 Welcome
This newsletter compiles the most up-to-date information concerning what EPPs need to know to best support their faculty/instructors, staff, and candidates. Please thoroughly read all the sections for reminders, upcoming events, To Dos, and FAQs.
If you are not currently subscribed to the newsletter, please sign up at the link below.
Educator Preparation Program Listserv Registration
|
|
|
|
|
|
This webinar will provide reminders and updates for EPPs about annual state reporting requirements.
|
|
Updated:
Webinar: New English Language Proficiency Standards Overview
|
TEA staff will share information regarding the newly adopted ELPS. The team will explain in greater detail the changes to the structure of the ELPS and the inclusion of content-area proficiency level descriptors.
Additional space has been added to this webinar to accommodate EPPs who want to attend. EPP staff should use the link to register.
|
|
Updates related to Educator Preparation Program Management
New: Certificate Recommendations
As we are approaching the new school year, many EPPs will be recommending Intern (INT) or Probationary (PRO) certificates. This can be a hectic time for EPPs, their candidates, and the districts they serve. To keep processes moving with certificate recommendations, please remember that if the candidate qualifies for the INT or PRO certificate, the EPP can go ahead and recommend the certificate even if the candidate has not paid for the application or completed fingerprints. ECOS Entities will not allow the Recommended certificate to be issued until the candidate has completed payment and fingerprinting. The EPP will need to check to see if the certificate has issued prior to a candidate’s assignment start date as required effective 9/1/2024, but this can be easily accomplished by sorting the INT and PRO certificate recommendation queues by “Recommended” or “Certified” to verify the certificate status. This will be especially helpful for those candidates who are exempted from special education and bilingual certificate application fees per new HB 2 requirements since their certificates, including Standard (STD) certificates, must be “Recommended” by the EPP to initiate the fee waiver or refund process.
New: Accurately ASEP Reporting Residency (RSD) Route for Approved EPPs
We would like to remind all EPPs that only those EPPs approved by the SBEC to offer the Texas Teacher Residency Preparation Route (RSD) can use the RSD functions in ECOS, including admission records, enrollment records, and clinical experience and observation reporting. As EPPs are approved by the SBEC to offer the RSD, those EPPs may begin processing candidates in the RSD route in ECOS. There should be no RSD finishers in 2024-2025 because the first EPPs approved to offer the RSD were approved at the December 4, 2024, SBEC meeting.
When a clinical experience record is created for a RSD candidate, the "750 hours SBEC-Approved Residency" designation for the clinical experience is the correct model to use; however, the candidate’s assignment begin date must be AFTER the date the EPP was approved by the SBEC to offer the RSD. The Residency in ECOS-An Overview of New ECOS Functions webinar and FAQ-Residency in ECOS are resources that the EPP can use to assist with understanding and implementing the RSD route. The 2024-2025 Technical Manual is another resource to support accuracy in reporting RSD candidates. These resources are located on the Program Provider Resources page of the TEA website.
New: Charter School Closures
The following charter schools are officially closing on the Effective Date and thus are no longer acceptable placements for candidates completing field-based experiences (FBE) or clinical experiences:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Academy of Visual and Performing Arts
|
|
|
These LEAs will no longer appear in the drop-down menus for clinical experience records or intern/probationary certificate recommendation screens as of the Effective Date of closure. If your program has incomplete records that require access to one of these schools for data entry, please submit a help desk ticket to Preparation Programs and the Educator Preparation team will assist you with your request.
Reminder: ASEP Data Distribution
The Principal and Teacher Survey rosters were shared with EPP Legal Authorities, via ShareFile, on July 21, 2025. EPPs have the option to review their data and submit a request for exception (RFE) form, as needed. We would like to note that the RFE forms were changed from PDF to Excel to improve user experience and streamline data reporting. With the changes to the RFE form, EPPs are now able to enter all ASEP exceptions within a single form.
In the coming weeks, TEA will share 2 more ASEP data rosters: the Student Growth datasets, in late August 2025, and the Year-to-Date Observation datasets, in early September 2025. This will be TEA’s first year sharing Student Growth datasets, so please stay tuned for upcoming details.
More information will be provided at the ASEP Reporting Webinar Registration. Please note that TEA will begin reviewing RFEs in late August. Once reviewed, TEA will send a copy back to you for your files. The deadline for RFE submission is September 15, 2025. RFEs will not be accepted after this date.
Countdown to ASEP Reporting 2024-2025
To assist EPPs with completing ASEP Reporting with ease, we have developed weekly reminders for those EPP staff working on ASEP Reporting. Each week, you will receive weekly reminders in this Newsletter that include timely tasks that will lead to successful completion of data reporting by September 15. Please remember that the 2024-2025 Technical Manual published on the Program Provider Resources page on the TEA website is a wonderful “how to” resource for using the various functions needed for reporting in ECOS and contains some useful tips for problem solving, if needed.
New: Week 3 ASEP Tasks 7/28-8/1/2025-Complete all Admission Reporting
-
Verify that each candidate admitted 9/1/2024-8/31/2025 has an accurate admission record. Verify all required admission data has been included in the record. If you need to update a record, you can do so manually or by bulk upload. Instructions are included in the 2024-2025 Technical Manual located on the Program Provider Resources page of the TEA website.
-
EPPs can view their admissions in ECOS. Additionally, you can download admission data in ECOS into a spreadsheet to help verify the admission data that has been reported to date. To do so, go to ASEP > Maintain Admissions in your ECOS Entities greenscreen. Select 2024-25 Reporting Year and click the green Search button. You will see all candidates admitted for 2024-2025. At the bottom of the page, you will see “Click Here to download the data in comma delimited format (Excel sheet). Remember: Admission records for candidates admitted in 2024-2025 cannot be created after 8/31/2025 except for candidates admitted in the last week of August beginning August 25, 2025. Those records can be entered until ECOS locks the ASEP reporting year on 9/15/2025 but should be entered within seven days of the date of formal or contingency admission per 19 TAC §227.17 or 19 TAC §227.15, respectively. This means that for all candidates admitted between 9/1/2024 and 8/25/2025, the deadline for ensuring that their admission records are complete and correct is 8/31/2025.
-
Be sure to review the 2024-2025 Technical Manual on the Program Provider Resources page. It is located under Forms and Documents. This is a helpful resource as it provides step-by-step instructions for completing admission reporting.
Reminder: Week 2 ASEP Tasks 7/21-25/2025:
-
Ensure that TEA has your updated EPP Contact Information.
-
Each EPP should have one Legal Authority or, for an EPP at a school district or Education Service Center, a Primary Contact, and at least one Backup Legal Authority. If you have recently had a change in these staff, please submit a Help Desk ticket to the Preparation Programs tile, and we will send you the template so you can request the changes to be made.
-
Each EPP must have a Primary Title II Pearson and Title II IPRC contact and should have a Secondary contact for each, if possible. Ensure TEA has these current contacts. The following organizations must also have current contact information for your Title II contacts:
-
Make sure that the following contacts are correct (your assigned TEA specialist can provide you a list of contacts that we have on file for your EPP):
- Your LBB contact if you are a college or university.
- The staff that manages your data.
To verify and/or update contacts with TEA, please submit a Help Desk ticket to the Preparation Programs tile.
Reminder: Week 1 ASEP Tasks 7/14-18/2025:
1. Know your assigned Education Specialist. This is the TEA staff member that you will need to reach out to when you have questions about ASEP Reporting. The EPP Education Specialist Assignments list is published on the Program Provider Resources page under Forms and Documents. Your Education Specialist is one of five staff members:
 |
|
2. Become familiar with the Help Desk which EPPs should use for all questions related to ASEP Reporting. Your Education Specialist will address your EPP’s questions in the Help Desk. We are in the Help Desk under the Educator Testing and Preparation Programs tile. |
3. Review the 2024-2025 Technical Manual on the Program Provider Resources page. It is located under Forms and Documents. This is a helpful resource as it provides useful information needed to complete ASEP Reporting.
4. Review your ASEP reporting processes from 2023-2024. We recommend that you review internal documents, correspondence with your Education Specialist, and any place where you encountered difficulties. Particularly if your EPP encountered challenges with Observation reporting or was subject to an informal review, we encourage you to review your processes and reach out to your assigned Education Specialist early and proactively seek support.
5. Register for the ASEP Reporting 2024-2025 webinar on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, at 10 AM CST. The webinar will provide useful information and reminders about state reporting processes and tips to improve the reporting experience. Please find the link in the Upcoming Events section above.
Updates related to Educator Standards and Certification Testing
Reminder: TX165 Bilingual Education Spanish Supplemental EC-12 Pilot Test Opportunity
Pearson is conducting pilot testing for the new 165 Bilingual Education Spanish Supplemental exam (BESS). The new 165 BESS exam is scheduled to launch September 1, 2026, and will replace the current 164 Bilingual Education Supplemental and the Bilingual Target Language Proficiency Test (BTLPT) exams for Bilingual Spanish certificate-seeking candidates.
Pilot testing is intended to collect information on the performance of exam questions to be used at future exam administrations. Pilot testing will be available at Pearson VUE test centers throughout Texas from July 21, 2025, through August 17, 2025.
For information on eligibility, incentives, advantages of participating, scheduling, and registration for pilot tests, please visit the Pilot Testing website. Also, note that participation in a pilot test does not satisfy certification requirements or count against a candidate’s test attempts. Participants and educator preparation programs do not receive a Pass/Fail status or a score report. If you have questions or need further information, please contact the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program at estexas@pearson.com.
Updates related to actions by the State Board for Educator Certification, the State Board of Education, and the Legislature.
New: July SBEC Work Session and Board Meeting Webcasts
The July SBEC Work Session and Board Meeting were held on Thursday and Friday, July 24th, and July 25th. More information about those SBEC activities, including the meeting agenda and access to view the meeting webcasts can be found on the SBEC webpage.
Updates related to Insight to Impact
New: Shout out to the Insight to Impact Dashboard Governance Committee!
The Insight to Impact Dashboard Governance Committee is meeting this week to continue their work providing feedback and helping to prioritize Insight to Impact updates. You can check out our members on the Insight to Impact Academy page and reach out to share your input with them. As always, feedback can also be submitted to the Insight to Impact Help Desk.
Would you or someone you know be a candidate for the Dashboard Governance Committee? Keep watching this newsletter in August for the nomination form.
Updates related to agency initiatives and opportunities
Updated: New English Language Proficiency Standards Overview Webinar for EPPS - Registration Open
Thank you for your interest in the upcoming webinar on the newly adopted English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS), scheduled for Wednesday, August 6, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (CT). The target audience for this webinar is EPP staff supporting curriculum instruction and design on the new ELPS as part of the EPP curriculum.
We take this space to highlight questions that we have heard from .
Q: For an internship, does the assignment start date mean the first day of instruction the intern has with the students or the first day of instruction with students as evidenced on district calendars? [19 TAC §228.73(d) & 19 TAC §228.2(5)]
A: 19 §228.2(5) defines “Assignment Start Date” as the first day of instruction with students.
Q: To ensure compliance with 19 TAC §228.73(a) , should EPPs recommend a candidate for an intern or probationary certificate earlier than the effective date to ensure it is issued by the first day of school?
A: Per 19 TAC §228.73(a),the EPP is required to verify and document that the candidate’s Intern or Probationary certificate is active prior to the start of the internship assignment. Candidate certificates will be issued immediately after they are recommended if the required tests are passed and if the candidate has paid for the certificate and has paid for and completed fingerprinting. A certificate not issued due to a pending investigation will be flagged as such in the Educator Certification Online System (ECOS). Intern and Probationary certificates can be dated with future effective dates if the assignment start date is after the date the EPP recommends the certificate.
Your best source for information and support at the TEA.
As an Educator Preparation Program, your main point of contact is your Education Specialist.
- View a list of EPPs and their assigned Education Specialist.
-
For most efficient assistance, please submit a Help Desk ticket to Preparation Programs.
-
EPPs may contact their assigned Education Specialist directly via phone or email.
-
Candidates may call (512) 936-8400 and select Option #2: Educator Preparation and Certification for assistance.
-
Updated: If EPPs (and candidates) would like to speak to a representative from another area(s), they may call (512) 936-8400 and select one of the options listed below.
-
Option 2: Educator Preparation and Certification
-
Option 3: Fingerprinting
-
Option 6: Investigations
|
