Partners and Activities
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) are the primary coordinating entities of the College and Career Readiness project. TEA serves K-12 schools and THECB serves colleges, universities, community colleges and career skills (technical) schools. Additional partners play a key role in helping implement readiness standards across the K-16 enterprise.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is engaged in four key activities to systemically implement the college and career readiness standards in K-12 education.
TEA is incorporating the new readiness standards into its already existing set of knowledge and skill standards, as well as its student end-of-course exams and course materials. This work can be summed up into four main areas of activity:
- Refining the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)
- Creating training on the readiness standards and refined TEKS
- Developing End of Course exams incorporating the readiness standards
- Adopting instructional materials that incorporate the readiness standards
The current essential knowledge and skill standards (TEKS) in English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies are being reviewed against the college and career readiness standards. These reviews ensure the relevance, rigor and alignment of the TEKS with the new college and career readiness standards. Refinement of the TEKS will then follow as necessary and accompanying educator professional development will be created.
Additional detail about the refinement process as a whole process can be found here. The schedule for the review and refinement of standards in these areas runs through 2011. Findings in specific areas appear in the table below.
| Subject Area | Gap Analysis | TEKS Refinement | Professional Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Studies | Completed | In Progress | Scheduled for 2011 |
| English Language Arts | Completed | Completed | Available from ESCs |
| Mathematics | Completed | Completed | Scheduled for 2010 |
| Science | Completed | Completed | Scheduled for 2011 |
Educator training is an important component of TEA’s approach to implementing career and college readiness standards. TEA anticipates working with various training partners to create training on the college and career readiness standards and refined TEKS, as well as training on how to more fully implement the CCRS standards into classroom practice.
Professional development will occur in each of the four curriculum areas of English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The schedule for the creation and delivery of professional development runs through 2011. For more information about CCRS professional development, visit our Training and Events page.
| Subject | Partner(s) | Field Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Social Studies | TBD | 2011 |
| English Language Arts | University of Texas | Available Now |
| Mathematics | Texas A&M University | 2010 |
| Science | TBD | 2011 |
Texas is implementing end-of-course (EOC) assessments that measure academic performance in core high school courses. These EOC exams will begin with the freshman (high school) class of 2011–2012.
EOC assessments for lower-level courses will include questions assessing readiness for advanced coursework. EOC assessments for higher-level courses will include a series of special purpose questions assessing college readiness.
Implementation of college-readiness components into the EOC assessment program is occurring as part of an End-of-Course College Readiness and Advanced Course Readiness Plan approved by both the TEA and the THECB.
The periodic adoption of instructional materials by the State Board of Education (SBOE) affords the state the opportunity to incorporate refined Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards and the new readiness standards into those instructional materials. The current instructional materials adoption cycle for English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies is dovetailed with the goal of including college and career readiness standards in those materials. Additional detail about the instructional materials adoption process is available here.
New opportunities created by the Texas Legislature centered on digital alternatives to traditional textbooks (House Bills 4294 & 2488), and on open source digital content, will also bring significant opportunity to increase the presence of college and career readiness standards in classroom instruction.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) promotes the implementation of the college and career readiness standards (CCRS) through the work of its P-16 Initiatives Division.
The major goal of THECB’s P-16 Initiatives Division is to increase the participation of, and the success of, all Texans in college. The Division’s work is focused around four strategies:
- To align and assess curriculum with the college and career readiness standards
- To create a college-going and completion culture
- To increase participation & quality of educator preparation programs
- To enhance the quality and rigor of P-16 learning and teaching experiences
These strategies are carried out by three interrelated groups of the P-16 Initiative Division: College Readiness, Educator Quality and P-16 Outreach.
College Readiness
The primary mission of the College Readiness group within the P-16 Initiatives Division is to coordinate and strengthen academic programming and support services between K-12 schools and higher education. A more detailed description of the activities underway is also available.
Educator Quality
The primary mission of the Educator Quality group within the P-16 Initiatives Division is to strengthen and support research-based practices that lead to increased participation and improvement of educator preparation programs. THECB has established a Faculty Collaborative in each of the CCRS content areas (English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies) to support faculty in the implementation of the standards. Visit the Faculty Collaboratives website for more information.
P-16 Outreach
The primary mission of the P-16 Outreach group is to coordinate and support outreach efforts between and among educational entities, community organizations, and businesses that promote the development of a college-going and completion culture.
Regional P-16 Councils promote the development of the college-going and completion culture throughout the state. For information about the Regional P-16 Councils and other P-16 Initiatives, visit the THECB P-16 Councils website. Students and their parents are provided valuable information on the College for All Texans website.
All public universities, community colleges and technical schools in Texas are stakeholders in the overall college and career readiness initiative, and several universities are key partners in extending the initiative’s work into higher education
To launch the work of extending the overall initiative into institutions of higher education, the THECB has formed a series of partnerships with universities and faculty around the four subjects addressed by the standards: English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.
These four Faculty Collaboratives are developing training and materials to assist teacher preparation programs in incorporating the readiness standards into their program curricula. The Faculty Collaboratives are also working with administration liaisons in institutions of higher education to keep all faculty abreast of the new standards and their impact.
For more information on important work of these collaboratives, we invite you to visit the Faculty Collaboratives website. Current collaboratives are headquartered at the following universities:
| Subject Area | Collaborative Partner |
|---|---|
| Social Studies | University of Texas at Arlington |
| English Language Arts | University of Texas |
| Mathematics | Texas State University – San Marcos |
| Science | Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi |
Education service centers are the primary training entity for the College and Career Readiness program, and are a key player in extending awareness of the initiative into K-12 campuses across the state.
Education service centers (ESCs) are regionalized organizations that provide services to school districts in their areas. Once content partners have developed training and support materials for the College and Career Readiness program, these will be provided to ESCs. ESCs will then offer CCRS training directly to K-12 educators throughout the state.
CCRS professional development will occur in each of the four curriculum areas of English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. Educator training in the English language arts college and career readiness standards is already being delivered. Training in other areas is being developed and will be rolled out through 2011 as the table below indicates. For more information about CCRS professional development, visit our Training and Events page.
| Subject | Partner(s) | Field Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Social Studies | TBD | 2011 |
| English Language Arts | University of Texas | Available Now |
| Mathematics | Texas A&M University | 2010 |
| Science | TBD | 2011 |
