Texas

Professional development system

Texas is divided into eight regional service areas. Texas LEARNS, the state office of adult education, provides adult education grant management, program assistance, and other statewide support services for the state of Texas. The eight Project GREAT Adult Education and Family Literacy Regional Centers of Excellence provide professional development for adult education and family literacy practitioners in Texas. The eight GREAT Centers are funded as federal State Leadership activities by the Texas Education Agency and Texas LEARNS. The regional GREAT Centers are managed by the grantees in collaboration with Texas LEARNS, Texas Education Agency (TEA), and each region's adult education program directors.

The Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL) is the state literacy resource center; TCALL's purpose is responding to the needs of those who provide literacy services to Texas’ adult literacy and family literacy learners. TCALL is a Center of the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University, housed in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development. Services include: maintaining a lending library of resource materials; maintaining a Website with statewide calendars, service provider directories, and resources; planning and coordinating statewide meetings and events; communicating with groups statewide through a variety of listservs; publishing a quarterly journal; and guiding occasional research studies or development projects.

STAR implementation

The Texas STAR pilot includes 13 programs and three professional development centers. STAR was introduced to program directors during the July 2008 Texas AE Administrators Institute. We recruited programs willing to meet the STAR recommendations of closed enrollment, administrative participation, and commitment to implementation. The trainings were planned for Houston, so we recruited most heavily in that area; however, six of the eight service regions have participants. Both large urban programs and smaller rural programs are represented. Texas professional developers (GREAT Centers) were also recruited to become an integral part of ongoing support of implementation through technical support and participation in future training.

During the 2009-2010 year which followed the pilot, Texas had three STAR Trainer Candidates participating in the Training of Trainers program and working toward certification as STAR Trainers for Texas. With state STAR Trainers available to the regional professional development centers, Texas should be able to move toward wider implementation of evidence-based reading.

Programs implementing STAR