Shirley Beckwith
Communications Associate
Shirley Beckwith is a Communications Associate with SEDL's Improving School Performance program. Ms. Beckwith works with the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC). Her duties for the TXCC include leading teams that provide Rapid Responses to queries from the Texas Education Association (TEA), providing and reviewing content for the TXCC Web pages, editing materials used for meetings and trainings, and preparing the Center’s materials for the annual national evaluation.
Contact Information
You may contact Shirley Beckwith at 512-391-6505
Ms. Beckwith's areas of expertise include information management, editing, spreadsheets and databases, and technology support.
- Information Management/Editing: Ms. Beckwith heads the Rapid Response service that the TXCC provides to the TEA and other state education entities. She assists the TXCC with the production, editing, and archiving of training materials and resources for meetings, and also prepares materials for submission to national evaluators. Her work on the TXCC Web site includes providing and/or reviewing content for uploading to the various pages of the site.
- Technology: Ms. Beckwith is often called on to assist staff members who have questions or problems with various computer applications and does some informal capacity building on using various applications.
Prior to joining SEDL's comprehensive centers in March 2006, Ms. Beckwith worked for a different SEDL project and was responsible for updating and maintaining the online databases for the awardees of federal Smaller Learning Communities (SLC), Reading First, and Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) grants. For the SLC records, she monitored the creation of written profiles and supplied directory and demographic information. She also assisted with literature collection and entry into the Connection Collection online database of school-family-community publications.
Ms. Beckwith's previous experience includes working in the Zoology Department at the University of Texas (UT) as a research associate for more than 30 years. She later worked for several years at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs as the coordinator and researcher for the Guide to Texas State Agencies. Prior to joining SEDL in December 2003, she worked as a cataloger at the Texas Natural Resource and Conservation Commission Library. Education
Ms. Beckwith received a BS in zoology and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin. SEDL Publications
- Research-Based Strategies for Teaching Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics to ELs at the Secondary Level: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 9 (2012)
- The Use of Student Perceptual Data as a Measure of Teaching Effectiveness: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 8 (2012)
- Class Time and Student Learning: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 6 (2011)
- Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 7 (2011)
- Teenage Parents and Their Educational Attainment: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 5 (2011)
- Alternative High Schools in Rural Areas: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 3 (2010)
- Parent and Community Involvement in a College/Career–Ready Culture: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 2 (2010)
- Support Student Transition From Middle to High School: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 1 (2010)
- Title III Supplemental Funds: Creative Ways to Support the Education of English Language Learners in Texas Schools: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 4 (2010)
- Rapid Response: School Restructuring (2009)
- Working Systemically Online Survey (2009)
- Rapid Response: Eighth-Grade Technology Literacy Assessment (2008)
- Rapid Response: Summative Teacher Evaluation (2008)
- Working Systemically in Action: A Guide for Facilitators (2008)
