HOUSTON-AREA INSTITUTIONS
TAKE FOUR OF SIX
STATE STAR AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN ‘CLOSING THE GAPS’
HOUSTON, October 12, 2005—Four Houston-area institutions
for higher learning are among the six recipients of the prestigious
Star Award given annually by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board.
The schools, and their award-winning programs, are the Houston
Community College’s Graduates and Completers Program, the
North Harris Montgomery Community College District-North Harris
College’s Summer Bridge Program, the University of Houston’s
Center for Mexican American Studies and the University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston representing the Gulf Coast Consortia/Keck
Center.
“Houston and Harris County really are the models for the
state for closing the gaps in Texas higher education,” Laurie
Bricker, a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
from Houston, said. “It is vital that we continue to improve
the rate of college participation and success if our state wants
to offer a competitively educated workforce. That improvement
begins with models of excellence such as these Houston-area Star
Award winners.”
The awards were announced as part of the Coordinating Board’s
2005 Governing Boards Conference for higher education regents
and trustees, who oversee universities and colleges. This year,
the conference focused on improving excellence in higher education
– one of the four goals of the state’s Closing the
Gaps by 2015 higher education plan. The plan aims to close the
gap between Texas’ college-going rate and that of other
states and to increase minority participation in higher education.
According to state figures, less than 6 percent of the state’s
population is enrolled in higher education, which is lower than
a decade ago. Without a concerted effort to reverse that trend,
the state predicts that by the year 2015 less than 5 percent of
the projected population will be enrolled in higher education.
The Star Award was established to recognize exemplary contributions
toward closing educational gaps within the state’s educational
systems.
“The winners represent the state’s most effective
efforts for closing the education gaps that challenge our state,”
Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund A. Paredes said. “The
Coordinating Board is proud to recognize the people and the institutions
that develop and implement these programs.”
The 2005 Star Award winners include:
Houston Community College System
– Graduates and Completers Project uses
six strategies to increase the number of graduates and other completers
from 2,025 in 2000-01 to 6,144 in 2003-04. The strategies include
degree audits and related assistance to help students take the
courses needed for graduation; degree completion fairs; a twice-a-year
Student Success Week focusing on advising, transcript evaluation,
and graduation applications; identifying and advising students
who have completed core courses; a process allowing students to
transfer back equivalent courses taken within three years of enrollment
in the system; and a focus on resolving individual students’
graduation problems.
North Harris Montgomery Community
College District-North Harris College – Summer Bridge Program
provides an intensive three weeks of developmental education to
high school graduates who need improved reading, writing, and
math skills. Students have links to faculty and staff mentors,
access to grants for pay for textbooks, and $100 scholarships
on successful completion. Summer Bridge success rates are much
higher than for traditional 16-week courses, i.e. 84.4 percent
compared to 44.3 percent in a math course and 98.8 percent compared
to 62.3 percent in an English course. In 2004-2005, 48 percent
were first in their families to attend college. The program has
been extended to Kingwood, Montgomery, Tomball and Cy-Fair Colleges.
University of Houston –
Center for Mexican American Studies is a diverse
spectrum of programs that promotes preparation for college, student
recruitment, students’ transition from high school to college,
financial and academic support for undergraduate students, and
career counseling. Approximately 86 percent of participating high
school students enroll in higher education, and are much more
successful in college than non-participants. For example, the
college graduation rate for participating students is 76 percent,
compared to 39 percent for all other Hispanic students at the
institution.
The University of Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston – Gulf Coast Consortia/Keck Center.
The Gulf Coast Consortia, one of the largest inter-institutional
cooperatives in the world, brings together the strengths of Houston/Galveston-area
academic medical research institutions and universities to build
interdisciplinary collaborative research teams and training programs
at the frontiers of biomedical sciences. The W. M. Keck Center
for Interdisciplinary Bioscience Training – the training
arm of the consortia – supports more than 60 trainees and
has more than 200 affiliated training faculty with five joint
training programs. This collaborative effort also allows consortia
members to more successfully obtain federal science and engineering
research funding. Members include The University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston,
Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, and the University
of Houston.
A nine-member committee consisting of Coordinating Board members,
state community leaders and out-of-state education experts selected
the State Award winners from a pool of 58 applications. The panel
selected 10 finalists earlier this year.
This year’s winners also include Texas A&M University-Commerce
– Navarro College Partnership and The University of Texas
at El Paso – UTEP Model Institutions for Excellence Initiative.
For information on the Houston
Community College’s Graduates and Completers Program,
contact Charles Cook, Vice Chancellor of Educational Development,
at 713.718.5042.
For information on the North Harris
Montgomery Community College District-North Harris College Summer
Bridge Program, contact Linda Luehrs Wolfe, Associate
Vice Chancellor for Curriculum and Instruction, at 832.813.6504.
For information on the University
of Houston Center for Mexican American Studies
contact Brooke Durbin, Director for P-16 Outreach and Planning,
at 713.743.1846.
For information on the University
of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Gulf Coast Consortia/Keck
Center, contact David Gorenstein, Associate Dean
for Research, 409.772.2402.