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Collaborative Board Meetings
The Board of the El Paso Collaborative has met regularly since 1991:
- to review and discuss data;
- to set programmatic priorities;
- to share perspectives and insights on education challenges and successes; and
- to come to consensus about shared agendas and priorities across the P-16 continuum and the broader community.
Meetings, which were initially held bi-monthly and are now held quarterly, are focused on a particular issue of importance, such as high school mathematics teaching and learning or college readiness as determined by performance on college placement tests. Local P-16 data on the issue are presented, followed by discussion to more deeply understand the data and their meaning, to identify the causes of the data, raise related research findings, and identify elements of a coherent, coordinated plan toward addressing the problem. Finally, discussion moves to the role that each board member—or each sector represented—as well as the Collaborative, can play toward achieving significant improvements on the issue. Throughout the meetings, Collaborative staff play key roles in informing the discussion and raising potential programmatic directions to address the issue.
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Institute for Educational Renewal
The El Paso Institute for Educational Renewal was modeled after John Goodlad’s National Institute for Educational Inquiry which prepared cohorts of education leaders committed to the simultaneous renewal of public schools and post-secondary institutions. The El Paso Institute, which was jointly sponsored by the University of Texas at El Paso and the El Paso Collaborative, was focused on developing a cadre of P-16 education leaders to work collaboratively on improving public schools and teacher and administrator preparation programs at the University. Participants included district associate superintendents and key leaders, school principals and teachers, El Paso Community College and University deans, professors and department chairs, all selected based on their commitment and potential role in moving forward a change and improvement agenda at their site.
The El Paso Institute involved ten days of intensive work, over a twelve month period, centered around readings, presentations, and discussions led by visiting scholars, students and parents, or UTEP and Collaborative staff. At the core of the Institute experience was stimulating dialogue, discussion, debate and reflection about the nature of teacher preparation at the university, of teaching and learning in public schools, and about what it would take to change and renew education, P-16, in El Paso. The Institute experience culminated in action projects, by individuals or groups of participants, designed to move the renewal and improvement agenda forward. Among the most important outcomes of the Institute was a new understanding among public school, community college and university educators of the realities of work at the different levels of education, of shared values and commitments across the levels, and a new comfort and ease in reaching out to individuals across the education continuum. This early effort—from 1997 to 2000—helped bring about deepened communication and trust across education sectors and enabled real collaboration on challenging and difficult issues.
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El Paso Education Summit
In early 2000, the El Paso Collaborative convened a group of 300 business, community and education leaders, as well as the region’s elected officials, to the city’s first Education Summit. The aim of the Summit was to achieve broad consensus about how to increase educational attainment and ensure a higher quality of life in our community—and then, establish a commitment and plan to do it. Part of the impetus for the Summit was the recognition that the economic and civic well-being and vibrancy of our region depends on a highly prepared workforce and on highly skilled students completing rigorous high school and college/university degrees programs.
Planning for the Summit engaged the community’s top leaders for over 18 months in crafting an ambitious but realistic plan for the two-day meeting, in ensuring that the key players were identified, and involved at the Summit, and in crafting a process and focus for the sessions that ensured active and informed engagement and led to identification of robust, far-reaching goals and strategies.
By the conclusion of the Summit, participants came to consensus around the following three key goals and commitments:
- Ensuring that all students complete a rigorous college preparatory curriculum that is bilingual and bicultural;
- Ensuring a sufficient and high-quality teacher workforce prepared to teach rigorous courses, and certified in the subjects they teach; and
- Establishing a campaign—led by business leaders, elected official, parents and community members—that sets education as one of the city’s highest priorities, ensures that all students succeed, and encourages high levels of participation in school board elections and education decision-making.
Then, one by one, Summit participants committed themselves to the goals and the work that it would take to make them a reality. Working groups, focused on each of the goals, were established and met for months after the Summit. The two-year process became a key point in engaging the full community in education improvement efforts and in forging consensus around the highest academic expectations for all students.
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Commitment Agreements
Along with a shared vision and common goals, a key component of the Collaborative’s successful work with schools has been the clarity and transparency of the commitments articulated by the Collaborative when entering into agreements with school partners. At the outset of a project, expectations are defined and provided in written form. This ensures that each partner is fully aware of the work and actions that will be required in order to ensure successful implementation of and outcomes from any project. Such clarity enables schools to make informed and intentional decisions regarding participation in a joint venture with the Collaborative and provides for the smooth execution of the project. Among the elements included in Commitment Agreements are expectations for principal and teacher attendance at professional development sessions, resource allocations expected of the school for project staffing, curricular materials, professional development stipends, etc., and access to data and other information for research and evaluation purposes.
Attached are links to two sample agreements.