When the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board discovered through a study in 2000 that the state would lose tax revenue and see a drop in income because its colleges and universities weren’t keeping pace with population growth, it took action with the Closing the Gaps plan. The plan has a particular aim at educating more Hispanic students.
“I think we’ve made very substantial progress,” says Dr. Raymund Paredes, commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). “I’m not suggesting we are where we’re going to be, but we’ve done some pretty extraordinary things.”
As of 2013, the last year for available data, the 15-year plan, which ends next year, has more than doubled the number of Hispanics enrolled in college in the state from around 240,000 to 526,310. “I think having a plan with specific goals was helpful,” says Paredes, reflecting on the initiative’s trajectory. “We had targets for specific institutions, and I think that helped.”
According to Paredes, all of the state’s Hispanic-serving institutions, such as the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas Pan-American (UTPA), have performed well at increasing Hispanic enrollment and improving retention. “We had a concerted effort, and we’re seeing results,” says Paredes.
Implementing plans
This aligned effort moved forward by basing projects on data.
