Texas Strategic Alignment Team
TXCC will provide technical assistance to support TEA's development and implementation of a strategic alignment system to support district capacity-building through accurate diagnosis of districts' needs and strategic alignment and deployment of TEA resources. The initiative will result in a geographically specific data showing clusters of chronically low-performing schools, a team of TEA and TXCC staff who can replicate the data interface based on project needs, a cross-divisional project team to lead the district capacity-building portfolio, a strategic decision-making process, articulated communications protocols and processes, and a plan for leveraging the State's flexibility waiver and HB 1842 to support the district capacity-building portfolio.
Previous Work Updates
2016
July
The TSAT Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and TXCC attended the 2016 Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Users Conference in San Diego, California, in order to connect with other GIS practitioners from around the globe and learn about the latest offerings in GIS analytics. Concurrently, the TXCC project team continued planning and recruiting for the TSAT-based Systems Leadership Academy (SLA) to be held in Chicago, Illinois, in late October 2016. In the SLA, TSAT members will collaborate with partners from five other states who are also engaged in spatial analysis and systems alignment work.
June
The technical teams from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the TXCC attended the Esri Users’ Conference in San Diego, California to develop a professional development sequence for 2016-17. Additionally, TXCC brainstormed the functionality it would like to recommend for the TEA Geo Hub the TSAT is designing with our external consultant, Blue Raster.
May
The TSAT team convened to provide feedback on the study of high-performing, high-progress Title I schools in the Rio Grande Valley and continued brainstorming the content and functionality for the GIS-based strategic planning tool.
April
TSAT members convened in April for a half-day session with Blue Raster, a geographic information systems (GIS) consultant group. During the session, TSAT members identified user needs and reporting functionality that they would like to see in the strategic planning and differentiation tool Blue Raster is developing for the team. TSAT will reconvene in late May to refine the specifications and reportage.
March
The Texas Strategic Alignment Team did not convene in the month of March. However, members from each division are compiling their specific data reportage and analysis needs in order to inform the next steps of the GIS tool development process.
February
The Texas Strategic Alignment Team (TSAT) convened in February in order to build out the specifications for its customized geographic information system (GIS) strategic planning tool. Team members provided specific feedback on their audience, functionality, data sets to be integrated, and needs specific to communicating effectively with legislators. The team will be meeting again in early April to give feedback on the first prototype.
January
The Texas Strategic Alignment Team (TSAT) did not meet in January. However, leadership from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and TXCC collaborated to secure external support for the second phase of the Texas strategic planning tool. TSAT will convene again in mid-February.
2015
December
The Texas Strategic Alignment Team (TSAT) convened for the third time in mid-December. TXCC staff presented an initial draft of an extensive Region 1 case study to be conducted later in the Spring of 2016. Members reframed the study to focus on district capacities and will revisit the plan again in mid-February. The TSAT also began brainstorming coordination efforts in San Antonio as well as design specs to be built into the next iteration of the place-based strategic planning tool. TSAT will be meeting with GIS consultants in February to build out the design of the strategic planning tool.
November
The Texas Strategic Alignment Team (TSAT) has identified five “hot spots” around the state where the multiple divisions will be focusing their alignment and collaboration efforts. Each hot spot presents unique geographic, political, and resource challenges. The TSAT’s mission is to improve the state’s differentiated support. The TSAT elected to focus on two hot spots first: the Rio Grande Valley and Bexar County. Based on the TSAT’s input, the TXCC has developed a framework for executing a large-scale case study in the Rio Grande Valley. The TSAT is set to approve the plan in early December.
October
October marked the inaugural convening of the Texas Strategic Alignment team (TSAT). Utilizing collaboratively designed geographic information system (GIS) maps depicting the landscape of school performance in the State of Texas, the TSAT identified five “hot spots” that would serve as priority geographies for the next 12 to 18 months of work. The team will begin its coordination and alignment efforts in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio, Texas.
