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How can we best focus community attention on education?
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We consider community leadership to be an important part of our role as your Advocate.
First and foremost, we provide leadership through news coverage that informs the community. We also do this with our Viewpoints page editorials, by inviting people to write guest columns and letters, and by reaching out in a variety of other ways to get people involved in making a difference.
Recently, a group of us met to talk about how we might launch a new public service effort focused on education. We have the opportunity to apply for $1,000 in grant money to help fund the project, although we agree this is a worthy project regardless of whether our application is accepted.
The first step, though, is a big one: How do we best focus a project on such a broad topic?
During our meeting, we discussed the broad goal: to focus the community's attention on the importance of education. Although many people have varying ways of measuring success, we agree our community will be better off if more students do better and go farther with their education.
We recognize the Victoria school district faces many challenges with about 65 percent of all students classified as economically disadvantaged. We also see education as intrinsically linked to the economic health of our community. If we have a more educated population, we will have fewer young people living near the poverty line.
Many of these economically disadvantaged students lack the support needed to succeed in school. We talked about a few mentoring programs that have had success and brainstormed ways a newspaper project could spotlight these and attract even more volunteers to the efforts. Our project would be wildly successful if everyone in the community felt a sense of obligation to help just one student.
People might debate the level of importance placed on standardized test scores, but we would expect our project to result in improvement in the latest state results of only 67 percent passing. We also would want to see the percentage of Victorians with a bachelor's degree grow from 11.8 percent to closer to the national average of 19.4 percent.
We also brainstormed ideas for the project with members of our Hispanic reader advisory board. As we talked, the parts of the conversation that resonated the loudest were individual stories of educational success. These stories could inspire others and serve as a guide for what works.
To capture and publicize them, we propose scheduling a series of community forums in the neighborhoods where our targeted students live. We would want to go to them and their parents and form partnerships with the schools, churches and other organizations already working on the issue. We would work hard to create a comfortable setting rather than stage one big town hall meeting that might scare away those we're trying to reach. We also would have resources available there for people seeking help.
In these forums, we would have a few speakers prepared to share their stories and invite audience members to come forward and talk. Of course, we would report on these stories in print and online. On our website, we could present video clips of these stories on a specially designed page and keep the conversation going.
We certainly don't pretend to be the experts or have all of the answers to this complicated issue. However, we recognize the newspaper has the ability to galvanize the community attention and agree this is the most important public service project we could take on. We welcome your suggestions about how to further shape the project and invite all interested to get involved during these initial stages.
You may share your thoughts here, or call me at my office, 361-574-1271, to discuss. We also welcome you to the Advocate Internet Cafe, 311 E. Constitution St., to chat in person. I work there from 9 to 10 a.m. weekdays. We also encourage you to visit our weekly editorial board meetings at 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays; these sessions also are in the Internet Cafe and webcast on our site.
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Despite whatever concerns you have about the past, we hope you and others will share your educational success stories. Our project's goal is to celebrate and replicate success.
February 21, 2012 at 6:04 a.m.We will need the community's participation to achieve our goal.
I would like to thank Edith Ann for asking the question that should be asked. I personally believe that issue about the so-called Crossroads Commission on Education is purposely being forgotten. Speaking about the Crossroads Commission, all of the members of the commission are from Victoria County. Well when you have the word “Crossroads’ in the mix, it should represents Cuero, Yoakum, Hallettsville, Edna, Refugio, Gonzales, and others.
We cannot just look forward just cover up past sins and embarrassing mistakes.
Mr. J. Williams
February 20, 2012 at 7:33 p.m.Observer,
February 20, 2012 at 4:59 p.m.Do you think all high school graduates ought to be prepared to the level where they could attend college if they so desired? If so, how do we as a community work together with our schools to make that happen? That's the crux of our proposed project.
Our brainstorming group discussed the point you raise that a four-year college degree is not for everyone, but some advanced training is increasingly necessary for employment in the 21st century.
In terms of vocational training, I'm not the best source on that, but I think VISD does have some programs aimed at this. We wrote about the Career and Technology Institute recently. Here's a link: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/...
There are two local issues that merit your attention. First, if the VISD insists on continuing its mindless (and, I would argue, brainless) insistence that every high school graduate attend college, then you should direct your attention to the number of VISD graduates enrolled at Victoria College and UH Victoria who require supplemental education. If these supposedly college-ready graduates are unable to compete in college, then they are, by definition, not college-ready, despite having a high school diploma.
The second area that could use some of your attention is vocational education. While some of the vocational education courses currently offered by Victoria College probably do require a high school diploma, others could just as easily be offered by VISD as part of a high school education. The mindless (see above) focus of VISD on all graduates attending college is short-changing students. Rather than receiving an education that prepares them for a job upon graduation, at no cost to the student, these students are now paying tuition to Victoria college. This is just not right.
February 19, 2012 at 2:05 p.m.Exactly my point. I suspected there was nothing to report. Thank you for confirming that.
I look forward to seeing what the paper comes up with. Anything forward will be a help.
February 18, 2012 at 2:01 p.m.To answer your question, I am unaware of any recent meetings by the commission. We would report on those if they occurred.
February 18, 2012 at 1:46 p.m.You may have missed my point. I think you guys do need to do something. Education is in very sad shape in Texas. I'm not sure of our number, exactly, but we're down in the bottom five of the list.
My opinion of the CConE is actually formed by information from your paper. Y'all reported on the formation of this group. Y'all reported on the mission of this group. Ya'll reported on the main activity of this group. But we haven't heard a word about anything this group has done since their failure to switch University systems.
Now, I am really trying to give the paper an out here--I'm guessing there is nothing to report because the CConE work was done and they are no longer meeting. If the paper is aware of anything else they have done to positively impact (hello Riverboat) education in the Crossroads area for folks birth throught post secondary, and this paper hasn't reported it, why haven't you?
I absolutely, like I said, support the paper's efforts in this direction. We can't continue to rank at the bottom of education! It is not acceptable.
February 18, 2012 at 1:40 p.m.But--based on the press that surrounded the CConE, it is fair to include them in the discussion. Yep. It is.
Thank you for supporting our intentions.
Your opinion about the Crossroads Commission on Education seems fully formed without the need for any additional reporting about the group's efforts or lack thereof.
Our public service project aims to look forward rather than back. We welcome the involvement of all who care about this issue and recognize we need to work closely with the many experts who have been working their careers on this complex subject. We see our role as getting the entire community and not only those working in the field involved in education.
February 18, 2012 at 1:22 p.m.While I absolutely applaude your notion that the Advocate can have a hand in this venture--you are well established with the Newspapers in Education program--how about you do a real, true, honest story about the Crossroads Commission on Education?
As I recall from the beginning, this Commission was formed to address the very issues you mention 'from birth through post-secondary'. With the exception of a couple of members traveling upstate to look at some school's program, the only thing this Commission has accomplished is embarassing this city with the UHV/TAMU/Texas Tech fiasco.
Had they actually done what they promised, and met like they promised, they may have had a handle already on some of these issues. There is no need for the Advocate to put forth any effort if this is being handled by the Crossroads Commission on Education.
Oh, go ahead with your plans--we know this commission failed in their mission and won't be taking on any new projects for a couple of years.
February 17, 2012 at 8:54 p.m.