The Best

Dr. Karen Watt is a passionate runner, bicyclist and Ironman Triathlon competitor but the roles she finds most fulfilling are those of educator and researcher – especially when they lead to improved academic success for underrepresented students. . .

Watt is an associate professor of educational leadership at The University of Texas-Pan American, where she helps prepare graduate students to be top-notch education professionals. Watt also is one of the nation’s most respected educational researchers as director of the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) National Special Research Projects Center.

AVID is a highly successful college readiness program now implemented in 4,000 schools in 45 states and in 16 countries. Locally, it has been adopted by 61 middle and high schools in the Rio Grande Valley.

A fan of academic and peer support for academic success

“I am very passionate about AVID, what it does for students, and about college success. I want to know how we can improve our educational system and how I can be part of that. I want to get the word out there to say this is what works, this is how we prepare more kids for college, and how we get more college graduates” Watt said.

AVID was established in 1980 by a San Diego, Calif., English teacher, Mary Catherine Swanson, as a means to support underserved students in her recently desegregated suburban high school. Instead of adopting lower standards for her new students, most from lower socio-economic backgrounds, Swanson developed academic and peer support for the students incorporating an AVID elective class.

In the AVID class, students learn organizational skills, such as listening, note taking and working in groups. The class also provides academic help from college-age tutors who not only answer questions but also serve as role models. The AVID curriculum focuses on writing, inquiry, collaboration and reading. In addition, professional development is provided to AVID teachers who then train other teachers in their schools in the program’s learning methodologies. Of Swanson’s first class of 30 students, 28 graduated and entered college.

“The idea behind AVID is that students whose parents did not go to college don’t have that knowledge of needed curriculum, how to navigate the system, how to prepare and apply, all those things to get ready for college. That is what AVID does. It targets students who are first generation college goers,” Watt said.

Watt began working with AVID in 1999 when it was implemented in the Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District. She later served as the director of the AVID Texas office.

A pioneer in AVID research

“Karen was really instrumental in spreading the word of AVID through Texas, and now she is one of the renowned researchers and experts in AVID itself. Most of the research on AVID, you will always be referenced to or see Dr. Karen Watt’s name pushing AVID forward,” said Dr. Aliber Lozano, a UTPA alumnus who served as the assistant state AVID director under Watt and now is national director of Professional Development at AVID Center in San Diego.

Last year, the university recognized Watt’s expertise in research with the 2008-2009 College of Education Distinguished Research Award and the UTPA College Excellence Award in Research.

The AVID National Special Research Projects Center at UTPA publishes and disseminates focused state and national research on AVID programs and AVID student performance. The reports, which are published on the center’s Web site avid.utpa.edu, indicate the AVID approach is working, Watt said.

Discovering positive changes to produce student success

A study conducted and released by the center of the initial four-year implementation of AVID in seven schools in Texas showed how that program helped those schools make positive changes in policy, culture and student achievement. Their research also found that the more professional development was being done with teachers, the higher the achievement of AVID students on average than the rest of the school population.

“We have found that AVID students are more likely to take AP (Advanced Placement) classes, complete their college eligibility requirements, and get into four-year colleges than similar performing students who don’t take AVID,” Watt added.

Watt was also one of the initial planners to institute post-secondary AVID strategies. As project director of UTPA’s Quality Enhancement Plan, an initiative to improve student outcomes in developmental math classes, Watt worked to incorporate the AVID strategies of an extra class hour (like the AVID elective class), peer tutoring and professional development for faculty into the plan, which also included other learning enhancements. Failure rates in the courses at UTPA have since gone from a high of 85 percent to 30 percent, said Watt.

Her research and expansive dissemination of the results through publications and presentations has helped lead to a whole systematic approach of AVID post-secondary that is being piloted this summer by The University of Texas System and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

A role model and mentor

Her department chair, Dr. Velma Menchaca, describes Watt as “very driven” and committed to her work and to the students.

“She is a great role model and mentor for students. She practices what she preaches. She is also a great leader and gets colleagues to get on board,” Menchaca said.

Watt came to the Rio Grande Valley in 1985 from Indiana, where she graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind. with a degree in physical education and biology. She moved to McAllen, where her grandparents lived, and taught biology and coached track and cross country, a sport she excelled in, at a number of Valley high schools.

Watt continued her education earning a Master of Education degree in physical education from UTPA and a doctorate in educational leadership from UT Austin. Watt also obtained mid-management and superintendent certifications from UTPA and was an assistant principal and principal at area schools. She was hired at UTPA in 1999.

In addition to her research, Watt teaches graduate students seeking doctoral degrees in educational leadership and has served as a frequent doctoral dissertation committee member and sometimes chair.

“I want them to have a good experience in the program and put out a quality dissertation. I want them to become an educational leader who has the background that he or she needs to move their district or institution forward. We can’t do that if we just sugarcoat it and pass students on through,” Watt said.

Dr. Doris Mendiola, who earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership and is now a program evaluator with the UTPA GEAR UP Project, worked with Watt on AVID research projects and had Watt serve as her dissertation chair. She described Watt as a true academic leader, an amazing educator and an outstanding role model for students and the community.

“She provides incredible knowledge to her students by making learning relevant and personal and takes time to explain the process which one needs to follow in order to achieve success,” she said. “As a dissertation chair, Dr. Watt is demanding with high standards. She has high expectations of her students’ work and works endlessly to provide feedback in order to refine student work.”

Lozano said he wouldn’t have a doctorate at all if it weren’t for Watt’s encouragement and her habit of seeing the potential in every student from elementary school to doctoral level.

“At a recent AVID conference in San Antonio, we talked about the challenges Latinos have and they really don’t have aspirations for seeking a doctoral degree because they don’t know they can. During my introduction, I recognized Dr. Watt for literally putting the doctoral application in my face and saying ‘You are going to complete this.’ If it wasn’t for that kick, I don’t know that I would have attained my doctoral degree and be at the position that I am right now,” he said.

Describing Watt as his teacher first, then his colleague and, now, also his friend, Lozano said he particularly appreciated Watt’s complete absorption of the Latino culture.

“She has really embraced and spread that culture around. She is open, warm and loving to the Valley community but also she travels around the country and is a true representative not only of UT Pan American but the culture that exists in the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “Plus, she makes a mean pot of charro beans.”

To learn more about Watt and the preparation of educational leaders, go to the College of Education Web site at www.utpa.edu/coe. For information on AVID and AVID research, go to avid.utpa.edu.