About Texas Empowerment Academy

How We Empower our Students and Their Families

Texas Empowerment Academy (TXEA) was founded in 1998 to provide children with an innovative alternative for educational excellence in grades K-12. Our focus on promoting community and self-responsibility ensures that our students feel supported and confident in their abilities, setting them up for success in all aspects of life.

Often, the change in a student’s achievements is a matter of our being accessible to them and eliminating the negative issues they face in less stable environments. Many students labeled “uneducable” can thrive academically and socially in our halls. Experts have closely linked good academics with students’ social and mental well-being. Understanding a student’s social, mental, emotional, and academic needs is a main priority of our program. Many students benefit from the family environment, feeling both valued and accepted.

There are two sides to education: academic and social. With the introduction of social media, the epidemic of less engaged adult supervision, a hyper awareness of the press, and the myriad of issues children face, students’ emotional well-being has plummeted. Giving children access to attentive human interaction and positive academic support means our students do better than they would in larger, less personable schools.

Understanding a student’s social-emotional needs is a main priority of our program. Many students benefit from the family environment, feeling both valued and accepted. Our organization has facilitated stability for many students and their families for the last three decades by offering an empowerment system that allows access to self-help opportunities for social, emotional, spiritual, and economic growth.

Our History in East Austin

Our first location was at 1210 Rosewood Avenue, where we kicked a hole in the house’s wall to create a classroom for just 7 middle school students. This area, designated as an official slum and blight area by the City Council, was home to many of our families who were living below the poverty line and faced daily incidents of violence and deprivation. Our intention to actively involve ourselves in community revitalization helped us grow to 40 students, and we relocated to 1010 E 10th Street at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where we rented two rooms. A year later, we doubled to 87 students and required even more square footage from Ebenezer Baptist Church to support the expansion.

Eventually, we had the opportunity to purchase a building at 3613 Bluestein Drive, where we welcomed 200 students. This new home became our Primary Campus. Still, we needed to rent an additional 4500 square feet from Hope Lutheran Church to support our explosive enrollment. Hope Lutheran became our Secondary Campus, and in 2023, we rented even more space from Greater Calvary Bible Church for our Pre-K 4 students.

In 2022, we broke ground at 5800 East Parmer Lane in northeast Austin. Until then, the last investment in a majority African American educational institution in Austin, TX, was in the late 1800s. Before construction began, we conducted a demographic study to determine where to best position ourselves to access Austin’s black population. The study found that Austin’s Black population decreased from 16% to less than 5% in only three years. Due to extreme gentrification in East Austin, the increased cost of living, and the effects of the tech industry on the local job market, black families began migrating to Eastern Travis County. In January 2024, we held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the state-of-the-art Roland C. Hayes campus, capable of educating up to 1,200 students from Pre-K through 12th grade. It stands as a testament to Texas Empowerment’s commitment to excellence in education.