001All right. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us here today to hear more about prep gio program as part of HB2 program aotment or HB2 prep program aotment. We will begin recording. It is October 23rd at 2:01 p.m. Thank you again for joining. Going to kick us off with some brief introductions. My name is Ruthette and I am the manager of teacher apprenticeship at TEA. I will be presenting today and if you were part of option two as well, uh this is that same sort of webinar content. A few other staff to mention for the purposes of today's webinar include Melissa Yoder, division director of educator quality and Dr. Cherylyn Jodi Moody, director of apprenticeship. Uh similar to a lot of other LASSO webinars that you have probably been joining and seeing, we're going to
002start off with a quick overview of Lasso itself, then dive deeper into prep Gio program itself before then closing out with any sort of next steps and thinking of the path forward. A few FYIs noted on the side here. Please do not hesitate to submit any questions that you have through the Zoom Q&A. We did receive quite a few from the first option. So, very excited to see those come in and we will be responding to those questions through an FAQ. All of the webinar slides and recordings will be posted on the Lasso Cycle 4 website once all webinars have been completed. And today's uh grow your own one is actually the last one. So, that should be fairly soon. If you have any questions that you want to follow up with for the Lasso
003team, there's their email inbox. All right, so a few slides just giving a very brief overview of Lasso, very similar to ones that you've probably seen in other webinars. Kicking us off with lasso or learning acceleration support opportunities refers to this single consolidated application that is a tremendous opportunity combining these grants, aotments and inind supports uh aiming to provide close to $500 million in supports and services across 15 initiatives and all in the one streamlined application. A quick note that you may have been noticing in either previous webinars or just even in the context of lasso and something we want to stamp here is this difference between grant and aotment. Um and you'll continue to kind of hear this in the context of lasso prep program aotment specifically. For aotments, all school systems are selected
004for funding that meet eligibility criteria and commit to statutoily based requirements. So, school systems do not need to reapply. It is a steady stream of funding. Of course, school systems are subject to periodic review uh ensuring that there is the quality program implementation, but it is not a competitive application as what uh folks may be familiar with with grants. Lasso cycle 4 is grounding us in these four learning acceleration strategies that we see here. For the purposes of today with the prep aotment, we can focus in on the education and training aspect or thinking of talent pipelines that support teachers. And further highlighting in on this same education and training category that we mentioned, we've got prep program aotment as well as the Texas strategic staffing for residencies grant uh which that one is a
005competitive grant and only for a limited number of school systems. So something to just kind of note there in the star that we see all eligible districts for the prep program aotment versus the competitive grant. All right, diving into the prep GIO program itself. We do want to take a step back and take note that many of you may already be familiar with grow your own and the concept um even engaged with in the past on TEA grow your own grants or may already be implementing grow your own programs locally. As a quick reminder, grants do work differently from aotments. So, we definitely encourage you to consider how those requirements specific to prepo program may be different from past implementation or even current implementation. You may recognize this slide as well as a couple of
006others from if you have attended other prep aotment program webinars, but definitely want to ground ourselves in recognizing that firstly this is a historic investment when it comes to thinking about teacher recruitment, preparation and certification and mentoring at scale. So really seeing this potential for reliable funding streams to support EPS, educators, and then ultimately with this potential to transform learning across all of the Texas districts and reaching over five million of our students or reaching our over five million students across Texas and further grounding ourselves in the purpose of prep program aotment for preparing and retaining educators through partnership. It's right there in the name in terms of aiming to strengthen the quality of teacher recruitment, preparation, and mentorship. And that's reflected in these three programs that you see named here. There is additionally, I
007mentioned earlier, the opportunity for Texas strategic staffing for residencies grant. And all in all, PREP, as you could see, is really aiming to provide that support and that funding for partnerships to intentionally be leading uh to increased educator effectiveness and retention. And so, we are really excited to be seeing this opportunity as we continue to support uh likely ongoing work that we're seeing out in the field. Something to note about the sort of setup for the lasso cycle 4 application when it comes to the three prep programs. So we see here it's organized by the order of thinking recruitment then teacher preparation and then mentorship. And the three different programs that you see here are the ones that are available this lasso cycle 4 for the 2627 school year. And definitely want to stamp that
008these are unique application sections. So school systems must fill each one out separately within preparation. You will also note that the prep aotment has the opportunities to support additional pre-ervice programs. So that you see those named here, traditional and alternative certification. Both of these will become available in lasso cycle 5 to be implemented for school year 2728. So please stay tuned for more information there. But note that lasso cycle 4 is encompassing only this top section here. Kind of branching off of that previous slide, we definitely want to name an important consideration uh for when applying for PREPGO that school systems must also apply and be approved for the PREP pre-ervice residency program. And this is existing within statute that if participating in the prep GIO program then the school system must also be approved
009for a pre-ervice uh program as well which in this case for lasso cycle 4 the only available one is the residency one. So following that line of logic, these need to be paired together for lasso cycle 4. And the application is already set up in this way. Well, it will have applicants apply for both. So this is just that heads up for folks. As you saw in some of the previous visuals, I definitely want to note that the prep gio program is that first step getting folks in through the door and really ensuring that they are set up for success on this path towards becoming degreed certified teachers. And for the purposes of prep gio, we are going to be talking about uh two particular participants. firstly is that employee who does not already have
010a bachelor's degree and second the high school students and I will be diving a little bit more into each of these uh in the next few slides as we're kind of going through um these four different areas that are reflected in terms of requirements and statute for prep gio. So thinking of tying all these four together as they drive towards ensuring that partnerships have that high quality programming for GIO. Kicking us off with the earning of a bachelor's degree. So that first participant type that I mentioned, the employees who do not already have a bachelor's degree. PREPG GYO participants must partner with an institution of higher education and educator preparation program and provide scheduled release time for that coursework and that advising to ensure that the employee is able to meet their requirements and complete
011their bachelor's degree. And then that last bolded component definitely want to highlight and emphasize uh that the employee must complete their bachelors and enroll in an accredited EP within 3 years of starting the prep go program and that's reflected within statute as well. This is a major component to think about for program implementation and kind of getting into the agreement part or the partnership component when it comes to partnering with the affformentioned ICE and uh EP. School systems must also have a written agreement established and that is specific to the prep GIO program implementation by the 2627 school year. So thinking prior to implementing the actual program these agreements need to be established with the partner and within that partnership there should be this articulation of what are sort of the requirements related so statute
012as well as uh sort of upcoming rule that's related to prep GIO ensuring there's that clarity and that articulation upfront um and we will be providing some more guidance as to what exactly that will uh look like. So named here, TEA staff will provide a template as well as several examples of a completed agreement. So please know that that information is forthcoming. Going back to that component I named in terms of employee must earn the bachelor's degree within 3 years. We do want to name this as a consideration upfront, something for partnerships when thinking about implementation. Since it is a three-year time frame, we highly encourage that partnerships consider prioritizing employees who already have some previous college credit hours. And as a suggested number, that could be 30 hours or more. and really to ensure
013that they have that ample time in order to meet this requirement of 3 years um for completing their degree. Of course, school systems can still use the aotment funds to support other employees that that are either earlier in their or support employees that are earlier in their progression or to support the high school pathway. So, it is not exclusively employees who have some credit hours, although that is something that we highly uh encourage as a prioritization for when thinking about implementing the PREPGO program. In addition to the earning of that bachelor degree, the PrepGio program uh requirements do stipulate some sort of gaining of early teacher training. And so that means providing the employee with that on the job training uh on teaching while in their current role. So thinking of potentially that paraprofessional still
014having that paraprofessional role but being able to receive on the job training and on this next slide that can kind of go into the visual here thinking of pairing them with an effective teacher. the teacher who is best positioned to be able to provide that support, providing authentic opportunities to practice in an instructional setting so they get that exposure uh with students and then all of this in alignment with the educator preparation standards and coursework. So something that partnerships may want to consider more in detail for program implementation. All right, we've talked a lot about the employee participants specifically, but now going into the high school aspect. Uh, I named that was the other type of participant. This is really getting into the growing of our future educators. So, school systems participating in PREPG GYO
015may wish to also um implement the high school education and training CTE pathway in addition to this employee component of completing the degree. And for the high school component, this is specifically looking at high school students and similarly to the employee uh pathway, early training and practice opportunities for high school students to build that interest in the teaching profession. And going a little bit more into detail about what this may look like, we've got the coursework, the opportunities to practice, and the transition supports. So the high school education and training program I mentioned that is as part of the ENT or education and training program of study through CTE and could potentially include dual credit courses although that is not a requirement. Uh, additionally, another sort of implementation consideration uh is thinking about supporting students
016with earning an EDA1 certification, building them up towards that, getting that additional exposure and thinking about setting them for success as they progress towards becoming a teacher. Again, this is not a component that is required, but something to consider for implementation. Like for the employees, the high school students must also receive opportunities for practice, whether that is paid or unpaid. Oftentimes that's usually through their fields sitebased experiences through their coursework where high school students will sometimes go to like an elementary campus and get that exposure there. uh but that could also encompass internships or tutoring opportunities to further get that practice. Lastly, school systems are required to provide this transition support where high school students as they are exploring and considering their post-secary options uh for teacher preparation. Uh the school systems want to be
017able to provide that support or should be able to provide that support for them. To tie us off for this section, we've got the funding specifically for PREPG.io. It is important to note that part of the funding is successbased and ties to that first component that I named where the employee must complete their bachelor's and enroll in an accredited EP within three years. that is what is being referred to as the success-based component. So once they have successfully completed uh that requirement and as named here funding can be used at the school systems discretion. So anything that is prep GIO program implementation related including tuition costs for employees and high school students uh is something that can be used at that school systems discretion. And we'll be getting into more details here in a moment
018on the funding specifically over the next couple of slides. Starting off with this funding snapshot, this really helps to break us down a little bit in terms of what exactly the funding looks like and how it works. But firstly noting that it allocates 8 to 12k per employee with a total of 40 as the cap per year. And we name paraprofessionals because that is the most common sort of example that we would expect or name for employees. Although as seen in the asterisk that could include other employees besides pair professionals but definitely you want to stamp that the cap is 40 per year. As you can see that funding is so all the funding is directly flowing to the school systems and as you can see you have the divide here of 50% is the
019initial funding or upfront and then the other 50% is that successbased funding. So for the initial flow, school systems at minimum receive the 4K per employee. Then based on the rural high needs factor, school systems could acrew an additional 0 to 2K more. We see similar numbers for the successbased funding with the minimum 4K and then the additional based on rural high needs. And this is again after the employee has earned their bachelor's and enrolled in an EP. To further stamp in terms of what uh how school systems may allocate funds, this is really broad and flexible in terms of what is going to be necessary for PREPGO program implementation. And we name quite a few examples here. So some uses that pertain to the implementation include tuition costs, being able to provide the wraparound
020services and structured advising, ensuring that that sort of employee or pair of professional is able to complete their degree, supports for release time, supports for the high school pathway, um, and any other GIO related costs. So there's a lot of flexibility within how that PREPGO funding can be used. Getting us into the nitty-gritty of the math behind the funding, we can break it down as such with this multiplier, the base times the number of employees. And that's how we sort of generate that allotment. For the multiplier, I've mentioned this high needs rural factor. This is something that is unique to every campus. So, campus campus placement of the employee will affect the total allotment generated. And for those who are familiar with the teacher incentive allotment, that is a similar concept here. Uh actually the
021same sort of section of statute as well. So if you know how that works, it's the same thing here for high needs rural factor based on campus. When the multiplier is added to the base, then it will the allotment will be generated based on the number of employees with we mentioned the cap of 40 for each school system. To further emphasize here, the allotment is generated based on the number of employees. So if a school system has zero participating employees, they will not generate an allotment. If a school system has at least one employee participating in PREPGO, they will generate that allotment for prep GYO and the funding can be used for any PREPGO implementation including employee supports and high school supports. So, high school students is not factored into this number or this cap
022here, but the funds can be used to support said high school students. As a reminder for the total allotment, 50% of this funding is part of that initial flow for the 2627 school year while the remaining half is the successbased On this slide, we have here a much more simplified example to kind of orient us in how the funding might be broken down for one school system. And in this example, the school system has three campuses A, B, and C. And as named earlier, each campus has their own high needs rural factor. And that's uh based on a point value on socioeconomic level and rural status. In this particular case, again, this is highly simplified, so it will probably not shake out in this way, but campus A has a factor of two, B with
023three, and C for four. And the school system has this sort of breakdown of how many employees are at each campus. So 20 at A and then 10 each at B and C. And that is our total of 40 which just so happens to be the cap as well for the school system. When we calculate out across going from the factor to the multiplier the base and then the number of employees we generate the following campus totals. And with those campus totals, that gives us our school system total, which in this case is 430K. And as we have noted several times, that's broken down into the 50% initial or in this case 215K. And then the other half success-based. So this success base as a reminder is based on whether those 40 employees are able
024to complete that requirement of completing their degree and enrolling in an EP. So after all 40 have done so that is when the successbased uh remaining uh flows. All right. To help us better articulate how PREPG go might actually look in action, we have a couple of slides here that are going to walk through implementation, how it may look and how a participant may progress through the program. So here we have specifically uh for an employee lens um we start with the prior to aotment program begin date or the spring through summer before that. And for this particular particular lasso cycle 4 that is referring to this upcoming spring through summer in anticipation for the 26 27 school year. And in that upcoming spring through summer is when we will have school systems confirm who
025are those participating employees and where are their placement campuses because as a reminder the campuses affect sort of the high needs rural factor and therefore affect the aotment. So once that happens, then we go into year one and the in the fall is when we start to see the employees participating and beginning the allotment program, therefore starting that clock of that three years of timeline for success-based funding and the school systems must provide a job assignment that includes instructional support for that individual. And as we've named most likely our most common example is a paraprofessional being able to continue in a prof paraprofessional role uh while completing these program requirements. And that moves us into the actual implementation. And we've named a lot of this in the previous slides, but during the time that the
026individual is going through this program, school systems must provide supports, including that scheduled release time, practice in an instructional setting, on the job training, and the length of time in which that this may take could vary with, of course, we said up to three years. So, as long as it's within the 3 years timeline, but of course, the individual may finish a little bit earlier uh before that three-year time frame. So, this is just a little bit of a flexibility here uh as to what how long this may take. By the end of year three is when employees must have completed their bachelor's degree and at least enrolled in an EP in order to meet that success-based funding we mentioned. And this is also when school systems must provide some sort of transition support in
027ensuring that that employee is able to satisfy their teacher preparation requirements. So all in all, this helps us to kind of see the full picture in terms of right before implementation all the way through for basically one cohort of folks. With this particular prep Gio webinar, I have this really unique opportunity to kind of step back and pull us um to this visual here where we see that the prep programs are structured in such a way to be an intentional baton pass from one program to the next. So starting off here with prep Gio where the employee earns their bachelor's and enrolls in an EP as mentioned a number of times with the requirements as well as once they have earned the requisite number of college credit hours enrolling in their EP of choice they
028are then able to transition from the GIO component to the pre-ervice program and that is where the candidate will complete an EP earn their teaching certificate and as mentioned for lasso cycle 4 that's referring to the residency gray service program but in future cycles can expand to the traditional alternative certification and so once they've received that quality preparation then thinking about the prep mentorship program aspect and how is that novice teacher receiving support from a qualified mentor. So this brings together all three of these particular components in thinking about quality teacher preparation support and then ultimately hopefully retention to help us provide a visual in terms of an employes progression from prep GIO to a pre-ervice prep because we kind of expanded on the previous slide on how this is a baton pass want to
029further provide uh a little bit more of a specific scenario. So we see here in this particular scenario the GIO employee is employed at a campus that has this high needs rural factor of a two and stays at that same campus while completing their teacher residency program and looking to obtain a certificate in spe special education. Couple things to note here. Prior to prep GIO program, the employee worked previously in the district as a pair professional and is already entering with 30 college credits. And that's hearkening us back to that previous slide I mentioned about prioritizing employees who already have some credit hours. And as part of the initial funding flow, this employee with the high needs role factor of two generates an aotment of 5K for the school year. Now during the first and
030the second years of participation we'll see here through this animation they earn 30 additional credits in the first year and then an additional 30 credits in the second year helping them progress towards completing their degree. At the beginning of the third year is when we will see them begin prep the prep residency program. So this is a an opportunity in which school systems may stack their funding for both prep GIO and prep residency. So at this particular point in time, the candidate or the employee generates 12K specifically through the prep residency program as denoted in green. By the end of year three, this individual completes their bachelor's degree and is able to earn their teacher cert uh certificate having met the criteria that's needed for success for both GIO and residency. And you see that
031noted here. GIO in blue, residency in green. So they're remaining 5K and 10K as well. Again, this is one potential scenario, but helps to kind of narrate narrate out for us this baton pass and this connection of prep gio to pre-ervice. All right. Now that we've seen how PrepG go can work, we're going to dive a little more into PREPGIO's application itself and the requirements. Similar to what has been named in other PREP aotment webinars, I will reiterate that all school systems are eligible to apply for the PREP programs and are subject to the statutoily based funding caps that are described in the program's guidelines. And these bullet points here provide some additional detail as to how we define specifically a charter school under this school system definition. And on the next couple of slides,
032we'll be getting more into the operating partners and adult charter schools. Starting off with our 1882 operating partners. They are all also eligible to apply and are subject to the same statutoily based funding caps based on each guidelines. For the applications, the operation operating partner leaders have received unique links which is a little bit different from just a standalone uh school system. And when it comes to written agreements, since FSP funding flows to a partner district, the operating partner should have a an additional layer of a written agreement with the partner district. So that way there's some documentation on how aotment funds are generated through the partnershotment funds that are generated will be spent. Specifically for adult charter schools, they are ineligible to participate in prep gio. And this is specifically as noted here because
033uh for 21902 prep pres-ervice programs are required to place teacher candidates in prek through grade 12 classrooms. Prior to applying, applicants are highly encouraged to review well it says must. So must review the relevant sections as it pertains to Texas education code. So thinking about the asurances that applicants will need to agree to. Uh there are a number of different sections here. Uh we definitely uh want to stamp the prep definitions uh for the sake of prep gio. There's this section here, the program standards and performance goals as well as 48157 is specific to funding for prep program aotment. Uh please note that TEA is anticipating posting rules for public comment during the 2526 school year, so relatively soon and will become effect prior to the 26 27 school year implementation. So, please keep an
034eye out for that. Um, and we'll be anticipating sharing more specific dates as it relates to rule making soon. In addition to those prep program allotment uh, asurances, applicants must also consider these prep gio specific ones. And these are the specific sections where we've got uh in tech 21906 and then there is going to be relevant sections in TAC as well. As mentioned on one of the earlier slides, school systems must form a written agreement partnership which will contain the clear expectations for when it comes to programming and processes with the partner. And then applicants uh will also need to be able to appoint some sort of school system representative to show who is going to engage in all of the required communications. ensuring there is that accountability and communication as well. To reiterate for
035applicants and this is again structured already in the application but want to continue naming that the prep gio and residency programs they do have their own separate applications um and school systems must apply for both together. So if applying for a prep gio then you must also apply for prep residency and this is reflected in statute as the having been approved to participate in a partnership preservice program and since residency is the only one currently available uh for cycle 4 it referring to we briefly mentioned mentioned this concept earlier of periodic review um as part of aotments. So for the sake of program reporting and monitoring uh this is really to help ensure that we're able to accurately calculate aotments for each school system. And so at minimum there is an annual requirement for school
036systems to submit the information that you see listed here. So identification information for who are the participants um in the program for prep GIO that's the employees their campus placements um a report on spending and then uh there's more pending information and requirements related to this last bullet point but perception surveys as it relates to the program participants as well and this really helps to ensure that there's clear documentation within our data systems You may have seen similar slides to this and they refer a little bit more to time commitment, but rather than necessarily assigning specific time commitments and restrictions. This actually expands a little bit more on potential roles and responsibilities. And again, want to name that it's potential. So these are recommendations for what this could look like for prep GIO program implementation
037from the board all the way to the teachers ensuring that there is this across level understanding of the program requirements and implementation. You see here a lot of this concept of approving application, ensuring all of these leaders are on that same page, coordinating with appropriate staff to ensure that there is that compliance with statute and rule. So these are super helpful for partnerships to consider when thinking through that accountability, fidelity of implementation, and ensuring all the necessary individuals have the support that they need. Speaking of support, uh definitely want to note here that in the PrepG GYO application, school systems will be asked whether they would like to receive optional inind technical supports for strengthening grow your own planning and implementation. So if school systems do choose to opt in, your points of contact will
038receive more information in about joining a webinar to learn more about them and what those supports will look like and how school systems can engage in them. So please know that that is additional information and additional support. We highly encourage uh school systems to think about opting in. All right, we've now reached the section to close us out with next steps and the path forward. As a reminder, prep program aotment is not a grant. So, please ensure that there are diff please be sure to note that there are differences when it comes to the allotment versus a grant. And that's starting us off with thinking about the timelines are also going to have nuances and differences to them. So please note that u there are going to be some pieces to keep track of there
039for the timeline I want to ground ourselves in we're currently in this application window here October 3rd to December 3rd aiming to have the FAQs published in early November with uh office hours uh happening next week and we anticipate the announcement February 2nd. There are no egrants for prep program since it's an aotment. So no need to uh consider that particular part. And we will be conducting a prep program verification of participation process and this is also when the submission of written agreements will occur and that's between the April and May time frame. So we will be announcing those dates. Uh more information to be coming to further expand on that point. The verification of participation as named this is after the preliminary award announcement in February. We will communicate the timeline and runway as
040it pertains to uh what school systems will need to do for submitting those written partnership agreements. is named that there will be some guidance there and in the verification school systems can either accept or decline participation and we'll need to report on the information that is requested including the numbers of participants and then of course reviewing the relevant sections of uh Texas administrative code as I noted earlier is undergoing that role making process. This slide just further stamps something that I've named on a couple of slides already, which is that the written agreements must contain all of the information as it relates to the requirements for PREPGO, including uh Commissioner of Education rule, and that we will be providing more guidance with a template and examples soon to come. Some other key reminders here. School
041systems must submit their application by December 3rd. A unique link was sent to each school system um for emailed to the superintendent and operating partners. Uh there is a PDF available of the of an application copy on the lasso cycle 4 website if you would like to view that as well. And please note that applications must be signed by the superintendent or operating partner official in order to be accepted. This slide here is just a quick note that if you would like to check out the to the administrator addressed correspondence that was specific to the prep program aotment that is available on that TAA web page. And should you have any additional questions, great news is that we do have our upcoming office hours on October 28th and that if you are seeking application support,
042those are the times um and links available as well. If you're unable to attend, you can still email with questions. And as mentioned earlier, all questions that we receive, including through this Zoom Q&A, is going to be uh addressed through the FAQ. and we plan to have that posted in early November. Should you have any questions to email, there's the lasso inbox and then the prep gio inbox as well. And that closes us off. I will leave this up on the screen and it summarizes the next steps that I highlighted. We're going to go ahead and close out the recording at 2:46 p.m. Uh, please continue submitting any questions through the Zoom Q&A for our FAQs. Thank you so much for attending this webinar and sitting through with us.