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FALL 2019 NEWSLETTER
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CSOTTE Conference 2019
This year teacher education is
continuing to go through
significant changes. After the
86th Legislation meetings in
the capital this year, PK-12
has made a significant mark.
Many changes affect higher
education institutions…More
TACCTEP.Weebly.com
Fall 2019
BUILDING
BRIDGES
FOR
FUTURE
TEACHERS!
[Cite your source here.]
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TCCTA Faculty Leaders Partnership Highlight
A few TACCTEP board Texas Tech University
members attended the TCCTA continues to grow their
meeting for faculty TechTeach Across Texas
leaders….More program. This time at Austin
Community College….More
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First TACCTEP Conference
Save the Date!....More
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CSOTTE CONFERENCE
HIGHLIGHTS
By Fay Lee, President

TACCTEP Board members: Denise

McKown, Marian Ellis, Shamim Arastu
and Fay Lee presented various topics
from partnerships, STEM related
curriculum and teacher performance
assessment curriculum alignment.
Key note speakers Dr. Rebecca Burns,
faculty member at University of South
Florida and Mike Morath, Commissioner
of the Texas Education Agency
expressed the importance of clinical
teaching and teacher performance
assessments. Change going forward is
inevitable; however, the ultimate goals
in teacher training are to enhance our
teachers’ abilities to decrease
achievement gaps and increase student
success.
New Members from North Central Texas College
TACCTEP’s presence at the CSOTTE
Conference shows commitment and
solidarity with all institutions of higher
education for teacher education students.
Community college partnerships with
universities can make EPPs stronger and
increase the teacher pipeline. Recruitment of
students from community college teacher
education programs can increase enrollment
within EPPs as well as contribute to meeting
teacher shortages across our great state.

Left to Right: Treasurer: Shamim Arastu, President Elect:

Denise McKown and East Texas Member-at-Large: Marian
Ellis

TACCTEP will continue to play a significant

Consortium of State Organizations of
role with CSOTTE and support teacher
Texas Teacher Education
education throughout Texas.
(CSOTTE)

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Austin CC and Texas Tech

Close partnerships for teacher education create a win-win.

Community colleges can be effective institutional

contributors to the establishment of diverse teacher-talent
pipelines (Hutcheson, 2010; Perkins & Arvidson, 2017;
Walker, Downey & Kuehl, 2008). Although not always
recognized, community college students who transfer to
four-year institutions typically perform at comparable levels
and graduate at comparable rates as those students who
complete their entire course of study at a university (Xi, et
al., 2018)….More.

Texas Community College Teachers The Texas

Association (TCCTA)
Community College
Some of the TACCTEP board members attended the Texas Teachers
Community College Teacher Association’s Fall Faculty Leaders
Conference held in Austin, Texas on September 27-28. TACCTEP Association’s
Board Member, Dr. Rene Zuniga of South Plains College, also members come from
serves as the TCCTA Treasurer. TCCTA’s 73rd Annual Convention
will be held February 27-29, 2020 at the Dallas-Frisco Convention all public and
Center and Embassy Suites. independent two-year
TCCTA colleges in Texas.

Sessions from the conference

included a SACSCOC
Reaffirmation of Accreditation
Processes, Dual Credit, Legislative
Updates, Adopting Guided
Pathways, Legal Issues in Higher
Education, and an Industry
Professionals Panel.

Left picture: Denise McKown and

Marian Ellis
Right picture: Marian Ellis and Rene
Zuniga (South Texas Member-at-Large))

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AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CONTINUE

Transfer students who first complete their Associate’s degree at community college also tend to
fare even better because they are less likely to experience credit loss (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins,
2015; Cullinane, 2014; Jenkins & Fink, 2015).
Austin Community College (ACC) is a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and
serves approximately 38,000 degree-seeking students each semester, and ACC’s demographic
profile closely mirrors those of the service area. The College implements many practices aimed
at reducing or eliminating credit loss, including articulation agreement with important four-year
institutions, and the creation of smart, transfer pathways (Bailey, Jaggars & Jenkins, 2015).
ACC is a nationally recognized, two-year college using innovative strategies such as the Guided
Pathways approach, a freshman-level Student Success Course, block scheduling, Open
Educational Resources (OER), Area of Study advising, co-requisite teaching and competency-
based education. Student persistent rates year to year are nearly 80%, and since 2013 the
number of degrees and certificates conferred has risen by 60%. Nearly 70% of those completing
degrees transfer to four-year institutions.
ACC has an outstanding teacher preparation program that also has a close partnership with the
teacher preparation program at Texas Tech University (TTU). This partnership includes many of
the hallmarks that have made ACC a recognized institution. In addition, TTU also supports ACC
by crafting their articulation agreement to include the requirement that students complete their
AAT degree before transferring to the Tech Teach Across Texas program, and sharing data about
candidate performance once they transfer to the university. In this way, ACC and Tech bolster the
growing AAT program, and increase the likelihood that students will persevere and be successful
when they enter the teacher-preparation program. This innovative partnership is helping to
diversify teacher talent flowing into Austin ISD.

By Doug Hamman, Department Chair, Texas Tech University and Director of TechTeach Across
Texas and Regina McGough, Teacher Education Faculty, Austin Community College

References
Bailey, T. R., Jaggars, S. S., & Jenkins, D. (2015). Redesigning America’s community colleges.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cullinane, J. (2014, March). Transfer and time to degree: A quasi-experimental study of credits,
preparation, and pace. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education,
Finance and Policy, San Antonio, Texas.
Hutcheson, P. (2002). The past as awkward prologue: Teacher education and the junior college.
Community College Journal of Research & Practice, 26 (7-8), 645-658. DOI:
10.1080/10668920290102699 .
Jenkins, D., & Fink, J. (2015). What we know about transfer. New York: Columbia University,
Teachers College, Community College Research Center.

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Save the Date!

TACCTEP’S 1ST Annual Conference
Building Bridges for
Future Teachers
When:
Saturday, April 18, 2020
8am -3:30pm

Where:
Lone Star College – CyFair

9191 Barker Cypress Rd., Cypress, TX 77433

For registration information, please go to the TACCTEP website,
https://tacctep.weebly.com/ and click on Events.
President - Fay Lee, M.Ed., Fay.d.lee@lonestar.edu
Vice President - Denise McKown, M.A.Ed., dmckown@midland.edu

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