Strong Foundations Newsletter - AP/ESC

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Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities (LASO) Program

May 2024

Strong Foundations Newsletter

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Greetings!

We are excited to be entering the month of May! Thank you for your support and participation thus far in the 2024-2025 LASO grant cycle. As more and more of our LEAs decide on their Approved Providers for this cycle, we want to reinforce that we are here to support you all through the process. This month marks the first milestone of our grants: the submission of an executed contract. We look forward to receiving those from our participating LEAs and look forward to our touchpoints with you all through Office Hours, Monthly Meetings and training.  

Warm regards, 

Strong Foundations Program Team 


Milestones

Joint Strong Foundations Milestones  

Past due: Readiness Assessment: This survey is required by LEAs to submit to TEA. If you have contracted with an LEA, you can see if they have completed this step on the NEW AP Dashboard for our organization, under the column “Readiness Inventory Survey” on the Contracted Planning LEA Deliverable Report.  

Executed Contracts are due May 17, 2024. Once you have a contract with an LEA, have them upload their Executed Contract to their Google Drive Folder and share their Google folder link with you. 

  • When you have access to the Planning LEAs Google Folder, please fill out the Deliverables Form with the link to the Executed Contract and the email address of the AP District Lead who is leading the planning work with that LEA. If an LEA you are supporting needs us to send their Google Folder link to them again, please have them reach out to us with that request at strongfoundations@tea.texas.gov 
  • Note: Strong Foundations Planning and Strong Foundations Implementation have individual Deliverables Forms. Please ensure you are only turning Planning deliverables into the Planning Deliverables Form and implementation deliverables into the Implementation Deliverables Form. 
  • Note: Strong Foundations Implementation: Given the recent errata, we know that contracts may not be completed by May 17. Please work with your LEA partners to submit executed contracts as soon as possible. 

(Optional) Office Hours – Have questions? Need support? Join the SFP and SFI teams in Office Hours offered the second and fourth Monday of every month.  May 13 and 20, 9:00–9:30 a.m. CT - Registration Link 

Strong Foundations Planning Milestones

RBIS Redelivery to LEAs: Approved Providers must follow this new process. 

RBIS LEA Redelivery Form: Once you have contracted with an LEA, please work with them to schedule the Redelivery of the RBIS training to their committee. Once you know when you are redelivering the RBIS you must submit the RBIS LEA Redelivery Schedule with that plan before redelivery. 

SY 24/25 LEA Pre & Post RBIS Survey Form: During your RBIS redelivery to an LEA please use this new RBIS Pre & Post Survey it is to use used before the redelivery and directly after the completion of the redelivery.  

RBIS LEA Redelivery Attendance Form: After completion of the RBIS redelivery all Approved Providers must submit the RBIS LEA Redelivery Attendance Report 

IMPORTANT RBIS UPDATE: We have learned that the May 14-16 will include the UDL updates, so any trainers who attend the May 14-16 training will NOT need to register for and take the RBIS refresher that is scheduled to drop May 31st. We apologize for any confusion. 

If you have any questions about this new process, please reach out to strongfoundations@tea.texas.gov.

Strong Foundations Implementation Milestones

LEA Milestone Dates (FYI)

  • May 2: The final set of Strong Start training sessions for LEA leaders will take place May 2. If leaders did not attend previous sessions, they are required to attend May 1–2 offering.  
  • July 31: LEA participant registration due. Registration will be done by LEAs by using the LASO Strong Foundations Implementation Contact Form. 

Upcoming AP Training Opportunities 

  • Implementation Advisor Certification (register for the session): 
    • IA Cohort 5: May 13–17 
    • IA Cohort 6: July 22–26
  • Product Advisor Certification (register for the session): 
    • Carnegie PA Cohort 1: June 10–14 (6–12 Math Only) 
    • Cohort 5: July 8–12 (K–5 RLA, K–5 Math, 6–12 Math) 
  • Product Trainings (register for the session):  
    • Amplify: April 22-23 [FULL] 
    • Carnegie: May 8-9 [FULL] 
    • Eureka: May 20-21 [FULL] 
    • Carnegie: May 22-23 [FULL] 
    • (New) Carnegie: May 28-29 
    • Amplify: May 29-30 [FULL] 
    • (New) Carnegie: June 20-21 
    • (New) Carnegie: July 15-16 
    • (New) Carnegie: July 22-23 
    • We are currently working to add additional summer product trainings and will share new dates as soon as they are confirmed.

If you are currently supporting LASO Cycle 1 LEAs (SY23-24) in SFI:  

May surveys for leaders, teachers and coaches will be available from Friday, May 10 to Friday, May 31. This will be the last quarterly survey of the program and will provide extremely helpful feedback for us to improve our programming and supports offered to our LEAs. The survey will be both available via a direct email sent to LEA contacts and in their TEALearn. Please encourage your LEA partners to check their email and TEALearn inbox on May 10th for a link to take the survey. Thank you for your continuing support!


Reminders & Next Steps

SF Planning:

(Required) AP Monthly Meeting – Next meeting is May 31 @ 9:00 a.m. Connect with other APs as we head to breakout rooms to explore topics such as RBIS, deliverable deep dive, and more. All SF Managers and AP District leads are required to attend monthly meetings. Click here to register.

Miss an AP Monthly Meeting? Watch the recording, review the slide deck, and fill out this form to remain in compliance with attendance.

(Optional) LEA Panel – May 14 @ 10:00 a.m. Listen to district leaders from past Strong Foundations Planning grant cycles talk about their journey through SFP and the impact it has had on their LEA. This is an informal session where participants will engage in conversation with the panelists. Click here to register.

Diagnostic Training Update:

The SFP Current State Analysis Diagnostic Training is currently scheduled for June 17th & 18th. The training duration has been reduced to one, three-hour training. All SFP Approved Provider District Leads must attend this training and pass a certification quiz. The SFP Approved Provider District Lead can choose to attend the June 17th session from 9:00-12:00 or the June 18th session from 1:00-4:00. During the training we will share the latest guidance and resources for conducting a high-quality current state analysis. We will also outline what the Academic Review is and how to determine if a district you support could benefit from it during the Strong Foundations Planning grant cycle. The training length has been adjusted based on your feedback regarding training length and a shift in agency strategy for the diagnostics workstream.

RBIS Training Update:

Summer registration for RBIS ToT training is currently open and some sessions are filling up quickly! Make sure to register your personnel for one of the 4 trainings available here. For the sake of space, please limit your organization’s registrations to no more than 12 facilitators per training session. We strongly encourage those who are able to attend the in-person trainings for the most robust RBIS experience.

Summer 2024 RBIS Training Dates

  • Virtual: May 14-16
  • In-Person (San Antonio/ESC 20): June 4-6
  • Virtual: June 25-27
  • In-Person (Dallas/ESC 10): July 30-August 1

SF Implementation:

(Required for SF Managers, Product Advisors, and AP District Leads) AP Monthly Meeting – Stay on top of the latest updates in SFI and participate in learning and collaboration to help you support strong HQIM implementation in your partner LEAs. Moving forward, monthly meetings for Product Advisors and Implementation Advisors will be held at the same time in two separate sessions. Please use the links below to register for one of the sessions.


Resources

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 Mark Your Calendar!

You can find the following trainings on our Interactive calendar.