 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
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Due Date
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Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP) Stakeholder Advisory Committee Application
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Application period is now open and will close EOD Monday, September 15, 2025
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EOD Monday,
September 15, 2025
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Updates related to Educator Preparation Program Management
New: Special Education Specialist EC-12 Certificate Via EPP Program Amendment
If your EPP is approved to offer the Special Education EC-12 or Special Education Supplemental certificate, and you have not yet requested the amendment to add the Special Education Specialist EC-12 certificate and exam 186 to your inventory per 19 TAC § 228.17(a-b), please complete and submit the Application Request for SBEC Approved EPPs. The Special Education EC-12 exam 161 and Special Education Supplemental exam 163 will no longer be available for testing after 8/31/2025, and your EPP will want to have the new Special Education Specialist EC-12 certificate and exam 186 in your certificate inventory for candidates in your EPP by 9/1/2025. There is no fee to add the certificate. If you have questions about adding the new certificate via the amendment process, or questions about the exam, please submit a Help Desk ticket to the Preparation Programs Help Desk, and we will be happy to assist you.
Reminder: 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.
Reminder: 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.
Reminder: 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:
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Academy of Visual and Performing Arts
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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.
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 4 ASEP Task Reminders 8/4-8/2025: Update the Finisher Records List.
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Verify that all 2024-2025 finishers are correctly listed on the Finisher Record List (FRL) with a status of “Finisher” (F). If a finisher is on the FRL for certificate categories they are not finishing, you must remove those certificate categories from the list for the candidate.
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If candidates left your EPP without finishing requirements during the year 2024-2025, be sure that you have removed them from your Finisher Records List (and that you have removed their test approvals). You must update the record to “removed” in this reporting year. Once ASEP closes, you will not be able to make any changes to the FRL.
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Additionally, remember to review the candidates from your mid-year data set that have been enrolled for five or more years and remove any from your 2024-2025 list that are no longer actively enrolled. This data was provided to you in your Sharefile folder in April 2025.
Note: Candidates who are removed will need to apply and be admitted if they want to work with the EPP in the future.
Note: Candidates that are removed will need to apply and be admitted if they want to work with the EPP in the future.
Reminder: Week 3 ASEP Tasks 7/28-8/1/2025-Complete all Admission Reporting
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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.
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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.
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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:
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Ensure that TEA has your updated EPP Contact Information.
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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.
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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:
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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:
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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
New: Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP) Stakeholder Advisory Committee Application Now Available
We are excited to announce the launch of the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP) Stakeholder Advisory Committee Application. Stakeholder engagement is critical to the development of T-TEP and Texas stakeholders will have a range of opportunities to provide feedback on the assessment. The T-TEP Stakeholder Advisory Committee (TSAC) is the first of those opportunities. TSAC members will attend virtual sessions and provide feedback on assessment materials, implementation resources, and policies throughout the development of T-TEP.
To ensure a pool of well-qualified applicants, TEA staff are seeking committee member applications from the SBEC, SBOE, professional organizations, educator preparation programs, teacher organizations, and other key stakeholders. The application period is now open and will close EOD Monday, September 15, 2025. Selected committee members will receive email notification no later than EOD Friday, October 3, 2025. The TSAC application can be accessed here.
Reminder: Special Education and Bilingual Education Certification Fee Waivers
House Bill 2 is a comprehensive school finance bill that supports students and infuses more dollars and resources into Texas public schools than ever before. Check here for new resources related to House Bill 2 as they are released. A To the Administrator Addressed Correspondence announcement is available for House Bill 2 (HB 2) Implementation: Teacher Candidate Certification Fee Waivers and Reimbursements.
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.
Reminder: 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: Invitation to Join the 2025-26 Data Governance Committee
The Texas Education Agency’s (TEA’s) Insight to Impact (I2I) Dashboards Data Governance Committee (DGC) is seeking new members to serve a two-year term beginning at the end of August!
The mission of the DGC is to establish a robust pathway for collecting, defining, synthesizing, and prioritizing the requests of I2I educator preparation program dashboard (EPP) users so that dashboards are strategically developed and updated to provide the most useful and usable data for program improvement. As a member, you will be privy to the latest updates and developments with the dashboards, while also serving as a liaison between TEA and the EPP field. In this role, TEA will lean on your expertise and insight so you can inform the updates, communications, training, scheduling and materials provided to the educator preparation program community related to the I2I dashboards.
The commitment of a DGC member is voluntary, but minimal, consisting of just one hour-long meeting a quarter with occasional prework. Please complete this sign-up form by Friday, August 15, 2025, if you are interested in serving on the committee.
We take this space to highlight questions that we have heard from .
Q: For a non-teacher candidate completing the practicum on an intern certificate, do the practicum rules for clinical experience still apply, or do the new 228 rules for internship supervision now apply? [19 TAC §228.81, 19 TAC §228.99, & 19 TAC §228.117]
A: Nonteacher candidates completing a practicum while holding an intern or probationary certificate will continue to follow the practicum requirements as outlined in 19 TAC §228.81, 19 TAC §228.99, and 19 TAC §228.117.
Q: For teacher residencies, what is the timeline for the host teacher training(s) and who provides the training? [19 TAC §228.95(a)(3)]
A: Per 19 TAC §228.95(a)(3), host teachers should be trained twice per school year by the EPP, including before or within the three weeks after being assigned as a host teacher.
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.
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For most efficient assistance, please submit a Help Desk ticket to Preparation Programs.
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EPPs may contact their assigned Education Specialist directly via phone or email.
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Candidates may call (512) 936-8400 and select Option #2: Educator Preparation and Certification for assistance.
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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.
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Option 2: Educator Preparation and Certification
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Option 3: Fingerprinting
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Option 6: Investigations
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