TEC, The Tillamook Education Consortium, is comprised of five partners. The three Tillamook County public school districts, (Neah Kah Nie, Nestucca, and Tillamook), Tillamook Bay Community College and the Northwest Regional Education Service District. Several innovative educational opportunities for K-14 students have been developed and are currently maintained by TEC.
In an effort to better serve the student populations of these joint efforts, in 2004 TEC has funded curriculum development with an emphasis on student generated project-based learning. The encompassing theme of the curriculum is "Watershed", due to the abundance of natural resources in Tillamook County. Using science as the anchoring content area, the curriculum is designed to give students alternative methods of earning credits to meet the graduation requirements of all three Tillamook County public school systems.
The curriculum is WEB based and designed to allow instructors and students the freedom to work independently. Each student is expected to be the steward of her or his education. The need for a viable curriculum for TEC's alternative programs provided the impetus for the curriculum development. However, all or part of the Watershed curriculum may be used in traditional educational programs as well.