San Antonio Pathways Releases Unit Geared Lessons, Endorsed by the David Conley Research Center

April 2014 | Houston, Texas
BY: Amy Williams and Tripp Presley 

The San Antonio Pathways has released unit geared lessons for all four content areas to further college and career readiness among Texas students.

The San Antonio Pathways Project was one of the first initiatives in the country to bring high school and college teachers together to study the issues of transition that challenge our college and university systems.

The project was the vision of Dr. Bruce Leslie, Chancellor of Alamo Colleges. He requested a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to support the study of why an exceptionally high percentage of students required developmental education courses at the Alamo Colleges. Now in its fifth year of work, the Pathways teams are producing toolkits for teachers in high school and college to support the development of the skills needed to be successful in transition.

"The whole idea was to create a model for lesson design that incorporates the college and career readiness standards," said Tripp Presley, San Antonio Pathways Coordinator and Director of P-16 Initiatives at Alamo Colleges.

The work is based around the research of Dr. David T. Conley, founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer of the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). Utilizing the template developed by EPIC, the lessons were submitted to EPIC where they were vetted and approved for release to any teacher to utilize. View more information about Dr. Conley’s work.

These lessons were created by high school and college faculty to better integrate the knowledge and skills students must have in order to be successful during their educational journey. The lessons available reflect the collaborative effort of all education specialists involved.

These lessons are now available in the TXCCRN Initiatives and Resources. Currently, the San Antonio Pathways is in the process of developing a website that will house all future lesson plans — stay tuned for more information!