As education has evolved over the decades, some teachers have struggled to adapt to changing curricula.
Some of those changes include the introduction of HQIM – a designation given to high quality instructional materials that follow Texas curriculum standards and are meant to help teachers implement research-based lessons into reading language arts, math, science and social studies classes.
“The problem is not the material itself. It is the fact that in education, they haven’t figured out how to support teachers in delivering these materials,” Stephanie Otero from the El Paso Community Foundation said. “It’s really this paradigm shift in teaching, which education knows it has to do, but is struggling to figure out how to do it.”
The community foundation, along with the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, announced on Wednesday that it will be using a $3.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement and train teachers on HQIM.
To do that, the grant, which will be distributed over three years starting in the 2024-25 school year, will provide funding to the University of Texas in El Paso to embed HQIM into its teaching curriculum and teacher residency program.
The Miner Teacher Residency program allows college seniors seeking a degree in education to work in a real classroom, alongside a trained mentor teacher.
A portion of the grant will also go to the Clint Independent School District to hire teacher residents and implement these teaching methods in the classroom.
“This year, we’re planning out what it would look like from the point where a student is at UTEP to the point they get hired with a school district so we have a seamless flow of how to use (HQIM) in the classroom,” said Clint ISD Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction James Littlejohn.
Littlejohn said the district has been working with UTEP’s residency program since the 2022-23 school year and has noticed how it has helped prepare new teachers for the classroom.
“The residency program is a game changer,” Littlejohn said. “You see the stress of a first-year teacher lessen dramatically because they already have a good feel for balancing all those operational things with the curriculum.”
The HQIM will be vetted through the Instructional Materials Review and Approval process enacted by House Bill 1605 during the regular 2023 legislative session. Some of the materials that have been given preliminary temporary approval include digital textbooks like the Grades K-5: Amplify Texas Elementary Literacy Program.
The Gates Foundation grant will also allow the district to work with US Prep, an organization that provides technical assistance and consultation to help schools successfully use HQIM.
In the end, Littlejohn said he hopes this initiative will help prepare Clint ISD students for college and beyond.
“When you have high-quality instruction material, you’re ensuring that the question to ask and the activities that you’re implementing are truly helping the student to understand that concept,” Littlejohn said. “This is just making sure that the level of the material is at the pace and rigor needed to build college readiness through all grade levels.”
Disclosure: The Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development is a financial supporter of El Paso Matters. Financial supporters play no role in El Paso Matters’ journalism. The news organization’s policy on editorial independence can be found here.
