The Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium will no longer be funded by the federal Perkins grant starting on September 1, 2011.  Therefore, if you need information on Tech Prep, please contact your school districts counselors or college advisors.  

Seventy-nine school districts and nine community colleges within our region have been serviced by the TP Consortium.  We service from Huntsville to Anahuac to Bay City and Palacios to Sealy and to Waller. 

GCTP will be adding the current six year plans for each district under their names once we receive them.  More information regarding what Tech Prep is, how it can help you or your student and where to get more info..is coming soon.

This article was written for the NCPN but we wanted to also post it on this site for your information.

What Happens When Funding Specific to Tech Prep Is Stopped!!!

The Gulf Coast Tech Prep Consortium (GCTP) headquartered in Houston, Texas, represents one example of what needs to be done when the funding is abruptly withdrawn. GCTP comprises nine college district/systems that operate a total of nineteen separate colleges, and seventy nine school districts from some of the smallest to the largest in Texas and the USA. The geographical territory of GCTP is home to approximately 25% of the secondary students in Texas. Due to the large territory and distances between colleges and school districts, sub-consortia were developed at six of the college districts with minor variances that host meetings of their service area school districts at least annually for face-to-face meetings between secondary teachers and related faculty to review six-year plans, develop communication avenues, conduct other business as needed. GCTP has been providing coordination and/or financial support for trainings, teacher/counselor/administrator professional development, teacher/administrator regional conferences, counselor/advisor regional conferences, job shadowing for students, externships for teachers, Advance Technical Credit (ATC) training, Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) training, and Tech Prep financial support for secondary and postsecondary institutions that will end on August 31, 2011.

The GCTP has accomplished many exciting innovations of on-going support for students involved with Tech Prep programs. GCTP has partnered with the Association of Building Contractors and multiple building contractors/businesses and related vendors to support an annual Construction Expo. GCTP has supported two Tech Prep collegiate high schools funded from direct federal grants. The emphasis for one collegiate high school is to promote those occupations that relate to process technology and the other is to promote those occupations related to building construction. It is very exciting to watch the progress of these collegiate high schools. Students sometimes actually have their graduation ceremony to graduate from college prior to their graduation ceremony for high school. The sub-consortium concept developed and promoted by GCTP has been one of the most unifying efforts of a large geographical area consortium to bring colleges and ISDs together for a common purpose of providing avenues for students to pursue occupations leading toward AAS degrees. Although the GCTP has too many outstanding accomplishments to list here, the above accomplishments are some of the most notable.

The following is a synopsis of an effort by the GCTP in Texas to preserve the foundation that has been built over the many years of Tech Prep funding:

GCTP has obtained commitments from the six college districts that have current sub-consortia that they will do their best to maintain the sub-consortia as they currently operate. A similar commitment came from the two largest college systems to maintain the Tech Prep (or by any other name) program currently in place. Due to all the major cuts to funding for community colleges from the state and federal level, they have yet to find the funding for personnel to coordinate these commitments.

This loss of funds is a tragedy for the young people, communities, and economy of Texas and the USA. There will be great efforts from secondary and postsecondary institutions to coordinate and maintain Tech Prep after August 31, 2011. However, history has taught us that even programs that have developed high standards and are a tremendous benefit to students will eventually die and disappear without specific funding.

The GCTP Consortium Board will hold its last meeting in August 2011. The agenda will include the transfer of all equipment and pilferable items acquired by GCTP. This will be the last face-to-face opportunity for the staff to let the representative school districts, colleges, and business/industries that make up the GCTP Consortium Board know how instrumental they were in the leadership and accomplishments of the GCTP Consortium.