REL Southwest partnered with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to strengthen its rubric for evaluating School Action Fund (SAF) grantees' school design plans. REL Southwest provided coaching over three sessions from March to June 2022.
TEA plans to use the updated rubric to evaluate the quality of SAF plans and their alignment to state requirements, goals, and objectives for school improvement strategies for use in low-performing schools. In addition, TEA can use the new rubric and ratings to provide meaningful feedback and guidance to school districts. This project built on existing coaching and training supports provided through the REL Southwest School Improvement partnership with TEA.
The project's goals for participating TEA staff were to strengthen their capacity to develop valid and reliable measurement tools, increase their use of an effective process for reviewing school design plans, and improve the implementation of school actions with tailored support from technical assistance providers, as demonstrated by the providers' feedback on the updated rubric. Ultimately, the project aims to further the state's progress toward its ESSA goals and to increase the number of Texas students attending high-performing schools.
Related research partnership: Southwest School Improvement Research Partnership
