Public-Private Effort Helps Texas High Schools

A new phase is getting under way in an ambitious project to help Texas students succeed in high school and graduate ready for college and the workforce.

The Texas High School Project is an initiative, endorsed in November 2003 by Gov. Rick Perry and leaders of the legislature, to coordinate more than $60 million in state-managed grants for high school improvement with similar investments by several large philanthropies.

A charity serving as the manager for much of the private money, the Dallas-based Communities Foundation of Texas, will make its first high school awards, totaling $21.5 million, late this month or in June, according to John Fitzpatrick, a Communities Foundation of Texas official who serves as the executive director of the private side of...