TSTC Harlingen’s location is in the region of Texas with the highest poverty levels for adults and children, the lowest rates of educational achievement, a population where more than half of the inhabitants speak Spanish as their primary language, and where per capita family income is barely over $10,000 annually. This social context has a direct impact on the deficits in student learning as these realities distract students from putting their time and energy into commitments that emphasize educational pursuits. It is a common perception that students enter post-secondary education ill-prepared to do college-level work. We can safely attribute our students’ lack of college readiness to a combination of two factors: a poor foundation in basic skills and a weak desire to learn. The correct combination of “skills and wills” is essential for a mature commitment to pursue a pathway toward educational and career fulfillment. It then becomes the challenge of TSTC Harlingen to fill in the gaps created by these socio-economic barriers.TSTC Harlingen’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is intended to meet this challenge by designing and implementing a program for student learning that addresses the foundations for learning through:

• Improvement of skills needed to facilitate learning; and,
• Development of motivational processes that sustain learning.
  

As stated above, our students fall short of meeting the standards for college readiness. The basic skills of students entering TSTC Harlingen has declined significantly in the past decade, as indicated by scores on the THEA (formerly TASP). Of the 1,594 new students enrolling at the college in Fall 2002, 53% failed the basic skills assessment test in math, while 38% of them failed the reading portion. The lack of these skills has a direct impact on the success students will have in all courses. Currently, there are 1,746 students, or 46% of the enrolled population, that have a grade of D or F in at least one course at the mid-term point of the Spring 2004 semester. As a result of this lack of college readiness, our students cannot benefit fully from participation in a course for which they are unprepared to read the text, compute basic math, or fully comprehend the subject matter.

In a QEP survey administered to all TSTC Harlingen faculty and staff, employees overwhelmingly responded that the lack of student motivation to learn dramatically influences the students’ level of commitment to pursue educational and career goals. While we cannot change overnight the social structures or socio-economic realities that have fostered a malaise for student learning, we can initiate a change in what we can influence, namely, our role in the educational enterprise that can instill in our students the skills and will to learn.

The QEP will focus on evaluating the direct impact of the lack of student readiness on student success in college level courses, and adopt an educational approach that assists students to succeed in coursework appropriate to their skill levels. The plan will include research and development of a cross-curricular program to motivate students to become active participants in the learning process; thus, enabling students to challenge and change the laissez-faire attitudes reflective of the internalizations of societal prohibitions for student achievement and success.

The advantages of this plan are that it will:

• be limited by concentrating initiatives on new student populations;
• produce measurable results and thus lend itself to assessment;
• embrace innovative approaches for the improvement of skills needed to facilitate learning, and for the development of motivational processes that sustain learning;
• entail manageable costs to implement; and,
• as mandated by the Principle, directly address student learning.