While Ector County ISD’s six-year college graduation rate has improved from what it was with the class of 2013, there is still more to do.
Postsecondary Education Coordinator Elizabeth Gray said for the Class of 2015, which is six years in the past, 29% of graduates have completed some type of degree.
This is an improvement from 6.5% of the Class of 2013 earning a technical certificate, a two-year degree or a four-year degree within six years of graduating high school.
Gray said she wasn’t sure why the increase occurred because the data lags behind. The district now has ways to track graduates.
“We started with the AVID graduating class of 2020, and then last year, we had all the ECISD Class of 2021. We’re currently working with guidance and counseling to support the current seniors, which is the Class of 2022 and then they’ll be added to our alumni network, as well,” Gray said.
Her office makes sure alumni know the To and Through Department is there to support them with FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), TASFA (Texas Application for State Financial Aid), and Apply Texas, admissions and scholarship applications, and the Common Application.
“We have tutoring for ECISD students and alumni. We have supplies if they need supplies. … We can still meet them at OC and UTPB if they need moral support. We’ve built stronger partnerships with OC and UTPB, as well,” Gray said.
Currently, Gray said she is handling a little less than 2,000 students.
“That’s just the 2020 AVID graduates and then any alumni from the Class of 2020 can also get help. And then the Class of 2021. Then we’ll add, I think it’s projected another 1,750 from the Class of 2022,” she added.
The postsecondary department is currently just Gray and Amy Anderson, who is also the AVID director for the district.
They also have 15 to 18 tutors who help contact graduates and they can help with tutoring.
The program also has community members who help students with the fields they want to pursue and offer moral support.
“We still partner with ACCESS. They have built up their ACCESS college and career site and they have a phone app now, ACCESS Life, where they can still get connected with college counselors and career experts. We also work with Triumph Mentoring. … Triumph Mentoring is actually a pair of brothers (Brandon and Ryan Dominguez) that graduated from ECISD and they are at UT Austin, but they created Triumph Mentoring on their own as a way to give back to ECISD students. So that is also available to any senior that’s interested in it and … any alumni can sign up for Triumph Mentoring as well. … It’s mentoring with college peers. And that’s open to any major, any school because they have mentors under them at Baylor and Texas Tech, and then UT Austin, as well,” Gray said.
Triumph helps with mentoring and they present live talks over ACCESS where they cover different topics.
“The one that we just had a couple weeks ago was about resiliency and it was just making it through the semester. And then there was one about communication, the importance of communication peer to peer, between you and a professor, things like that.”
“They’re more apt to listen to their peers …,” she added.
She noted from contacting some of the alumni that they are more apt right now to go into the workforce to help their families rather than continuing school.
Some students also are admitted to college but don’t enroll.
According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse for the class of 2020, 47% of ECISD alumni enrolled in some type of college the fall immediately after high school.
“So it’s less than half,” Gray said.
There is now a graduation requirement that students fill out financial aid applications.
“What I’m hoping is with every high school student expected to do it, and if they go ahead and apply to colleges, colleges will be able to tell them you qualify for this much. There’s a possibility you could go to college for free, so I’m hoping that it will increase enrollment, actually, because the kids can see ‘Oh, that is something that we can do financially,’” Gray said.
UTPB and OC have various scholarship programs.
Also with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, students can qualify for grants to pay for tuition.
The colleges also offer FAFSA nights offering help to fill out the forms.
“… We’ve done really, really well. All the high schools have been working with Odessa College and UTPB to get that done, and then Permian has one coming up in January as well. And I’m sure we’ll have something else. But we’re trying to get as many of the FAFSAs done as we can, since it is a graduation requirement this year so I’m hoping that we can get all the seniors done,” Gray said.
On the FAFSA nights, students can attend with their parents and learn together.
“Because if you do decide to go to school, that is something you’ll have to renew every single year. You use the same login and everything, but the information you input is from the tax year of the year prior. So going to one of these FAFSA workshops and learning how to do it can better enable you to do it later when you have to renew it the next year,” she said.
Gray said she has seen an increase in peer to peer recommendations to come talk to them.
“… I’m a first-generation college student as well, so I try to look at things through that lens. What did I need when I was a senior and took my gap year that ended up five years. What would have helped me go directly into college and finish on time. I try to bring that knowledge and personality into what I do and then help all of our seniors and alumni,” Gray said.
She said students are surprised that she was a first-generation college student.
“Because it is hard to understand being a first-generation college student that you can be successful, you can go to school; it can be done. It’s not just for all the other people that have money, have the support, things like that. And that’s my job and why I love what I do so much is that we can give that support to every student. All students can go to college, or go get their certificate, whatever it is they want to do after high school. It’s all attainable and we provide that support to remove those barriers that may stand in their way.”
She noted that you don’t have to go to college in Odessa to get support from To and Through.
“We had an alumni from the Class of 2020 who’s going to North Texas and it was just when (coronavirus) was starting and she just needed masks. So I just sent her some masks. Anywhere that you are, you’re still an ECISD alumni. You’re still part of our family and we want to support you.”
Gray said from what she’s found through her own research, To and Through and the partnerships they have built with different entities is pretty rare.
“Not a lot of districts in the U.S. even are tracking their alumni and supporting their alumni. So it is something that we’re having to build from the ground up,” Gray said.
She added that they have built a partnership with Odessa College where they give her their stopouts, which are students that didn’t register for the following semester. They give her the information on ECISD graduates, so she is able to contact ECISD alumni and figure out why they didn’t register and get them connected to the success coaches at OC.
Gray said they are still building the program, but they are hoping to offer college field trips once COVID has died down.
“… A lot of seniors don’t know that they have days built in that they can request to go visit colleges. So the plan is to have field trips, like to ASU or Texas Tech, where they can go and tour the campuses. We’re just waiting for that to not be an issue anymore,” she said.
