Overview
The Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC) provided technical assistance, professional development, and support services to the Texas Education Agency under grant number S283B050020 from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for 7 years. TXCC's work with Texas focused on educator quality and effectiveness, statewide systems of support; English language learners and other diverse students; literacy, mathematics, and science initiatives; early-warning data systems; college and career ready standards and aligned assessments; and support to facilitate implementation of, and compliance with, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). For more information, refer to the Project Overviews, which are organized by work years.
Resources
As part of the technical assistance and information dissemination work with Texas, TXCC provided numerous online and multimedia resources as well as regional events to aid SDE staff in increasing their knowledge and capacity in key areas. Resources included newsletters, briefing papers, and reports. Events addressed topics such as designing and implementing teacher evaluation systems, Response to Intervention, school turnaround, and English as a second language. To access archives of these resources, click the link below.
Briefing Papers
Briefing papers are developed, in collaboration with staff from SEDL's Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC), to address challenges identified by educators and TEA staff. Each publication is announced through an email campaign and published on the TXCC and SECC websites.
View Previous Texas CC briefing papers
View Previous Southeast CC briefing papers
Rapid Response Service
The Texas CC provides prompt responses and research-based information to address specific policy and NCLB implementation questions posed by TEA staff. This service is designed to assist them in addressing queries from policymakers or school district personnel, as well as to help inform them on aspects of their own work.
Project Overviews
- October 2010 to September 2012
- October 2005 to September 2010
Early Warning Data System (EWDS)
The Early Warning Data System (EWDS) tool enables schools and districts to collect data related to research-based indicators that identify students who are at risk as potential dropouts.
More about Early Warning Data System (EWDS) »
Educator Effectiveness
The TXCC collaborates with TEA to improve educator effectiveness in three broad areas—through the educator preparation programs, as well as teacher and principal evaluation systems.
More about Educator Effectiveness »
ESEA Management Institute
The ESEA Management Institute, designed to provide information on NCLB programs to school districts and ESC staff, was developed by TEA with assistance from TXCC staff partners.
More about ESEA Management Institute »
Family and Community Engagement
Family and community engagement is promoted through the Title I Statewide Parent Focus Group (SPFG) and multiple venues throughout the state to increase authentic family and community involvement for student success.
More about Family and Community Engagement »
Revising Career and Technical Education (CTE) Standards, Grades 6–12
The TXCC is collaborating with TEA to create and refine a process for writing and aligning Career and Technical Education (CTE) Educator Standards to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). This process will be used for each of CTE course clusters.
More about Revising Career and Technical Education (CTE) Standards, Grades 6–12 »
School Support Team Training Material
The School Support Team (SST) Training Manual was created by the TXCC at the request of TEA, to provide consistency among SSTs throughout the state.
More about School Support Team Training Material »
Stepping Stones
Stepping Stones is a program for 3- and 4-year-old migrant children in Texas. The lessons, in English and Spanish, are aligned to the Revised Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.
Years 2005 through 2010 Overview
From 2005 through 2010 the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC) worked with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to assist in the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. Part of that work included helping to build capacity among the Texas network of 20 regional education service centers (ESCs). To that end, the TXCC provided numerous professional development sessions around leadership and instructional practices, some of which focused on linguistic accommodations for English language learners (ELs) and support for ELs in mathematics and science. The center also hosted three forums, one summit, and numerous meetings of ESC clusters, all focused on training ESC leaders to guide schools in working systemically to improve students’ academic achievement. At the request of TEA, the methods used in the systemic improvement work were incorporated into a school support team (SST) training manual to be used statewide in training teams to work with schools in need of support.
As part of its mission to build capacity of the state education agency, the TXCC instituted a partnership program to help increase effectiveness and audience engagement in presentations delivered by TEA staff. The center also assisted TEA in planning and hosting several NCLB management institutes and guided TEA staff in developing effective webinars. TXCC facilitated interactions between TEA and various content centers in the CC network through local meetings and by enabling TEA staff to attend conferences held by the centers. Working with several offices in TEA, the TXCC provided targeted technical assistance on RtI to increase TEA’s capacity to develop RtI policy and guidance; access research-based information, models, and resources; and build interdepartmental and cross-agency collaboration around RtI implementation in Texas. Finally, the TXCC supported and strengthened collaboration among the entities working to provide a statewide system of support for schools in need of improvement. Through its work with the Texas Action Group (TAG), the TXCC facilitated regular meetings of those entities to reduce duplication of effort and leverage resources.
