Contact: Anthony de Bruyn , (512) 499-4363

Date: October 15, 2004

UT System News Media Advisory

UT System Officials to Visit Day Care Center in Brownsville

AUSTIN – University of Texas System officials will take reporters' questions following their visit at the Bizzy Tots Day Care Center in Brownsville located at 3180 FM 802 at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, October 18.

The day care center is one of several implementation sites participating in the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM) project, a statewide effort to coordinate early-education programs for children from poor and high-risk backgrounds.

UT System Chancellor Mark G. Yudof, UT Brownsville President Juliet V. Garcia, and Dr. Kelly Raley, executive director of the system's newly created Institute for Public School Initiatives, will be joined by project leader Dr. Susan Landry and Norma Garza, coordinator of Success by 6, a local United Way initiative.

Landry is director of the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE) at the UT Health Science Center–Houston. The center was recently selected by Governor Rick Perry to head the State Center for Early Childhood Development (SCECD), part of his Early Start Initiatives program.

Garza is a coordinator with the United Way of Southern Cameron County -- Success by 6 Initiative -- an initiative for children up to six years of age that focuses on preparing children for success when they enter school through community system reform.

TEEM leaders work closely with a variety of early childhood programs and providers to integrate services and expand the instructional capabilities of child care centers, public school districts and Head Start centers in 11 different communities across the state. Bizzy Tots Child Care Center is one of 20 implementation sites selected in the Brownsville area.

The Institute for Public School Initiatives' goal is to engage local community colleges and school districts in partnership with UT System institutions to improve student performance from preschool through high school. Such shared research and knowledge will help universities train the best teachers for Texas schools, as well as produce innovative educational research about curriculum and classroom practices.

The TEEM project is one of the many preschool through college programs the UT System is actively engaged in whose outcomes affect the lives of Texas children from their very earliest years. UT System institutions such as UT Brownsville are engaged in groundbreaking educational research for students of all ages, for example, as well as in educating and training a new generation of teachers for Texas classrooms.

UT System News: UT System Creates Institute for Public School Initiatives to Assist Public Education in Texas (10/05/04)

UT System Educational System Alignment homepage

State Center for Early Childhood Development homepage