CATCH THE NEXT INC
Empowering students and faculty to close the equity gap in higher education.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
In Texas, 48% of entering college students are reported as not meeting college readiness benchmarks according to state placement and entrance exams. Among African American and Latino students, only 8% and 12% respectively are reported as college-ready across all disciplines. As Texas has joined the movement for accelerated developmental education throughout the nation, the need for culturally responsive and validating educational models to support student access and success has never been more urgent. Catch the Next responds to this need with its community college program, a first-year experience initiative aimed to support student success through accelerated, cohort-driven, and literacy-based curricula across disciplines. Students take their first year of courses in English, Math, and first-year success courses to ensure that college-level coursework is completed in the first year. Curricula are developed by faculty trained in our research-based and culturally responsive methods.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Ascender Framework for Student and Institutional Advancement
Catch the Next (CTN), established in 2009, is a data-driven nonprofit organization with the mission to increase the educational attainment of Latinos and the underserved in higher education to close the equity gap.
The Ascender Framework engages and retains students through the following:
* a rigorous, culturally relevant curriculum across multiple courses and disciplines in learning communities;
* individualized advising, personal counseling, and mentoring; and
* leadership development and community outreach
Faculty and staff are supported by a robust professional development series that engages through:
* intensive, experiential seminars (three times per year) and monthly webinars;
* ongoing college, campus, and individual peer mentoring by experienced practitioners; and
* a national peer mentoring program to promote career and personal development.
* faculty earn 5 graduate credits from UT Austin, Dept. Educational Leadership and Policy.
Transformative Teaching Track
The Transformative Teaching Track (TTT) is a two-day, experiential and intensive training in classroom strategies, co-curricular design, and team building with an emphasis on culturally responsive practice designed to meet the needs of faculty who wish to play a leadership role in the transformation of higher education in order to close the equity gap.
The TTT Institute is designed for content-area or developmental instructors who wants to be part of a community of practice focusing on personal and professional development in order to meet the needs of a diverse student population.
Catch the Next is the leader in delivering sustained educational opportunity, success, and equity through transformational teaching and collaborative professional development, cultivating the leaders of today and tomorrow.
Where we work
Awards
Programs that work database 2020
Excelencia
Example of Excelencia Finalist 2021
Excelencia
Edge Innovation Award 2021
John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
What is Next in Higher Education Challenge 2013
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Affiliations & memberships
University of Texas-Austin, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. 2023
University of Texas Division of Diversity and Community Engagement 2023
Excelencia in Education Programs that Work Database 2023
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The mission of Catch the Next is to increase the educational attainment of Latinos and other underserved communities and to close equity and achievement gaps by empowering faculty, staff, and institutions to fulfill their professional development and educational visions.
Catch the Next seeks to scale its equity-driven teaching and learning strategies both deeply and broadly by increasing Ascender enrollments at existing partner colleges, recruiting new partner colleges, and expanding professional development both internally at member colleges and externally at non-member colleges. Growing our successful teaching and learning strategies has proven success in increasing student persistence and completion.
To this end, we pursue the following targets and outcomes:
* Add 3 new colleges participating in the Ascender Framework annually
* Add 15 new faculty and staff to participate in Ascender Professional Development sequence annually
* Add 10 new non-member colleges to attend the Transformative Teaching Track (1 pair of co-curricular faculty from each college)
* Add 10 new leadership fellows annually
* Develop and implement qualitative research study on statewide program effectiveness
* Increase the number of new student enrollments in the Ascender program by 30% annually
* Surpass state averages in successful completion of developmental reading/writing and or math within 1 year by 20%
* Surpass state averages in successful completion of credit-level coursework in English and Math within 1 year by 20%
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Catch the Next's priority is ensuring the growth and sustainability of its Ascender Framework. CTN's organizational strategy for implementing the Ascender program and supporting member colleges as we strive to close higher ed achievement gaps is three-pronged. First, CTN offers a robust and research-based professional development series to faculty, staff, and administrators at our partner colleges. Our professional development framework is interdisciplinary and focuses on team-building to break down institutional silos; instructors, advisors, coordinators, mentors, and counselors from our member colleges participate in a three-part training sequence that is facilitated by experienced practitioners and experts in the field. The training sequence begins with a five-day foundational symposium for new teams and team members in the summer before a college implements the program, followed by a two-day seminar in each long semester. The professional development piece of the program is complemented by our Teaching and Learning for Student Success Peer Mentoring Program, which offers sustained support, mentoring, and coaching for institutions and practitioners in the field. The peer mentoring program provides our member colleges access to a national network of scholars, authors, and community leaders to share research and experiences with both practitioners and students. Colleges interact with the network of peer mentors through our monthly webinar series, in our training sequence, and through speaking engagements at the colleges. In addition, TLFSS offers opportunities for professional growth for all practitioners through our Journal of Ideas and Pedagogy and coaching from experienced writers and researchers to pursue other educational, research, and publication opportunities. Recognizing the importance of sustained communication, TLFSS also coordinates semesterly site visits from leadership fellows and CTN staff to ensure the smooth implementation of the community college program. Finally, CTN understands that faculty and institutional success ultimately equals student success, yet it also takes intentional design to meaningfully engage and support students. Thus, the third prong of our strategy focuses on student engagement. We offer student internships to cultivate marketable skills, and we host a Transfer Motivational Conference to model where perseverance and dedication in college can lead. In addition, we support the colleges in various student engagement activities, including development of student organizations, field trips to four-year colleges and universities, end-of-term celebrations, and, perhaps most importantly, family events that allow the students to showcase for their families their success and the importance of college for their--and our--futures.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Catch the Next is a growing organization with over six years of success in Texas. Our organization began as many start-up non-profits do, relying on volunteers and practitioners as well as the intense labor and dedication of the founders and CEO. Now, seven years after the launch of the first community college programs, CTN boasts a staff of dedicated program directors/managers along with a cadre of support-level consultants and leadership fellows who come from the ranks of college practitioners and/or peer mentors. As such, each demonstrates a commitment to the mission of CTN and supports the work accordingly. Thus, our capacity for growing and sustaining our programs has increased exponentially over the years. The staff, for instance, all align with the three-pronged strategic approach described above. While everyone makes contributions to the annual training sequence, the Director of Professional Development, Allegra Villarreal, coordinates each symposium and/or seminar, developing curricula, planning agendas, and ensuring quality programming. Similarly, the Director of the Teaching and Learning for Student Success Peer Mentoring Program and Operations Manager, Dr. Lydia CdeBaca, collaborates with Villarreal and CEO, Dr. Maria Martha Chavez Brumell, to coordinate speakers from among the network of peer mentors in addition to scheduling speakers for, organizing, and hosting the monthly webinar series each academic year. Additionally, CdeBaca oversees the coordination of semesterly site visits at all member colleges and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ideas and Pedagogy. Finally, Director of Communications and Engagement, Debra McBeath, directs the John Siceloff journalism internship, which, along with the reporting for our monthly newsletter, gives her access to much of the student engagement piece, allowing her to monitor and coordinate this element. In addition, we have a Knowledge Development Work Group overseen by our Directors of Research and Evaluation, Dr. Erin Doran and Jon Herrin. This group is comprised of Institutional Research staff from each member college and oversees the data analysis portion of the work to ensure that we are meeting measurable goals. Finally, none of this work would be possible without a dedicated CEO and Operations Manager. The latter ensures the smooth implementation of off-site training as well as travel arrangements for site visits, the student transfer motivational conference, and arrangement of college contracts. And, of course, Catch the Next co-founder and CEO, Dr. Maria Martha Chavez Brumell, actively collaborates with each director in addition to meeting regularly with college administrations, funding agencies, state policy bodies, and peer mentors as well as recruiting new member colleges, to name just a few of her duties.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
To date, we have trained 145 faculty, staff, and administrators in our model from 11 colleges and 20 campuses. In addition, at the colleges currently implementing the program, including two of the founding colleges, each has scaled up from serving 1-2 cohorts per academic year at one campus to serving 5-6 cohorts each academic year across up to three campuses. Our program offerings have also grown from focusing solely on Integrated Reading and Writing (developmental English) and a first-year success course (Learning Frameworks) in a learning community to including (1) an accelerated co-requisite English model, (2) Mathematics - both developmental and accelerated, and (3) various gateway courses that include instructors from across a variety of disciplines who are trained in our model and implement our curricular strategies in their classes as part of a CTN learning community. With the current move toward acceleration of developmental education and the gradual decline of dev. ed. courses, CTN is poised to grow the number of educators trained in our model in order to ensure that students have the support they need as they move into college-level coursework, regardless of their readiness according to state benchmarks. We continue to grow our programs to scale both at our member colleges and at new colleges throughout the state. In terms of professional development, we have created a Transformative Teaching Track for colleges interested in pursuing the curricular development without necessarily implementing the full-scale student engagement aspect of the model.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals, To share with sponsors
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, We lack technology for large data sets that include all of our colleges and students
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
CATCH THE NEXT INC
Board of directorsas of 09/11/2023
Dr. Rogelio Saenz
University of San Antonio, Texas
Term: 2020 - 2024
Maria Martha Chavez
Catch the Next
Emmy Perez
University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
Ruth Reinhart
Austin Community College
Lillian Diaz Gray
Texas Mutual
Diana Gorostieta
Austin Community College
Griselda Garnica
Austin Contracting
Samantha Ackers
Austin Community College
Eileen Galvez
Yale University
Matt Reyna
Yale University
Darrial Reynolds
South Texas College
Elena Foulis
TAMUSA
Yolanda Reyna
Palo Alto College
Robert Garza
Palo Alto College
Armando Sanchez
Austin Community College
Chris Nelson
STC
Linda Hagedorn
Iowa State
Farah Garcia
Dallas
Greg Morris
Dallas College
Catherine Olivares
Dallas College
Mike Guinn
Dallas
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/11/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.