This Month's CAO Newsletter
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What's New This Issue
Career and Technical Education
The refreshed programs of study are now final. TEA has created the 2024-2025 Programs of Study Change Crosswalk for district leaders to use as a planning guide for the upcoming school year. The spreadsheet includes changes to the refreshed programs of study that will take effect with the 2024-25 school year as well as course level changes included in the 2023-2024 school year. The 2024-25 finalized programs of study framework documents will be posted on the website later this year.
HB 1605 Implementation
House Bill (HB) 1605, 88th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2023, addresses Instructional Materials Review and Approval (IMRA), as well as the extension of additional state aid to school districts for the provision of certain instructional materials. Since the bill’s passage, the State Board of Education has been working to define the new process and criteria for IMRA.
On December 13th the board reviewed the draft rules for first reading with the goal of finalizing rules and the process by April 2024. The agency plans to host a series of webinars on relevant HB 1605 topics this spring to help districts understand and navigate the changes to the rules for instructional materials adoption.
LASO Cycle II
LASO Cycle II application opened on October 23, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. and closed on December 7, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. CST. Unique application links were sent to Superintendents, on October 23rd, according to contact information provided in AskTED. If a Superintendent did not receive a unique link, they may request a unique link through this survey form. The LASO Cycle II website holds all the information relating to the grant offerings, including program guidelines, expanded descriptions, and resources for each grant. All general and program webinar recordings and decks are also available for review.
Proclamation 2024
This past November, the State Board of Education (SBOE) voted to adopt over 150 materials under Proclamation 2024 for kindergarten–grade 12 science, kindergarten–grade 6 technology applications, several career and technical education courses, and Personal Financial Literacy and Economics. The adopted materials were reviewed over the summer to determine the extent to which they cover the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and applicable English Language Proficiency Standards. As a condition of adoption, publishers are required to correct all identified errors, make all agreed upon editorial changes, add new content that was reviewed and approved by the state review panels, and ensure the materials are accessible to students with disabilities. The list of adopted materials is available on the TEA website.
Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA)
In 2022-23, over $145 million funds from the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) were awarded to districts for over 12,500 exceptional teachers across the state – more than doubling the funding awarded the previous year. Since 2019, TEA has awarded $284 million through the Teacher Incentive Allotment.
In Fall 2023, 338 school districts proposed teachers for a TIA designation. Currently, 481 districts are participating in TIA.
Districts who are interested in applying to develop a TIA system or expanding their existing TIA system can learn more at https://tiatexas.org/ or by emailing the TIA inbox at tia@tea.texas.gov.
Texas Strategic Leadership
Texas Strategic Leadership is focused on supporting superintendents and their leadership teams to engage stakeholders and strengthen change management through the strategic planning process. This includes access to executive coaching, an Effective District Framework aligned landscape analysis, creation of a district-wide strategic plan and an aligned measurement and implementation plan.
Texas Strategic Leadership (TSL) is currently piloting with 35 LEAs across 11 regions in the state with plans to grow to 19 regions in school year 2024-2025.
Engagement Opportunities
Open Education Resources (OER)
We are looking for more educators to help us review our Open Education Resources (OER) K-5 Reading Language Arts (RLA) curriculum.
Participants who are interested in participating can sign up by submitting their information and weekly availability via the reviewer application link. As you may know, TEA is collaborating with Education Service Center 13 for this review process, therefore each reviewer will receive a contract and be compensated for their time through ESC 13. The reviews are planned to last until February 2024. If you or your educators want to participate, please have them sign up using the link.
Instructional Materials Review and Adoption (IMRA)
We are also beginning to recruit interested educators in our Instructional Materials Review and Adoption process.
Interested parties may fill out this form to express their interest in becoming an IMRA reviewer. The review process will begin in April 2024 and is expected to last until July 2024. Reviewers for the IMRA process can also expect to be compensated for their time. If you or your educators want to participate in the IMRA review process, please have them sign up using the link. To learn more about the IMRA process, visit our website.
Site Visits
This fall, TEA staff had the opportunity to visit two small rural districts to learn about implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM): Paint Rock ISD and Mount Calm ISD. These visits allowed staff to gain insight on the support needs of small districts with more limited staff and resources and to learn how these districts utilize existing TEA and ESC supports to implement HQIM in the classrooms. We are looking forward to continuing to explore how to better support districts of all sizes. If you are interested in potentially hosting a TEA site visit sign up here.
Paint Rock ISD visit attendees
Teacher’s Tips Spotlight
We want to hear from you! We would love to hear examples of how teachers have been using the productive struggle to enhance student learning. To be featured in an upcoming Chief Academic Officer Newsletter, submit your story and pictures using our form.
Update Your Contact Information
Stay up to date with the latest curriculum and instruction announcements from TEA. Keep your contact information current by letting us know any changes.
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