Collegiate Edu-Nation Rural HOPE

In rural Texas, 1.2 million children under the age of 18 experience disproportionately higher poverty rates and lower educational achievement. Collegiate Edu-Nation, a nonprofit organization in West Texas, collaborates with local school districts and universities and community and business leaders to end education and income inequality in rural Texas.

Their Rural HOPE Project works with higher education, employers, and school district partners to identify workforce needs, provide workforce development, and implement targeted teacher training and leadership development across a P–20 school model. It reaches 27,000 rural students in over 28 districts across Texas, with expansion into Illinois and West Virginia. On average, 60 percent of the graduates from districts in the network who have implemented the model for four or more years are graduating with associate degrees and/or certifications within four years of implementing the model. In Roscoe, Texas, where the project began, up to 90 percent of high school seniors have graduated with associate degrees and certifications.