On Friday, September 26th, 2025, over 80 college professors and grad students from Texas Tech and WTAMU, along with high school teachers from Wichita Falls, Lubbock, Canyon, and Amarillo attended the Panhandle Language Teachers Association Fall Kickoff training conference. The event was held in the Education building on the Texas Tech campus and featured four speakers who brought in new teaching strategies, new activities, new ideas, and great motivation for the educators in attendance. Three of the speakers were professors from Texas Tech, the lone high school teacher presenting was Mike Cole of PHS.
Pampa’s Spanish program has become the model for academic success in this part of the United States with overwhelming numbers of college hours earned through not only the National Advanced Placement program (AP), but also the CLEP testing program (College Level Examination Program). PHS currently has many students earning college credit while still in high school by using both nationally recognized programs, and sadly it is the only school in the region taking full advantage of both the AP and CLEP tests to promote student growth.
During his hour-long presentation, Cole provided many details on how teachers in larger districts can expand their language programs by implementing these national exams which encourage our young students to reach higher goals and earn free college credit at the same time! Many teachers in the training were frustrated that even though they are in bigger school districts than Pampa, they had not been able to access the information needed to build a pipeline of talent to implement the Pampa Testing Model.
Pampa’s use of two national exams is a collaboration between Cole and Pampa High School Principal Clay Jones and is supported by PISD Superintendent Hugh Piatt and the Pampa ISD School Board. Ironically, other teachers found their administrators would not embrace advanced learning and were completely against their students receiving college credit while in high school, putting their students at a disadvantage.
Cole answered questions about the success of the Pampa program and the challenges of starting anything new in an established school curriculum. He is proud of the teamwork involved within the Pampa School District to make the Pampa Model so prosperous. It is a matter of pride to know that innovative strategies from PHS are being promoted by Texas Tech and WTAMU and will benefit future students in our region and state.
