TSUS Education Policy Implementation Center (EPIC) February 21, 2011 Dr. Leslie Huling

The TSUS Education Policy Implementation Center (EPIC), housed at the RRHEC, coordinates a variety of education-related grants.

EPIC Purpose EPIC is a research and development partnership of the TSUS universities, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and a variety of the other educational and funding entities committed to educational improvement. EPIC encompasses a number of initiatives and provides a host of education- related consultative services.

EPIC Grant Activity In the past 5 years EPIC has generated and managed approximately $20 million in state, national and private foundation grants. Many EPIC grants involve subcontracts to other universities and community colleges All TSUS institutions that have educator preparation programs have received EPIC subcontracts

College and Career Readiness Initiative (CCRI) EPIC houses the CCRI Mathematics Faculty Collaborative funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board EPIC facilitates the coordination of services between the four state CCRI Faculty Collaboratives

Success Initiative in Developmental Education – Mathematics (SIDE-M) EPIC coordinates the SIDE-M Project funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board SIDE-M provides services to five Texas community colleges that have THECB grants to support Developmental Education Demonstration Projects: –Alamo Community College District –El Paso Community College District –Montgomery College – Lone Star –Tarrant County Community College District –San Jacinto Community College

Teacher Induction and Retention Initiatives The retention of newly certified teachers is a high state and national educational priority and is a critical concern of university teacher preparation programs. To address this critical need, EPIC sponsors an integrated research program focused on new teachers and induction support programs.

Novice Teacher Induction Program Since 2001, EPIC has had funding from the Houston Endowment to pilot an induction support program and to research its effects. The TSUS Novice Teacher Induction Program involves seven TSUS institutions and will continue to track the retention of approximately 1,000 NTIP participants. NTIP has recently been selected by Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) as one of two models they will be advocating for statewide implementation.

NTIP & Graduate Student Recruitment NTIP provided graduate scholarships for 990 participants who were enrolled at one of the seven TSUS participating universities. To date, these students have completed an additional 2,563 graduate hours and about 50 have completed their graduate degrees.

NTIP & Teacher Retention 84.5% of Cohort 1 have been retained into their 4th year of teaching; 91.7% of cohort 2 have been retained into their 3rd year; and 92.8% of cohort 3 have been retained into their 2nd year. SBEC estimates the Texas annual turnover rate is 15% with a 40% turnover within the first three years. (SBEC, 2000)

CREATE Induction Study EPIC staff, in conjunction with the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE), are coordinating a major research study of new teacher induction in Texas

CREATE Center for Research, Evaluation and Advancement of Teacher Education TSUS is one of the three original founding systems of CREATE along with the Texas A&M University System and the University of Texas System. CREATE’s research largest study to date, the Teacher Induction Study is being managed by EPIC.

Scope of CREATE Induction Study Intensive interviews have been conducted with 451 novice teachers on 140 campuses in 12 Texas school districts. Mentors for study participants have completed surveys about mentor program characteristics & coordination. Year 1 TAKS data and Year 2 teacher retention data have been analyzed on the novice teachers and approximately 2,500 comparison teachers. A presentation of this analysis was the keynote event at a recent meeting of CREATE’s Public School Research Network. Year 2 TAKS data and Year 3 teacher retention data are being collected and will be analyzed by the end of the summer of 2008.

On The Drawing Board --- EPIC continually seeks new grant initiatives to support high quality educational initiatives. EPIC provides an important “linking” function to facilitate the coordination of statewide education initiatives. EPIC is an important resources to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency is helping to implement educational policy in Texas.

We invite you to visit the Education Policy Implementation Center Round Rock Higher Education Center Texas State University–San Marcos