Grayson College is a lead regional partner in a three-year effort to help Texoma students connect their high school classes to college and a job sooner, the college announced Sept. 28. A $1 million Greater Texas Foundation grant to Economic Mobility Center pays for the project, according to the college's announcement.
Grayson plans to strengthen advising and line up its dual-credit courses more closely. The college also wants more students to learn through work-based programs.
The Greater Texas Foundation lists Howard College as a partner as well. Economic Mobility Center is building a shared data system so the partners can follow students from high school into jobs. The foundation says the project should leave behind systems that keep advising and school-to-work links running after the grant ends.
Grayson's main campus is in Denison, with a South Campus in Van Alstyne. The college taught more than 1,200 dual-credit students from 15 school districts in the 2024-25 year. It reports a 90% successful course-completion rate for that group, defined as grades of A, B, C or P, according to its student-achievement data.
Cooke County students have a similar program at North Central Texas College. NCTC's Red River Promise serves graduates of participating high schools in three counties and offers success coaching in high school and college, according to NCTC. It sets no family-income limit. After other aid, it covers the tuition and general-use fees still owed for two years or 60 credit hours. It does not pay for books, supplies, transportation or housing. NCTC counted more than 120 Cooke County students in the program in fall 2022, nearly three-quarters more than a year earlier.
The new project grows out of Texoma Promise, which Grayson started on Dec. 15, 2021, to open tuition-free college to more students. At the launch, the college said Greater Texas Foundation money backed the program and that it drew on the Dallas County Promise and Alamo Promise models. That same year, the foundation gave more than $3 million to The Commit Partnership to bring the Promise model to three rural colleges: Grayson, NCTC and Tyler Junior College, according to the foundation's 2021 annual report.
Dual credit has grown fast statewide. A Texas A&M University System analysis counted about 14 times as many dual-credit students at Texas public colleges and universities in fall 2024 as in fall 2000. They made up close to one in five of all students enrolled. House Bill 8, passed in 2023, rewrote how the state funds community colleges. The outcomes it now pays for include students who finish 15 qualifying dual-credit hours, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The board's FAST program covers tuition, fees and books for eligible dual-credit classes taken by educationally disadvantaged students at participating schools, so those students pay nothing for the coursework.
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