Recruitment and Outreach

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), a four-county region on the Texas-Mexico border with a rich and highly complex history, is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Of the RGV’s roughly 1.3 million inhabitants, approximately 90% identify as Hispanic. A glimpse into the ascending numbers shows a projected population increase of 1.9% per year from 2010 and likely until 2030 (Texas Demographic Center, 2018). Other significant descriptors of the South Texas region include a median household income of $43,873 in 2019, which is significantly lower than other Texas regions (Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, 2022). Although this initial impression of the RGV profile may appear dismal, it fails to capture the cultural strength and resiliency of the people. The RGV community recognizes the impact of social and economic mobility and therefore, highly values education.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) ranks second in Texas and fourth in the continental U.S. for the enrollment of Hispanic students among 4-year universities (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). A Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), UTRGV was founded on strong principles and beliefs in the transformative power of education on lives across the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. From its inception, UTRGV has been focused on becoming a 21st-century bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate university with core priorities on student success and expansion of educational opportunities.

The College of Education and P16 Integration’s (CEP) mission and vision clearly echo the University’s mission. The college serves as a catalyst for the educational success of our community, embracing diversity as fundamental to excellence in education. Attracting, supporting, and producing a strong pool of teachers for the region remains integral to fulfilling the college’s mission. In consideration of the community’s sociocultural context, the student demographics in local schools, and the alignment of University and college missions, the overall purpose of our recruitment and retention plan is to further develop and refine the production of Hispanic/Latino teachers in hard-to-staff schools and shortage fields in the region.

Two areas that will be highlighted and supported by the evidence are our program’s high production of minority teachers and retention rates, which are significant compared to state and national figures. For instance, having a teacher workforce that reflects the demographics of the diverse student population in K-12 schools has been a persistent challenge across the national landscape. However, our program has been extraordinary in producing a candidate pool that reflects the students in our local school districts, which are predominantly Hispanic/Latino. Another characteristic that makes our program exceptional is the high retention rates of our graduates after they enter the teaching profession. Nationally, minority teachers leave the profession at higher rates than white teachers, while those who graduate from our program have an 89-90% retention after five years in the teaching profession, at both elementary and secondary levels (CREATE, 2020).

Our program’s recruitment, outreach, and retention goals will be described along with a brief overview of the evidence that supports and informs our plan. The program recruitment, outreach, and retention goals aligned with our institution's mission are as follows:

1. Continue to attract high-quality teacher candidates while serving as a model to depict the process for producing and retaining predominately Hispanic/Latino teachers in the profession through high visibility and notable strategies and activities.
2. Create a new process for a systematic review and analysis of progress evidence in relation to the recruitment, outreach plans, and monitoring system for prospective leads with the use of multiple sources of internally and externally collected data.
3. Establish new pathways to teaching in regionally identified critical areas and hard-to-staff schools.

Our recruitment strategy is focused on attracting high-quality teachers to specific areas, including hard-to-staff schools and certification fields with shortages. We aim to increase the number of teachers in these areas and improve the quality of candidates who complete our program through purposeful planning and targeted recruiting efforts. The college has committed to creating more structure and a systemic review of the program’s recruitment activity to probe further into the evaluation of strategies and monitoring of the trajectory of prospective leads.

Engaging in continuous improvement, CEP has launched two new goals to strengthen the program’s recruitment. To address goal two, a plan for creating a standard system to review, analyze, and monitor data and the progress of goals will be established. The general model is depicted in the graphic below.

CEP has developed a new pathway into teaching to be responsive to regional district needs and grow enrollment in the all-level/secondary teacher preparation program. The local district survey data and CREATE data illustrate the percentages of newly hired high school teachers in the area showing a need and market for increased Educator Preparation Program (EPP) All-level and High School program graduates. To increase the enrollment in critical needs majors/shortage certification fields, as demonstrated by admission rates per area of certification, a new pathway will be closely monitored for fulfilling district needs. Below are some preliminary goals in successfully meeting goal three for future evaluation.

To increase the number of teacher candidates admitted to the initial licensure educator preparation program in critical certification/shortage areas, the EPP has advertised a new minor in secondary education that can attach to eligible academic majors leading to initial teacher certification. With this option, academic majors have a pathway into the teaching profession at their junior and senior levels, unlike the traditional undergraduate degree pathway of declaring embedded teaching certification coursework at the freshman level.

The new flexible pathway allows upper-level classmen an option to enter the teaching profession. The advantage of offering this option is that these students will be able to complete a rigorous, clinically rich preparation route while receiving tuition and financial support such as grants, financial aid, and scholarships. Before this new pathway was created, the only option for students with academic majors was to graduate and pursue teaching through for-profit alternative certification programs that could cost an average of $5,000. A benefit of the new pathway gives students an option to enter the teaching profession later in their academic trajectory, which will grow the number of middle, secondary, and all-level teacher certification program students in our EPP, especially in critical areas.

The EPP targets its recruiting efforts to five high-needs subject areas as identified in the CREATE data and district data: English, science, math, social studies, and special education.