprofit organization. Currently the THECB partners with the United Way of Texas (UWT) to help set up and oversee these centers. Technology grants from the AT&T funds make these centers possible. As of the winter of 2009, we had 19 Satellite Go Centers operating across Texas in Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, libraries and community centers.
Scholarships
Currently the Foundation's focus is on expanding scholarship opportunities for students at Texas Colleges and Universities. As part of that effort, the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the College for All Texans Foundation launched the sale of the College for All Texans specialty license plate in 2008, an official State of Texas automobile license plate. Proceeds from the plate sales will fund scholarships for Texas students. As we move forward, we are developing partnerships and programs to increase scholarship opportunities as part of our effort to close the gaps in participation and success for our citizens. We are working with corporations and organizations to encourage them to contribute to the scholarship landscape in Texas and enable more high students to stay in higher ed and be successful.
Wiley's Way
Wiley's Way, a bilingual chapter book in Spanish and English, targeted at 4th, 5th and 6th graders, was written and illustrated by twelve high school students with the goal of encouraging children, especially those who might not otherwise aspire to a college education, to begin thinking about college at an early age. Published by the University of Texas Press in 2004, the book was part of the College for All Texans Campaign to promote a college going culture in Texas. The project was largely funded by the Houston Endowment and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Wiley's Way is still inspiring children today. Read More>>