The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
Improving student achievement and retention are top priorities for The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
With Achieving the Dream the university will:
- Define its student success goals and develop and expand programs to enhance student success
- Increase student retention and graduation rates
- Build support for the plan among internal and external stakeholders
- Provide professional development for faculty and staff about data-informed decision-making
Participation in Achieving the Dream will be enthusiastically embraced by faculty and staff as they see the improvements in data collection, analysis, and reporting, which will help them make informed decisions. Current initiatives that complement the university's Achieving the Dream efforts include a program that measures student progress and warn students early on that they are at risk, an examination of programs and policies that affect first-year students, and a developmental education initiative that uses evidence-based improvement strategies. The university recognizes that maintaining accessible data and increasing the retention of students who are not college ready when they enter their postsecondary experience are the biggest challenges in improvement.
The University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB), in collaboration with Texas Southmost College (TSC), serves more than 15,000 students in the Brownsville metropolitan area and broader South Texas region. The university’s proximity to Mexico generates a multicultural educational environment that highlights unity, heritage, and tradition. UTB/TSC is also a proud member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, an organization that recognizes excellence in Hispanic higher education in the U.S. and around the world. The university offers more than 96 undergraduate programs and 23 graduate programs, including a doctorate of education in curriculum and instruction.
The university provides accessible postsecondary education to a region with great economic challenges and low educational achievement. More than 90% of UTB/TSC students are Hispanic, 4% are white, and a majority of them speak English as their second language. In the Fall 2009 semester, 95% percent of all full-time beginning undergraduate students received some type of financial aid or scholarship, 71% of entering students received Pell grants. Nearly half of the students who enter UTB/TSC are underprepared students who are not college ready. Returning student data from Fall 2008 to Spring 2009 indicated that only 40% of all developmental education students returned to classes.
The Achieving the Dream Model
Achieving the Dream community colleges commit to our Student-Centered Model of Institutional Improvement. Based on four principles, the model frames the overall work of helping more students, particularly low- income students and students of color, stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree.
Each college approaches the work differently, but Achieving the Dream’s five-step process provides practical guidelines for keeping the focus where it belongs and building momentum over time. Throughout the process, Achieving the Dream coaches offer customized support and help each college’s core team implement data-informed programs and policies that build long-term, institution-wide commitment to student success.
