RGC'S Title V Grant Gets Regional Education Moving Ahead

Major gains from the lowest to highest educational levels across Southwest Texas are foreseen as SRSU-Rio Grande College applies federal funds from its recent Title V grant.

Here’s what’s in store:
Interest levels and grades in math and science will improve as teachers in the region’s 22 school districts apply innovative new learning techniques.

The kinks in coursework that interrupt smooth progression from grade school to graduate school, and beyond, are being identified and aligned by a consortium of key educators and civic leaders.

Kids with a knack for chemistry and computer science will be able to chart a career path that doesn’t require them to leave the area for college degrees.
Teachers will be teaching teachers, students will be counseling educators, and college professors will be looking all the way down the academic ladder to develop the tightest, brightest methods to retain, inspire and ensure their students’ success.

There’s more.
Writing, reading and verbal communication skills will see measurable year-to-year improvements.

Distance learning technology will make a giant leap from outdated, delayed-action wall projection to real-time classroom-to-classroom connections that are vivid and audible.

This across-the-board educational progress is being made possible as Rio Grande College applies its recent $2.8 million Title V grant. The funds, awarded last September by the US Department of Education, will be invested in new programs at the College over the coming five years. Components of the grant will help strengthen educational quality across the whole region.

Rio Grande College was one of only 15 institutions in the nation whose proposal was approved. The grant is awarded to “Hispanic-Serving Institutions.” RGC’s Title V program covers three areas: upgrading and expanding distance learning technologies, establishing outreach programs to better prepare secondary school students for college (especially in math and science fields), and adding bachelor of science degrees in chemistry and computer science at Rio Grande College.

Juan Sanchez of Uvalde, who doubles as RGC’s director of Institutional Research, administers the Title V program. From the Title V office at RGC’s Del Rio campus, Juan Barrientos, an instructional technology expert; Michelle Kramer, a science curriculum development specialist; and Beatrice DeLeon, public school outreach coordinator, fan out to connect the region to the program.

Juan Sanchez

Rio Grande College's Title V program director discusses broadscale objectives of the $2.8 million grant to enhance learning programs at RGC and at secondary schools throughout the region. 

Barrientos has introduced a series of computer- simulated chemistry experiments for area public educators to use as a step toward improving results from high school chemistry instruction.  So far, school districts at Cotulla, Dilly, Eagle Pass, Hondo and Uvalde have adopted the program, benefiting more than 1,000 science students.

Juan Barrientos

Instructional Technology expert Juan Barrientos, shows computer-simulated chemistry experiment that RGC's Title V program has provided to augment chemistry instruction in regional school districts. 






Barrientos and DeLeon devised a training session for the chemistry program, the forerunner for a variety of workshops to be offered around the region that will give public school teachers access to the latest instructional tools, and to sharpen teaching skills, as well.

Looking toward the day with these sessions can be conducted as sit-down classes, or over distance learning networks, as well as internet connections between public schools and RGC, Barrientos tracks the latest teaching technology offerings while DeLeon goes one-on-one with school district officials to help identify and devise educational enhancement programs. 

Meanwhile, Michelle Kramer puts the finishing touches on the chemistry degree program that RGC plans to start in the fall of 2009.
In addition to standard curriculum -- courses like organic chemistry and quantitive chemical analysis -- Kramer’s chemistry lineup will include biochemistry, forensic and environmental chemistry, and even a session on laboratory ethics. 

Michelle Kramer

Curriculum Development Specialist Michelle Kramer, a biochemist on RGC's Title V staff, has designed the College's upper-level chemistry program, slated to begin in 2009.

But first, a chemistry pilot program must be developed. By September, with the assistance of Southwest Texas Junior College, it is anticipated that a pilot chemistry course will introduce third-year chemistry courses to evaluate readiness of junior college sophomores for RGC’s upper-level programs. Student input, as well as suggested refinements to the pilot program from SWJC’s chemistry professors, will be carefully examined by RGC and the junior college to assure a smooth transition.

RGC’s forthcoming Summer Science Camps, where pre-service teachers get to work with younger school kids, will start featuring chemistry experiments to whet the appetites of high school students for things to come.

Once RGC has its chemistry program up and running, the same process will likely begin to put its computer science degree plan in action by September 2010.

The articulation of course work from one level of schooling to the next is as big a concern locally as it is nationally. Preparing students to score in a highly competitive globalized marketplace leaves no room for setbacks on the path to college graduation.  New Texas education laws now mandate higher college readiness standards, including four years of math and science in high school.

Gearing up for these challenges, RGC’s Vice-President, Dr. Joel Vela and about a dozen prominent educators, business and civic leaders from throughout the region have formed a P-16 Council
(“Pre-school-through-college"). The group regularly meets to study and suggest changes that strengthen curricula and allow for smoother transition through the grades. The goal is to keep students on track without being set back because of deficiencies in remedial courses.

“P-16 is focused on vertical alignment, providing a more clear identification of prerequisites necessary to move from elementary school to high school and onward to college,” Dr. Vela explains. “As educators, business and community leaders we must make this essential investment so our students are well prepared to handle the challenges of tomorrow.”

Technological articulation is closing another kind of gap in the region’s educational structure – the distance between campuses.
A major part of RGC’s Title V grant is being applied to upgrade the College’s Distance Learning (DL) network and Internet bandwidth.

By the start of the upcoming summer semester, each of the four DL classrooms at RGC campuses in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Uvalde will feature an arrangement of four, 50-inch and one 65-inch high-definition plasma television monitors.  No more split-screen class sessions projected onto walls. No more fuzzy video and time-lapsed audio.

Instead, students enrolled in classes taught by a professor at another of the College’s far-flung campuses will be getting the next best thing to live instruction: crisp sound, sharp, real-time imagery and live interaction between classrooms.
“You can’t get learning technology that’s more realistic,” says Ben Rosebrock, RGC’s Informational Technology director, as he and his staff fine-tune one of the $40,000 classroom DL setups.

By the conclusion of the Title V grant in 2012, Rosebrock looks forward to offering linkages to the College’s DL network with as many of the region’s school districts as will be able to tie in – spreading learning opportunities far and wide.    

While upgraded technology, accelerated math and science curricula, and continuity in learning programs are the targets of a five-year Title V plan, the coming 10 years is projected for sharpening skills more basic to success in everyday life: how well students write and speak.

The Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS) recently approved for startup this fall Rio Grande College’s much-touted Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which aims to improve written and verbal communications skills among students in allof RGC’s 19 programs of study.

The endorsement boosts RGC’s accreditation status. But more importantly, after years of careful monitoring and tweeking, the QEP will result in generations of future graduates who are not only better prepared to apply their degrees in a competitive world, but who are able to also put their words to work.