Texas launched its ambitious strategic plan for higher education, "Closing the Gaps by 2015," in the year 2000 to create a statewide vision for closing the higher education gaps within Texas and between Texas and other leading states. The plan focuses on bringing Texas to national parity in four critical areas of higher education: participation, success, excellence, and research. This statewide strategic plan is one of the first of its kind, and has been widely embraced by education, business, political, and community stakeholders across Texas. "Closing the Gaps" sets specific statewide goals in increasing participation in higher education, increasing success (i.e., certificates, undergraduate degrees, and other identifiable student successes from high quality programs), increasing the number of nationally recognized programs or services at colleges and universities in Texas, and increasing the level of federal science and engineering research and development obligations to Texas. Over the past ten years Texas has reached many significant milestones in "Closing the Gaps" but achieving 2015 goals will require additional efforts and focus by all stakeholders. Reaching the goals of "Closing the Gaps" will be a significant accomplishment for Texas. Gains in higher education have the potential to strengthen Texas' economic base, attract innovative businesses and top-flight faculty to the state, generate research funding, improve quality of life, and enhance the overall stature of the state. Achieving the "Closing the Gaps" goals by 2015 is within reach. However, significant gains are needed on several important goal areas where progress is lagging behind targets. In order to reinforce the statewide vision put forth in "Closing the Gaps" and move Texas aggressively toward the 2015 goals, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (Coordinating Board) has developed this "Accelerated Plan for Closing the Gaps by 2015." This plan heightens the agency's focus on four areas where Texas is behind its 2015 targets and highlights strategies that increase the pace of Texas' gains in these critical areas; based on recent years' momentum toward achieving participation goals, the accelerated plan is weighted toward strategies to increase success (i.e., certificate/degree/program completion) for students across Texas. Appended to this report is an overview of the Coordinating Board Strategic Planning Process and a list of stakeholders engaged in the strategic planning process. (Contains 3 tables and 6 footnotes.).

This title is an IGI Global Core Reference for 2019 as it provides solution-oriented approaches to confronting, confirming, and mitigating perpetual disparities within the educational system. Containing research from researchers across the U.S., this publication covers comprehensive research on access to education, racial battle fatigue, and mentoring programs. Overcoming Challenges and Creating Opportunity for African American Male Students is an essential reference source that supports the development of more widespread solution-oriented approaches to confronting, confirming, and mitigating any perpetual disparities that may exist among these students. Featuring research on topics such as access to education, racial battle fatigue, and mentoring programs, this book is ideally designed for administrators, policymakers, educators, scholars, researchers, students, and academicians seeking coverage on the many factors that influence African American male success in various educational contexts.

How state leadership determines effective higher education attainment. Although the federal government invests substantial resources into student financial aid, states have the primary responsibility for policies that raise overall higher educational attainment and improve equity across groups. The importance of understanding how states may accomplish these goals has never been greater, as educational attainment is increasingly required for economic and social well-being of individuals and society. Drawing on data collected from case studies of the relationship between public policy and higher education performance in five states—Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Texas, and Washington—The Attainment Agenda offers a framework for understanding how state public policy can effectively promote educational attainment. Laura W. Perna and Joni E. Finney argue that there is no silver bullet to improve higher education attainment. Instead, achieving the required levels of attainment demands a comprehensive approach. State leaders must consider how performance in one area (such as degree completion) is connected to performance in other areas (such as preparation or affordability), how particular policies interact to produce expected and unexpected outcomes, and how policy approaches must be adapted to reflect their particular context. The authors call for greater attention to the state role in providing policy leadership to advance a cohesive public agenda for higher education and adopting public policies that not only increase the demand for and supply of higher education but also level the playing field for higher educational opportunity. The insights offered in The Attainment Agenda have important implications for public policymakers, college and university leaders, and educational researchers interested in ensuring sustained higher education attainment.

JSL invites the submission of manuscripts that contribute to the exchange of ideas and scholarship about schools and leadership. All theoretical and methological approaches are welcome. We do not advocate or practice a bias toward any mode of inquiry (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative; empirical vs. conceptual; discipline-based vs. interdisciplinary) and instead operate from the assumption that all careful and methodologically sound research has the potential to contribute to our understanding of school leadership. We strongly encourage authors to consider both the local and global implications of their work. The journal’s goal is to clearly communicate with a diverse audience including both school-based and university-based educators. The journal embraces a board conception of school leadership and welcomes manuscripts that reflect the diversity of ways in which this term is understood. The journal is interested not only in manuscripts that focus on administrative leadership in schools and school districts, but also in manuscripts that inquire about teacher, student, parent, and community leadership.

What will it take to achieve President Obama’s higher education completion agenda? The United States, long considered to have the best higher education in the world, now ranks eleventh in the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds with a college degree. As other countries have made dramatic gains in degree attainment, the U.S. has improved more slowly. In response, President Obama recently laid out a national “completion agenda” with the goal of making the U.S. the best-educated nation in the world by the year 2020. Getting to Graduation explores the reforms that we must pursue to recover a position of international leadership in higher education as well as the obstacles to those reforms. This new completion agenda puts increased pressure on institutions to promote student success and improve institutional productivity in a time of declining public revenue. In this volume, scholars of higher education and public policymakers describe promising directions for reform. They argue that it is essential to redefine postsecondary education and to consider a broader range of learning opportunities—beyond the research university and traditional bachelor degree programs—to include community colleges, occupational certificate programs, and apprenticeships. The authors also emphasize the need to rethink policies governing financial aid, remediation, and institutional funding to promote degree completion.

Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) are responsible for educating 20 percent of the nation’s college students and nearly 40 percent of the nation’s students of color. This growing group of institutions is essential to higher education and moving toward a more equitable society. This important book focuses on the challenges faced by MSIs within the larger higher education context and provides practical solutions to address these challenges. From performance-based funding, to issues of being dually designated MSIs, to articulation agreements with community colleges, to college readiness, the authors tackle the most important topics in higher education by exploring these varied topics through the lens of MSIs.

The goal of this book is to examine the ethnic experience of the Mexican American community in the United States, from colonialism to twenty-first century globalization. The authors unearth evidence that reveals how historically white ideology, combined with science, law, and the American imagination, has been strategically used as a mechanism to intimidate, manipulate, oppress, control, dominate, and silence Mexican Americans, ethnic racial minorities, and poor whites. A theoretical and philosophical overview is presented, focusing on the repressive practice against Mexicans that resulted in violence, brutality, vigilantism, executions, and mass expulsions. The Mexican experience under “hooded” America is explored, including religion, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Local, state, and federal laws are documented, often in conflict with one another, including the Homeland Security program that continues to result in detentions and deportations. The authors examine the continuing argument of citizenship that has been used to legally exclude Mexican children from the educational system and thereby being characterized as not fit for the classroom nor entitled to an equitable education. Segregation and integration in the classroom is discussed, featuring examples of court cases. As documented throughout the book, American law is a constant reminder of the pervasive ideology of the historical racial supremacy, socially defined and enforced ethnic inferiority, and the rejection of positive social change, equality, and justice that continues to persist in the United States. The book is extensively referenced and is intended for professionals in the fields of sociology, history, ethnic studies, Mexican American (Chicano) studies, law and political science and also those concerned with sociolegal issues. Description Here