Dear Chief Academic Officers,
Welcome to this month’s update curated for district Chief Academic
Officers. As always, please feel free to reach out with ideas and questions,
either to me or to the points of contact in the content below. I look forward
to connecting with you.
Penny Schwinn Chief Deputy Commissioner, Office of Academics
TEA recently announced an opportunity
for LEAs to join the Instructional Materials Quality
Evaluation (IMQE) pilot. As a part of this pilot, TEA has contracted with
Safal Partners to conduct an independent analysis of grade 3–8 English language
arts and reading (ELAR) instructional materials to evaluate their quality
through a review process. Pilot participants will get exclusive access to the
quality reviews. The aim of this
review process is to support and inform LEAs’ own local review processes by
providing clear, transparent, and user-friendly information about the quality
of instructional materials. The first due date in the application was extended to October 22.
TEA is seeking Texas educators to participate in the Instructional
Materials Quality Evaluation (IMQE) pilot by becoming a reviewer of
instructional materials. As part of this select group, reviewers will have the opportunity to broaden their impact, work with a talented group of peers in a supportive environment, and receive continuing professional education (CPE) credit and a stipend. The priority application deadline for reviewers focused on ELAR
grades 3–8 is October 22.
Educators,
parents, and community members are invited to review draft updates to The Dyslexia Handbook: Procedures Concerning
Dyslexia and Related Disorders (Dyslexia Handbook) and to provide
specific feedback or recommendations to TEA. The
deadline for submitting feedback for consideration is October 29.
TEA released a new resource that shows the vertical alignment across the Texas Early Learning
Guidelines, Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines, and the kindergarten-grade 2 TEKS.
Alignments are available for the following domains: language and literacy,
physical health and development, health and wellness, mathematics, science,
social studies, fine arts, and technology.
The Texas Virtual
School Network (TXVSN) statewide course catalog offers a wide variety of
teacher-led, TEKS-based online courses that students can take at any time of
day from any location. The TXVSN catalog includes high school, Advanced
Placement, and dual credit courses that can be taken for initial credit or
credit recovery. All courses are taught by appropriately credentialed teachers
trained in effective online instruction.
Grant opportunities are open for the 2019–2021 Grow Your Own, Cycle 2 and 2019–2020 Principal Preparation, Cycle 2 grant programs. This grant can be used by districts to encourage high school students to consider teaching as a career and paraprofessionals and/or teacher aides to pursue certification. The grants can also be used by educator preparation programs to support student teachers during their year-long clinical teaching or teaching candidates during their intensive pre-service training. Applications are due on November 13.
|