 This Month in Lone Star Governance
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Welcome to This Month in Lone Star Governance. These emails highlight current events in the LSG initiative, answer frequently asked questions, and celebrate LSG successes from around the state. If there is a topic you would like to see addressed in an edition of This Month in Lone Star Governance, please let us know by emailing lsg@tea.texas.gov.
If you missed a previous issue of This Month in Lone Star Governance, you can get it on the TEA website here.
In late January, TEA announced the opportunity for districts to submit a Letter of Interest to be a part of the newest Exemplar Cohort. Participation in a cohort includes—among many advantages—reimbursement of up to $10,000 for LSG-related expenses. In February, the deadline to submit a Letter of Interest was delayed to Friday, March 19, 2021.
Membership in the newest Exemplar Cohort is expected to be announced in late April.
In January, we began inviting other TEA initiatives to join our LSG coaches and coach pipeline meetings to introduce themselves and the part they can play in improving student outcomes. In February, our guest was Local Accountability Systems.
Local Accountability System (LAS) allows districts and charter schools to develop local accountability system plans for their campuses. These accountability plans are designed to measure student outcomes, and areas directly related to student outcomes, that are not included in the state accountability system. A local accountability plan provides stakeholders detailed information about school performance and progress over time based on locally determined measures and domains.
At the end of each school year, districts and open-enrollment charter schools assign overall and domain-specific letter grade ratings of A–F for each campus, as outlined in their approved local accountability plans. Campuses with an overall rating of A, B, or C under the state accountability system may combine state and local accountability ratings, with the local accountability rating counting for up to 50% of the final accountability rating. Local accountability campus ratings do not affect the state accountability system rating at the district level.
For more information, please the Local Accountability System page on the TEA website.
In January, we began inviting other TEA initiatives to join our LSG coaches and coach pipeline meetings to introduce themselves and the part they can play in improving student outcomes. In March, our guest was the Resilient Schools Support Program.
For LEAs seeking deeper support on COVID recovery and unfinished learning, the Resilient Schools Support Program offers customized technical assistance and biweekly coaching in several areas:
- Understanding the impacts of COVID on unfinished learning by analyzing data and community needs
- Building COVID recovery and acceleration plans around priority support areas (e.g., key schools, grades, subject areas)
- Developing training and coaching supports for campus staff
- Running continuous improvement cycles to learn and iterate over the course of the school year
RSSP coaching is tailored to the needs as an LEA, and could include strategic interventions in tier one instruction, curriculum supports, teacher development, strategic scheduling and staffing, special populations support, and other related topics.
For more information, please contact rssp@tea.texas.gov
Next month, we'll learn about the Effective District Framework
One year after COVID-19 changed the world's normal ways of life, at least temporarily, we have had an opportunity to take a look back and consider LSG's ability to weather the pandemic. We think you'll be pleased with what we learned about what we have all accomplished together.
Despite the inability to meet in person for much of that time, social distancing, and other safety guidelines, and despite the countless hours and intense focus districts needed to ensure student safety and continued learning, LSG has seen growth over the past year.
In January 2020, we had 21 LSG coaches. Today we have 25.
In January 2020, we had 28 coaches in the pipeline. Today we have 60.
In January 2020, we had 61 LSG districts. Today we have 82, impacting 1,054,120 students!
When COVID-related interruptions to our daily life set in, we were all unsure what to expect and how, exactly, to move forward. Twelve months later, due to the commitment of our coaches, we can all look back on what we were able to accomplish—despite the difficult circumstances—to improve student outcomes.
The LSG Leaderboard recognizes governance teams with the highest level of success changing their behaviors to improve student outcomes. Usually updated quarterly, the leaderboard was last updated in February 2020 with results from the third quarter of 2019. To align with the schedule above for LSG activities, we are planning to update the leaderboard again in May 2021 with results from the first quarter of 2021.
Once a trustee completes one of the trainings required by the State Board of Education or Texas Legislature, to whom at the Texas Education Agency should verification of completion be sent? Is it the same after an LSG workshop?
For the trainings required by the State Board of Education or Texas Legislature, the training provider is responsible for providing the trustees with a verification of completion that must include which training was completed, the date, and the provider number of the person or organization that provided the training. It is each district's responsibility keep records of their trustees' training. There is no need for providers or districts to send this verification to TEA unless specifically asked to do so.
For Lone Star Governance workshops, the requirements are a little different. Upon completion of an LSG workshop, the LSG coach should submit the sign-in sheets, pre- and post-evaluation, and copies of all LSG certificates to TEA.
Learn more at http://tea.texas.gov/lsg
See more frequently asked questions at the link below.
Join us for the next episode of This Month in Lone Star Governance in which we'll have a closer look at the Effective Districts Framework Program.
Thank you for subscribing to the LSG news bulletin
and for your commitment to serving Texas students.
lsg@tea.texas.gov
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