Texas Border Business
McAllen, Texas – The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board College Readiness and Success Models for 60X30TX has awarded South Texas College a $75,000 grant that will be used to enhance and scale co-requisite model offerings in order to meet the requirements of Texas House Bill 2223.
STC is currently preparing to implement HB 2223 requirements and plans to serve over 1,300 students in Developmental Education by enrolling them in co-requisite courses by 2018-2019.
The grant awarded to STC will now be used to enhance developmental reading and writing classes in order to meet or exceed the requirements of HB 2223.
“The grant will provide a welcome contribution to professional development and faculty assignments while STC is embarking on the new co-requisite requirements set by the THECB,” said Dr. Margaretha Bischoff, Dean of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at South Texas College. “To meet the challenging timeline of having 75 percent of all our developmental students enrolled in at least one academic class at the same time by the year 2020, academic and developmental English and Reading faculty will devote much time and expertise to aligning academic classes with the appropriate developmental support.”
60x30TX refers to the state’s higher education goals for completion, marketable skills, managing student debt, and ensuring that at least 60 percent of Texans age 25-34 will have a college degree or certificate by 2030.
HB 2223 was introduced in 2017 in order to assist students currently taking developmental courses. Under the bill, each institution of higher education including STC is now required to develop and implement co-requisite courses in lieu of traditional remedial programs.
HB 2223 designates colleges to have at least three-fourths of remedial students in co-requisite courses by the 2020-2021 school year.
“The grant will provide us the funds to comply with the requirements in the most effective ways,” Dr. Bischoff said. “As always, our efforts will be geared towards the success of our developmental students and they will benefit tremendously by being offered the opportunity to reach graduation goals faster while encountering fewer barriers.”
