History

In 1991, the education landscape of El Paso reflected a historical disparity in school performance closely linked to race, ethnicity, and poverty. Concerned that El Paso’s students were being poorly prepared for higher education and careers, and unwilling to accept traditional excuses such as language barriers or poverty, local leaders embraced a new framework for reform whereby school districts, the community college and university would work with the entire community in a broad partnership to build capacity to offer all El Paso students high-quality schooling and bring about systemwide and sustainable improvements, from kindergarten through university graduation. Thus, at the invitation of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the Collaborative was formed in fall 1991, and began work in early 1992.

Over the years, the Collaborative has established a robust action agenda that has:

• Provided intensive long-term professional development to thousands of administrators and teachers in the region;
• Established high standards and developed and implemented rigorous curricular programs to bring those standards to life in the majority of classrooms across the region;
• Promoted and helped put into place policies requiring all students to be enrolled in high-quality academic programs;
• Supported a culture of accountability among all stakeholders for academic success among all students, P-16;
• Worked toward systemic, sustainable change in all classrooms, schools and districts in the greater El Paso area.

This work has been generously supported by grants, principally from the National Science Foundation. Other funders include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the U.S. Department of Education, the Lucent Technologies Foundation, the Exxon Foundation and the Texas Education Agency, among others.