The Texas OnCourse Educator Blog

In our first monthly webinar of the 2020–2021 school year, over 375 educators from across the state registered to tap in to an open discussion on back to school during COVID-19. We covered CCMR updates and tools for accountability, data-driven strategies for programs, and Texas OnCourse resources that can enhance remote teaching, counseling, and advising practices.

Serving our students with disabilities can be an extra challenge in a virtual environment. This blog post, originally published in July 2019, will help you map out your supports for students with disabilities. 

Hello everyone, and thanks for tuning in to this week’s Facebook Live. Each Thursday at four p.m., we update you on the newest COVID-related education information for Texas.

As we enter an uncertain and uncharted year, we at Texas OnCourse will be sharing resources to help you hit the ground running. Look for time-critical posts from us now through Labor Day here, on the blog, as well as on our social media and in our weekly subscription email, the Playbook.

Hello! And welcome back to our weekly Facebook Live series on education-related COVID-19 updates. My colleagues and I all hope you have been able to find some respite this summer. We know a lot of you are preparing to return to school in a virtual or hybrid mode, and all of us are facing a completely uncharted year. We’re here to help!

You may be aware of Texas OnCourse’s College and Career Readiness Curriculum, formerly referred to as the Middle School Curriculum Guide. This curriculum is designed to help educators teach college and career readiness in grades 6–8. To date, this resource has helped over 1,950 Texas educators meet TEKS requirements by using plug and play middle school lesson plans designed to make career exploration fun. 

The spread of coronavirus has resulted in a plethora of educational pivots since March, and the college admissions process has been no exception. With SAT and ACT testing dates canceled or postponed and testing centers closed, institutes of higher education have reconsidered the role that these exams play in admissions.

Providing equitable education and advising for students in the age of virtual learning is more important now than ever. 

Trabian Shorters, best-selling author, social entrepreneur, and leading authority on diversity and inclusion, has been working for years to help foundations and nonprofits change the stories they tell about the communities they support. Many philanthropic organizations start with the challenge or the problem first – “tales of deficit and despair,” as Shorters describes. But this sort of approach stigmatizes communities, contributes to further stereotyping, and can often make change seem impossible. 

With the pandemic forcing school closures, education adjusted. Educators adapted. Students and their families adapted. Then George Floyd, who was raised in Houston, was murdered in another instance of police brutality against black people. Our nation and the world responded to this latest instance of systemic racism with historic protests.