Texas
State Lead Organization & Contact l State Profile l Achieving the Dream Priorities l State Documents
STATE LEAD ORGANIZATION & CONTACT
Texas Association of Community Colleges
1304 San Antonio , Suite 201
Austin , TX 78701
Tel: 512/476-2572
Fax: 512/476-0262
www.tacc.org
The Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) is comprised of all 50 public community college districts in the state and represents the colleges before the Texas Legislature and state agencies. The TACC, formerly the Texas Public Community/Junior College Association, originated in 1924 as a loose confederation of community-college presidents and deans. It was formally organized during the summer of 1947. The Association acts as an umbrella organization for public community and junior colleges in the state, lobbying for favorable legislation, acting as a clearinghouse for information about community and junior colleges, and serving as a liaison between its various participating institutions. State funding of community colleges and legislation affecting public community colleges in general have been, and remain, the principal concerns of TACC.
State Contacts:
Don Hudson, Associate Director
Email: dhudson@tacc.org
STATE PROFILE
A quick overview of state demographics and the state higher education system.
(View Full State Profile 
)
ACHIEVING THE DREAM WORKPLAN PRIORITIES
1. Data and Performance Measurement - Develop policy recommendations to improve the delivery of developmental education and engage in a visible communications campaign to define developmental education need and value positively to policymakers and opinion leaders. TACC is exploring policy changes to support early intervention in high school to increase the number of college-ready students, and engage key opinion leaders and policymakers in Texas on the need and the value of developmental education, with support from Achieving the Dream colleges, the Hunter Boylan study of "promising practices", the P16 Council review, and the Formula Advisory Committee process.
2. Student Success - Advocate for "New Compact" innovation funding to support colleges efforts to increase student success through alternatives to traditional instructional delivery, including accelerated, modular, flexible entry and exit, and technology-based developmental education and other datadriven innovations like the student success experiments in the Achieving the Dream colleges and innovations being undertaken to meet the requirements of HB 1. And advocate for performance incentives.
Partner with the State and use Achieving the Dream experience to inform and influence state-level policy development in developmental education in the following areas:
Revise state-level Developmental Education Profile: Identify elements to develop an annual longitudinal cohort tracking report that tracks developmental education and college ready students across a series of intermediate benchmarks and final success outcome measures.
Revise state-level Student Success Data Elements: Work with colleges to determine which developmental education data elements the state should collect and report and discuss the feasibility of using the measures to benchmark perfromance towards the state's Closing the Gaps goals.
Review placement assessment policies: Investigate the predictive validity of Texas Success Initiative (TSI)-approved placement assessements and provide institutions with a research foundation for cut score ranges in light of newly developed college readiness standards.
Performance incentives for developmental education: Develop recommendations for for a performance-based incentives for developmental education.
3. Financial Aid - Align financial aid with student need to provide more community college students the financial support to build academic momentum towards credentials and degrees without having to drop out of classes for financial reasons.
STATE DOCUMENTS
> STATE WORKPLAN
( View Full State Workplan ) **UPDATED**
> LISTENING TOUR
In 2004, the Futures Project of Brown University led a Policy Listening Tour for Achieving the Dream in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Virginia. In each state, Achieving the Dream representatives met with stakeholders to discuss existing state policies and programs that promote student success and opportunities to advance new policies. The meetings included leaders from community colleges, other educational institutions and systems, state legislative and executive branches, and business and advocacy groups. Besides a summary report , the Listening Tour produced statelevel findings for Texas .
In advance of Listening Tour meetings, each state prepared background materials for attendees. These materials include information on the state’s community college system, descriptions of current (as of 2004) policies and programs related to student success, and information on state data collection and use. Download background materials for Texas .
> PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH REPORT FOR NORTH CAROLINA
In 2004, a national study examined public perceptions of community colleges and ways to raise the profile of these institutions. It found that Americans have highly favorable attitudes toward community colleges. People value community colleges because they provide opportunity for individuals to better themselves. Yet the public has limited awareness of the struggles community colleges face as they try to meet increasing demands with fewer resources. Besides the national report , the study produced state-level findings for Texas .
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