PEER, Donna ISD Assist Unaccompanied Minors In Rio Grande Valley
Story by Dr. Larry Johnson, Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health (PEER)
Remote learning resources produced by the Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health (PEER) Program at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) are being used to educate at-risk youth in Donna Independent School District (ISD), located within Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, near the United States/Mexico border.
PEER’s One Health standards-based curriculum is developed in English and Spanish for middle school students and is disseminated via a mobile-based platform. The curriculum uses engaging tools and a student-centered approach to provide relevant content on the health sciences and environment that is aligned with state learning standards.
Donna Independent School District (ISD) uses PEER’s content in its virtual middle school instruction to bring university-developed assets to rural and at-risk schools, as well as to unaccompanied minors who have crossed the southern U.S. border and are now living at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary immigration facility in Donna, Texas.
Donna ISD has 3,242 middle school students, of whom 99.7% are Hispanic, 79% are at risk for dropping out of school, 94% are economically disadvantaged, and 52.7% have limited English proficiency.
As a PEER partner school district, Donna ISD is incorporating PEER learning resources on cell biology, ecology, and genetics into their instruction for middle school students, high school students needing remediation, and the minors at the temporary immigration facility.
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For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216
