About the Collaborative
The El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence is recognized as one of the most innovative and effective PreK-16 education reform initiatives in Texas and across the nation. At the core of the Collaborative’s action agenda is the belief that all children, regardless of race or ethnicity or the neighborhood in which they live, are entitled to a first-rate education and to effective educators who believe in them. Because we know that real educational change never occurs as a result of efforts on the fringes, but rather requires changing how schools and classrooms operate and ensuring highly skilled teachers and school leaders, our work has been direct, intensive and comprehensive.
The Collaborative’s goals are our promise to El Paso’s children:
- To ensure academic success for all students, K-16;
- To ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared to enter and succeed in a four-year college or university;
- To close achievement gaps among groups of students.
Following through on these commitments for twenty years, the Collaborative has been a quietly powerful force in schools and districts throughout our community ensuring that a high-quality education is provided to all El Paso students and helping to raise the expectations of everyone, from students and teachers to business owners and community leaders. In an era of high standards and accountability, we have developed and implemented strategies that are highly effective and well within the reach of other American communities.
Context for El Paso’s K-16 Partnership:
The work of the El Paso Collaborative takes place within the broader El Paso Region, which comprises the city of El Paso, as well as numerous small towns and communities. Within this region are 12 school districts—three large, urban districts and nine smaller, rural districts—enrolling over 180,000 students. In order to better understand the El Paso Collaborative, we provide a range of data that characterizes our community.
