001If you are here for the Texas strategic staffing for residencies grant webinar number two, you are in the right place. I'm going to go ahead and get started and our system innovation team will be recording this and either this recording or the recording of our first one will be on the lasso website next week. I am Corless Bunkley and I am the residency implementation specialist for the strategic staffing team under the direction of Alyssa Reek, our wonderful um director who has been with us for quite some time. Our inbox for all questions regarding Lasso4 is Texas or TX strategic staffing at tea.ex.gov. This is an agenda of what we're going to go through today. We're going to do an overview of the last 04 application process and timeline. We're going to take a deep dive
002into Texas strate to the Texas strategic staffing for residency grant and talk about some next steps. Um, some important FYI for today. Please submit questions during the webinar using the Zoom Q&A. I will not be answering those here. they will like with all of our grants come out in the Q&A which will be posted beginning next week. All of the slides and recordings will be posted on the lasso4 site lasso cycle 4 website after today after all of these are completed. And then if you have specific questions about lasso4 in general or the application please feel free to email the inbox lasso tea.ex.gov. of so let's do a quick overview of lasso cycle 4. This year we have 15 different initiatives that have been compiled into one application that combines grants allotments and inind support.
003We are estimated to have $500 million to provide in supports and services. And by consolidating it into one application, it allows for districts to be able to quickly go in apply for multiple things at once so that we can expedite the process of getting you funded and getting the work that you do started. It is four lasso 4 is anchored in four learning acceleration strategies. The first one being curriculum and instruction. Making sure that we're providing rigorous, high quality instructional materials for our T students. Education and training. Ensuring that our talent pipelines are there that support teachers to deliver excellence in the classroom. More time for students, including expanding instructional time in the summer and targeted instruction with tutoring. and then innovative school models to be sure that we're incorporating all aspects of the learning
004acceleration framework. Here you can see a table of of all of the initiatives and the funding. And here we are with Texas strategic staffing for residencies. It is at the district level with an estimated allocation of $2.9 million. Like all of our TSS grants, with the exception of the continuation grant, it is a 2-year grant and we will be awarding up to $58,000 up to 50 schools. So why do we even have the Texas Strategic Staffing for Residency Grant? Well, let's start with the purpose. This grant, like all of our grants, is to provide in technical inind technical assistance and other supports to school systems, including charter schools and educator preparation partnerships to make staffing and scheduling decisions driven by long-term instructional needs. The goal is that over those two years, they design and implement
005a paid year-long highquality quality and sustainable teacher residencies. So the key points here are that it is designed and implementation across two school years and the funding is used to partially fund at least one school system staff member who will oversee the program which includes the coordination between the school system, the technical assistance provider and the EP. So why do we even need strategic staffing? Well, we know that even though student enrollment has fluctuated between COVID and the 2325 school year, we continue to hire a high level of teachers across the state. By the end of 20 the 2023 24 school year, we'd hired 384,48 teachers in the state of Texas. We also know that though we are hiring, our attrition rate for quite a while after COVID increased at one point reaching 13.4%. We
006were excited to see a decrease in attrition in the 2325 school year with only 12.2%. Which means that we still have over 88% of the folks who started the year ending ending the year with us. As you can see here, the number of new hires that we have continues to grow. In 2024, we hired over 49,000 new teachers in the state of Texas. And at TEA, we define that as an individual who is employed as a teacher in the current academic year, but was not in a previous teacher role in the previous academic year. That is a lot of new teachers across the state. And where are they coming from? When we look at our data, we know that 3% of our new hires in 20ou in 2024 through 2025 were residency students. Those folks
007who had been in one of our VTR programs, 18% of our new hires were traditional students. They' gone through your traditional EP program, 4-year, one semester of student teaching. 24% of them were alternatively certified, meaning postback, maybe career changers or folks who didn't finish their education certification but wanted to go into teaching. But 55% of our new hires last school year were uncertified, meaning they had no experience in a classroom with students before they went into classrooms to teach. What impact does that have? Well, we know when we look at the different preparation routes, we know that overall our paid residents versus our uncertified teachers have almost three time the students have almost three times the success in both reading and math versus our paid unpaid res uncertified teachers. Um when we look at our
008paid residents versus other alternatively certified, we see again a gap from a dev a great deviation from our paid residents versus our other students. And that data continues to show up across all of the different routes. When you compare paid residencies, students who had paid residents and students who didn't or went through a different route, their students in the classroom tend to outperform when the teacher was trained in a different route. First year teachers who were paid residents were as effective as fifth year teachers in reading. And if all firstear teachers had the same retention rate as paid residents, approximately 3,600 fewer firstear teachers would have left Texas public schools between 2022 and 23 and 2023 and 24. So what does Texas strategic staffing do? Well, it helps school systems leverage teacher residents to meet
009immediate struct instructional needs. We have several models that we encourage our districts to research and implement within their district that allows them to put that resident paid resident in a classroom to fulfill a variety of roles roles while also working with a well-trained host teacher. We also you help them help school systems reallocate and reinvest funds s to sustain and scale paid teacher residencies so that they can use the prep aotment money going forward to help with the salaries of those paid residents. When we think about strategic staffing, it is all about rethinking the staffing needs. So in this first example, you have a teacher, you have two host teachers, each with one resident, and you may have a sub who is in the building or the pyramid sub for the district. In the paid
010residency model, you would still have a teacher over here. You would still have two host teachers, but that second resident would also fulfill the duties of a substitute. So when they're not with their host teacher, they are subbing and the funds that you would have used to pay the substitute then go towards the paid resident's salary. So how does that happen? Through technical assistance that'll be provided by an educational service center. In the first year, they will work with you on designing the model that your district needs. It's based on data of student achievement and hiring needs that you have. In the second year, you work on implementing the decisions that were made in the first year. After that second year, the goal is to sustain. So, at the end of the second year, your
011TA provider will work with you on sustainability and finding ways to fund that cost match from the prep aotment. Here is an overview of what the year will look like. In the fall of 2026, you work on goals, models, and stipens. In the winter of 2026, you work on the hiring process. That's a huge piece of this process. In spring of 2027, you work on recruitment and placing placement, making sure that you're recruiting host teachers who want to be there. You're recruiting residents to your district who want to be there and taking them through a rigorous process. You also work on defining communication structures to make sure that implementation goes well. And then in the late spring of 20277, you plan your summer training and work on what the rest of implementation year will look
012like. In the implementation year, there are three core pieces. You have your site visits and there will be two of those. Governance and imple implementation team meetings and those happen multiple times throughout the year. Governance at least quarterly and then and then sustainability and scale meetings because again the goal is to be able to sustain the reallocation of those funds to meet the cost match of the prep residency allotment. This is an overview of implementation year activities. There are actions that the EP and district will take including making sure there are regular check check-ins, tracking progress, and helping to set up logistics. The TA provider, which is your ESC fellow, conducts those site visits, shares that data, and supports governance and facilitating sustainability meetings. And these are the major activities of the year. Two to
013three site visits depending on the needs, four governance meetings, regular virtual check-ins, and then again that sustainability piece is a major part of the implementation year. If you want to see more of TSS in action, I invite you to visit our website. We have four case studies now of districts and EP partnerships across the state who have been able to make this a successful program and continue to sustain their residencies. So let's talk about the grant specifics. You will see this slide multiple times throughout this webinar. Please know that in order to apply for the Texas strategic staffing for residency grant, you must also apply to the prep pre-ervice residency program. To be clear, generally lasso 4 has only included grants. This year it is also including aotments. So lasso grants are just like they
014have always been. School systems are selected for funding based on a set of priority points or tiers. In the case of TSS, it'll be based on tiers. The prep allotment is different. All school systems are selected for funding that meet eligibility criteria and commit to statutoily based requirements. So a grant goes through the traditional application process whereas an aotment is if you meet the eligibility and commit to the requirements you will be selected for funding. You've heard me mention the prep pre-ervice residency program and I wanted to just take a second to tie it to the lasso 4 grant. So with the prep pre-ervice residency program, all eligible applicants meet who meet the criteria and make commitments will get the funding. The Texas strategic strategic staffing for residency grant has 50 awards available and the
015selection is based on tiers. In the second year of this grant, you will learn how to reallocate and reinvest district funds so that you can then pay the cost match for the prep residency program aotment. While our t current TSS grant will not fund the cost match requirement, you will learn through this process how to fund the cost match requirement. So this example if you have been if you have been to the pre-ervice residency webinar you have seen this example. So initially school districts will get $12,000. 2,000 of course of that has to go to the host teacher. 10,000 will go to the district to help meet the $20,000 minimum salary for residents. That leaves a $10,000 school system match. As you can see here, Texas Strategic Staffing Technical Assistance will help school systems learn
016how to reallocate and reinvest that funding to meet this cost match. And as you can see here, there will be other areas and other ways to get funding for this cost match, but TSS is going to help you figure out the best way to reallocate those funds. So, who is eligible to apply for this 2628 TSS grant? Eligible school systems must remember submit a lasso4 application for the prep preservice residency program. In addition to applying for for TSS, you must have a signed EP verification form from each EP partner that has the ESPC approved Texas teacher residency preparation route. That list is on our website on the teacher residency's website and the form is included in the application. If you are recipient of the 2025 2027 Texas strategic staffing grant for sustainable paid teacher residencies
017or the 2024 2025 sustainable residency continu continuation grant you are not eligible to receive this TSS grant. So some of our program assurances you will assure that the staffing lead serves 20% at least 20% of their time and effort to overseeing this year's grant. You'll have they will help you develop clear companion guides. Share you will need to share data with your technical assistance provider to help inform decisions. You will also submit data to TEA on grant implementation and outcomes. You will receive multiple surveys that are asking you to submit data and information. The applicant which is you will also design and implement a implement a strategic staffing model plan that ensures that the model is sustainably funded by the school systems cost match requirement and prep aotment residency program funds by the school year
0182829 and ensure that a model is planned that includes sustainable cost matching for teacher residents and host teacher stipens salaries. So, while you will get funding from the prep aotment, you'll also need to ensure that whatever model you choose allow choose allows you to take funding from local funds and reallocate and reinvest to help with those stipens. There's also asurances for the school system and EP partnership. Remember, you will have to establish a partnership with at least one EP that has been approved to offer the Texas teacher residency preparation route or enhanced certificate and agree to the following. A sign letter of commitment orou with the ESC provider which generally they will provide and show you how to complete and confirm their commitment to the process. You will set shared goals, hold structured governance meetings
019at least quarterly with your EP, work collaboratively with your EP partners to design a strateg strategic staffing model and stipens, and adhere to all educator preparation program requirements for residents, which are outlined in chapter 228 of the TAC, and provide preferential hiring to to the greatest extent possible to teach your residents to complete their residency and earn an enhanced certificate. With your technical assistance provider, you will work with them to make key decisions and design student structures that will continue and can continue after the end of technical assistance. Ensure that you have designated a team of leaders for the from the school system, the campuses, and encouraging EPS to actively participate in training and technical support activities that will begin next school year and attend EP sustainability meetings with the technical assistance provider in the
020second year. This time commitment chart gives you an idea of what folks in your district would need to commit to in order to make this a successful program. Now, this is not exhaustive of all of the things you will need to do, but it does give you a good eye on what can what is expected and know that our technical assistance providers are well trained to tailor the program and design and implementation to the needs of the district. So, some highlights from our application. Again, remember that in order to apply for the Texas Strategic Staffing Residency Grant, applicants must also apply to the PREP residency pre-ervice program. So, there are four tiers in our scoring criteria. Tier one is going to fund up to 30 awards. What we will do is take all of our
021applicants and rank them in order from greatest to fewer to fewest number of new hires with no previous experience using data from the new hire dashboard. Next, we will select the top 30 applicants based on that rank who have not previously participated in any Texas strategic staffing residency programs and are implementing 165 or more instructional days. With those 30 applicants, if there is a tie, all school systems in the tie will be fully funded and the remaining applicants will move to the second tier of selection. In the second se tier of selection, we will narrow the pool to applicants that have a new EP partner for this either this school year 2526 or the 2026 2027 school year and are implementing 165 or more instructional days. Folks in this tier may have participated in past
022TSS grants. However, they are still not eligible if they are participating in the 2025 to 2027 strategic staffing grant and if they participated in the 2024 2025 residency continuation grant. We will select the top 20 applicants of this pool and then again rank them in order from greatest to fewer number of new teacher hires with no previous experience. In the case of a tie at 20 applicants, all applicants in the tie will be fully funded if funding is available. If funding has been exhausted and it is not possible to fund all applicants fully in the tie, we may split the f the tide split fund the ties or fund up to only 19 applicants. Everyone remaining will then move into the third tier of selection. Excuse me. In the third tier of selection, all remaining
023applicants who have an appointed board of managers will be selected. We know that th that board of managers may not have been selected, but it will be districts with an appointed board of managers and or with at least 5 years of unacceptable accountability ratings. In the case of a tie, all school systems in the tie will be fully funded if funding is possible. If not, again, we will split funding and the remaining applicants will move into the fourth tier. If there are any awards remaining, we will again rank the applicants in order based on fewest number of new hires, greatest number of new hires to fewest number and we they will be awarded in that order. Again, if we can fully fund, if there is a tie, we will. If not, we will split fund
024the ties or fund only up to the total amount available for the grant. This grant will not require an interview. All of our educational service providers are approved to provide inind technical assistance for this grant and the Texas strategic staffing team will match school systems with the appropriate ESC. So if you were awarded the grant, we will reach out to you via email to let you know who your technical assistance provider is and then they will take the ball from there. Remember that we do have guidelines that we must follow. first equal treatment of all persons. And again, we cannot um award based all of your awards have to be based on the fact of all complying with all federal and state laws. So, where do we go forward from here? Well, today is our
025last residency webinar and we have completed all of the other ones um except GIO has their last one today at 2:00. Please know that all of the ones that have already occurred, those recordings will be on our website for you to take a look at. So, we are here where we are in that application window. Tomorrow, we are wrapping up all of our webinars. We will then start office hours next week. Scoring and vetting will begin the week of December 12th and we anticipate announcing by February 2nd. If you are awarded the grant, we will go through the egrants process with negotiations with the goal of having no goods issued between March 5th and May March 5th and May 5th. Remember, applications must be submitted by December 3rd at 5:00 p.m. Central. You, your district
026should have been, your superintendent should have been emailed a link on October 3rd. If not, within this deck, there is a link to go in and request a new application. The PDF of the application is also posted on the website if you want to take a look at take a look at it before you start. And remember that applications must be signed by the superintendent to be accepted. So, if you want to apply, make sure you get some time on their calendar to have them sign. Office hours for this particular grant will be on October 30th from 1 to 1:30. Please register for that so we can get an idea of how many folks will be joining us. There will also be two application support webinars specifically on how to complete the application. The first
027one on October 27th from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Central time and November 3rd at 5 beginning at 5:00 p.m. Central time. Again, if you have questions, please make sure that you are looking on the lasso for website for the FAQ. There's also a general FAQ that includes spec non-specific questions about lasso4 overall. If you have questions about the application process or need technical assistance with the application, please reach out to the lasso4 team at lasso.t texas.gov gov. For questions specific to TSS, please reach out to our inbox, we will have a um auto reply. So if it is a specific question about the application, it will be published in the FAQ. If you decide if you are awarded and then decide that you do not want the lasso for grant, please know it's an informal
028disc discretionary process. So declines and changes and change requests are not advisable. If declines are requested, they will be considered on a case-bycase basis for the school systems and they could raise your school systems federal grant risk level in the coming year. Again, here is our timeline and some final um followup for you. So the application window is October 3rd through December 3rd. We are wrapping up webinars tomorrow. Your next steps. Please familiarize yourself with the lasso4 website. Communicate and share information with the with your internal teams and those folks who are responsible for decision- making when it comes to grants. Register for any final webinars that you have not attended. There are tons of resources available to help you make a decision on which grant is best for your system. We have the best
029fit guidance, one pagers, and an eligibility and prioritization guidance doc. Again, all of that information can be found on the LASO website at tea.ex.gov/lasso. Thank you all for being here today. Remember, if you have questions, you can drop them in the Q&A function on the webinar and those will be answered in your in the FAQ. Have a wonderful day.