For Celeste Orta the thought of going back to college after earning her bachelor’s degree was always there. As a former fourth-grade teacher and current instructional coach, her plate is full but she hoped for an opportunity to continue learning.
“I always knew that my education wasn’t going to end with the classroom,” Orta said. “I knew that I wanted something more.”
Orta, 34, works at Harlandale Independent School District. For six years she taught math, then she took on the role of instructional coach in the curriculum and instruction department.
Over the last few years, she’s been pouring what little free time she has into earning her master’s degree in educational administration. And this week she graduated with a master’s degree from Texas A&M University-San Antonio and is already thinking about pursuing a doctorate in education.
“I’m so ready for the next one,” Orta said. “It just filled my cup so much to know there’s so many other people that are passionate about our community and passionate about San Antonio that it just makes me want to go back.”
She entered the graduate program through TAMUSA’s Partnership for Graduate Degree Attainment. The program led by Professor Wowek Kearney, seeks agreements with area school districts to select staff who can benefit from earning a master’s degree and covers a portion of their costs.
“The university provides the first course free when individuals from a participating district register for a minimum of two courses during their first semester of graduate studies,” Kearney said. “We also ask that the school district partners support their own employees towards graduate degree attainment.”
The program was the response to local research that showed the number of teachers with master’s degrees has a positive impact on K-12 student achievement and teacher retention.
“[We] initiated a study about five years ago now, where we did an analysis of all of the student achievement data,” Kearney said. “We ran a simple regression analysis to see if it is predictive of higher student achievement if you have a greater percentage of teachers with master’s degrees for us here in South Texas, in Region 20. And the answer was yes.”
The Graduate Degree Attainment program started three years ago with about 13 area school districts participating. This year that number grew to 18 participating districts in and out of Bexar County, including East Central ISD, Judson ISD, San Antonio ISD, Poteet ISD and Cotulla ISD.
The districts in turn agree to provide this support by choosing to cover textbook costs or providing additional substitute teacher assistance for pre-approved time off.
These agreements also cap the number of spots that each district is agreeing to fill, and applicants must meet the requirements of the graduate program to be admitted into any of the master’s degree programs offered at TAMUSA.
The university then holds informational sessions with each district, where interested teachers and staff members can learn more about the programs, meet with deans and see if it’s a good fit for them.
“As a growing university it’s important that we’re offering several different types of courses and degrees of study,” Kearney said. “We have six degree programs that are fully online. And for some of our superintendents, particularly those that are further away geographically from the university, it was important to them to be able to offer an online option.”
TAMUSA is investing $100,000 annually in the program for up to 80 seats per year, with the funds coming from the College of Graduate Studies. So far, the program has had between 60 and 70 seats filled per year, and the number of participating districts has also increased.
Graduate students at TAMUSA taking at least three classes per semester pay about $6,650 for tuition and fees, if they are considered resident students, or about $2,216 per class in tuition and fees.
Over the last three years, the university has filled nearly 200 seats in its master’s programs through the partnership. Out of those who entered in year one, Kearney said about 80 or 85% have graduated, with some normal “stopouts” or pauses along the way for different life situations.
Harlandale ISD was among the first districts to sign a memorandum of understanding with TAMUSA for the program in 2023. Melissa Casey, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said she sees it as a great incentive for staff to just get started and realize it takes effort but it is doable.
“I think what this does is it kind of gives people that little edge like I can do this,” Casey said. “And if they start it, I think they realize a year and a half, two years goes quickly and then they could end up with their master’s degree.”
The district reimburses participants for the cost of any textbook needed during the program, but Casey said she’s been impressed with the university’s effort to offer as many free classroom materials as they can.
Each year, she encourages staffers to participate, and while not everyone who joins the informational sessions might sign up, Casey says the district has never had to turn away anyone who chooses to participate.
For Orta, what separated this opportunity from the many other online graduate programs that sometimes filled her inbox was knowing this was a program in her community and for her community, she said. Although her schedule could only accommodate online courses, she knew that she could easily access the professors and program leads locally.
Most of her classmates were also teaching in local school districts. One of them is Jessica Guerra, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Leal Middle School, which is also in Harlandale ISD.
“I had already looked into getting my masters, but the fact that this one was supported by our district spoke to me,” Guerra said. “Harlandale is not just my school district, it’s my home. I came to Harlandale [ISD], my entire family has come here.”
Having that endorsement by the district and the aid paying for textbooks plus that first class was key for Guerra’s decision to join, she said. She is now near the end of her program and about to acquire a master’s degree in educational leadership.
Her goal is to eventually teach dual-credit courses at the high school level to increase access to students from her community and she also sees herself pursuing a doctorate degree. Despite having to have taken on student loans to pursue this degree, Guerra says she sees this as the perfect way to invest in herself and in her students.
“I thought, ‘This is a great way to be a strong leader, to support my students now, but also give myself the ability to support my students in the future,” Guerra said. “It just opened up so many opportunities for me that no other program ever did.”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
