Who? Central Texans.
Over the last two years, thousands of Central Texans including dozens of organizations, and well over a thousand of education, community, and business leaders have come together to create The Blueprint for Educational Change.
The Blueprint is our community’s strategic plan to address the challenges we face in preparing our students for the global competitive environment of the 21st century.
The goals and strategies detailed in The Blueprint for Educational Change grew out of three guiding principles that inspired our efforts.
Guiding Principles
Compile and apply objective data and key indicators to improve performance rather than drive accountability and compliance.
The Blueprint for Educational Change will:
- Articulate the regional educational landscape, identifying needs and priorities across traditional boundaries.
- Measure and chart progress and best practices toward our common goals.
- Amplify the region’s voice in relation to key statewide and national legislative efforts.
The region’s greatest asset is the vast talent of educational institutions, teachers, community based organizations and parents committed to improving educational outcomes for our students.
The Blueprint for Educational Change will:
- Align priorities, policies and resources among these institutions and organizations.
- Expand the scale and reach of their successes across traditional boundaries.
The level of community involvement in our region’s educational institutions, community based organizations and citizens will directly affect the success of our children and our region’s economy.
The Blueprint for Educational Change will:
- Accelerate progress by identifying opportunities to leverage resources, troubleshoot barriers, and build consensus.
- Improve the level of communication between institutions and the people they serve (students and parents).
- Increase the level of citizen and community involvement in education and promote a culture of learning in our region.
The Blueprint for Educational ChangeTM belongs to the Central Texas community. We deeply appreciate the many partnering organizations who participated in its development and review:
Over 60 Central Texas Business Leaders Austin Community College District
|
Any Baby Can |
Kettering FoundationLeadership Austin |
Implementing the Action Strategies in The Blueprint for Educational Change will be no small feat.
It will take the continued effort and dedication of the hundreds of organizations, and thousands of individuals that work in these areas everyday and understand best what works on the front lines. Working together, The Blueprint Partners will:
- Articulate the needs and the common priorities.
- Align and leverage public and private resources.
- Accelerate progress in student and community outcomes.
The organizing structure of The Blueprint for Educational Change centers around establishing Champion Teams for each goal.
| Champion Team Members |
| Goal Captains: are community, business or education leaders who commit to leading the effort toward the goal for a defined period of time. |
| Goal Leaders: Represent a small cross section of business, community, education, and policy leaders from across the region who will work with the Captains to convene Champions, prioritize action strategies, define critical standards, and track indicators to mark progress toward the goal. |
Goal Taskforce(s): Depending on need, Goal Leaders may convene taskforces to solve particular issues or set standards around the goal. For instance, there are two Taskforces already identified:
|
| Champion Teams: represent community and business leaders, as well as those working directly in and with schools, who can align and coordinate programs and resources (financial resources, volunteerism, expertise, policy) around the Action Strategies. These teams will generally meet quarterly and will track efforts through regular “report cards” to the community. |
| Constituents: represent the broad base of community and organizational leaders who are goal experts “on the ground” and focused on implementing programs and evaluating impact and best practices. |
Goal #1 - Children enter kindergarten school ready.
Goal Captain: Success by 6 |
| Any Baby Can- is an Austin-based service provider for more than 5,000 of our community's youngest, sickest, and poorest children and their families. |
| Born Learning – is a national organization supporting ways to enhance learning as part of the everyday life of a child. |
| Family Connections – is a local service organization providing resources for early childhood education and positive parenting to Austin families. |
| Rural Capital Area Workforce Board - provides financial assistance for childcare services to working and training adults. |
| Success by 6 – is a program of the United Way Capital Area, and is a collaboration of 30 groups working to ensure that at six-years-old every child in Central Texas is prepared to become a healthy, happy, and smart student. |
| TEEM – Texas Early Education Model is a public/private model of enhanced pre-K programming developed by the State Center for Early Childhood Development and based on defined curriculum, professional development, and assessment tools. |
| Texas Early Childhood Education Center (TECEC) – is a statewide policy body focused on building a system of quality early care. |
| WorkSource – is a primary provider of financial assistance for childcare services to working and training adults for over 3,000 children a day in Travis County. |
Goal #2 - Central Texas eliminates achievement gaps for all students while improving overall performance.
Goal Captain: TBD |
| Austin Area Urban League – life skills, youth empowerment, and youth employment partnership programs are designed to provide channels to success for students from traditionally challenged backgrounds. |
| Austin Partners in Education –channels business and community volunteers into the AISD district, and provides reading and math in-classroom volunteer coaches to enhance student performance. |
| Breakthrough Collaborative- partners middle-school students with college and high school students who serve as teachers, role models and mentors, providing real-life examples that it’s ‘cool to be smart’. |
| Communities in Schools – places trained social workers in schools to support students who are struggling, primarily with social and non-academic issues that block their education success. |
| Ready by 21 Coalition – is a coalition of youth services providers aligning collective services and metrics to support youth who face challenges to achieve self-sufficiency by 21. |
| River City Youth Foundation – is a model of comprehensive neighborhood-based youth services that maximizes every child's potential and improves communities. The Foundation focuses on the community of Dove Springs. |
| The Austin Project – a local non-profit dedicated to helping children overcome barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential. Their academic program works closely with Austin ISD on several initiatives across a range of grades. |
| United Way Capital Area – Youth Leadership Council has adopted closing the 8th grade achievement gap as its primary council goal. |
Goal #3 - Students graduate college-and-career ready and prepared for a lifetime of learning.
Goal Captain: TBD |
| Austin Partners in Education - provides volunteer coaches to AISD schools for students who are just below the college ready HERC standard to gain college ready skills. |
| AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) - is an in-school program to ensure that students in the middle of their class succeed in a rigorous curriculum and outside activities to increase post-secondary enrollment. |
| Breakthrough Collaborative - partners middle-school students with college and high school students who serve as teachers, role models and mentors, providing real-life examples that it’s ‘cool to be smart’. |
| College Connection - a program of Austin Community College that has become a state model encouraging students to continue their education by having all seniors in partner districts fill out college applications and financial aid forms and apply and gain admittance to ACC. |
| College Forward - provides “near peer” college preparatory services to motivated, economically-disadvantaged students, in order to facilitate their transition to college and make the process exciting and rewarding. |
| Communities in Schools – places trained social workers in schools to support students who are struggling, primarily with social and non-academic issues that block their education success. |
| Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce - focuses its business-driven education and talent efforts on getting more students ready for college and transitioning into post-secondary education. |
| Ready by 21 – ia a coalition of youth services providers in Travis County aligning services and metrics to support youth who face challenges to achieve self-sufficiency by 21. |
| Student Futures Project – a joint project of the Ray Marshall Center and Skillpoint Alliance in 9 Central Texas districts that tracks graduates beyond high school. |
| Texas High School Project - is dedicated to all Texas students graduating high school ready for college and career success. Working in partnership with the TEA, THSP supports high school redesign, model charter schools, T-STEM and early college start programs in Texas high schools. |
Goal #4 - Central Texas as a community prepares children to succeed.
Goal Captain: TBD |
| Austin Area Urban League – life skills, youth empowerment, and youth employment partnership programs are designed to provide channels to success for students from traditionally challenged backgrounds. |
| Austin Partners in Education –channels business and community volunteers into the AISD district. |
| Austin Voices for Education and Youth – provides a voice to communities, especially students and youth, in improving our public schools. |
| Children’s Optimal Health – is a regional collaborative using data mapping to address the holistic needs of children, to help them be healthy and self-sustaining. |
| Faith communities, including the multi-denominational Austin Interfaith - lead the effort to involve neighborhoods and communities in schools. |
| Ready by 21 – is a coalition of youth services providers in Travis County aligning services and metrics to support youth who face challenges to achieve self-sufficiency by 21. |
| United Way Capital Area – The UWCA launched its Community Agenda campaign 3 years ago to understand and focus on the root causes of community need rather than just addressing the symptoms. One of three root cause platforms is education. |
What role does the E3 Alliance play?
The E3 Alliance and its member organizations led the development of The Blueprint for Educational Change and will facilitate the Champion Teams across the community in the ongoing effort to achieve the goals detailed in the strategic plan.
The E3 Alliance is a regional collaborative dedicated to developing an objective data map to better align educational systems and practices to drive higher outcomes for students and ensure a more efficient allocation of resources to increase our competitiveness as a region.
The E3 Alliance acts as a catalyst for change, and is the P-16 Council for the Central Texas region.
