The Texas OnCourse Educator Blog

We’re thrilled to introduce the new Texas OnCourse Academy. We’ve made significant upgrades to improve your learning experience, and we’re excited to unveil the new and improved resource. Old links to the Academy will no longer function. Please update your bookmarks with this new URL: https://texasoncourse.instructure.com/.

When students decide to join the military, they have a few important decisions ahead of them. They must decide which branch to join, whether to enlist after high school or commission to become an officer, and choose what type of job they would like to do. For students to choose the path that is right for them, they must understand their options to determine what is best for their needs and interests.

High school students have so much on their plate. If they’re pursuing some form of higher education, their last years of high school are likely to be filled with exams, applications, essays and one big question: How am I going to pay for this?

Programs of study provide high school students with the opportunity to study their career field of interest in depth so that they are better prepared for postsecondary education and the workforce. A program of study is a comprehensive, structured approach for delivering academic and career and technical education (CTE).

Texas leads the nation in the number of public policies designed to improve college, career, and military readiness (known around here as CCMR). The state’s emphasis on postsecondary readiness is also reflected in its accountability system, which includes a strong focus on CCMR indicators.

In 2019, the state legislature passed House Bill 3, the school finance bill. Among other items, the bill allocates funding to improve college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) for all students. This funding is known as the CCMR outcomes bonus. 

Texas’ A–F accountability system is built on three separate domains: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps. Each domain receives a score, which is factored into a campus and district’s overall accountability grade.

Admissions tests have long been an essential part of the college application process. The admissions test process includes test prep, taking the actual test (sometimes multiple times), interpreting scores, and finally, submitting it to the institution of interest. In the era of COVID-19, testing cancelations and barriers to entry called for change. Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, thousands of colleges and universities nationwide have become “test-optional,” affirming that they will not penalize students for the absence of a standardized test score. Some of those schools are in Texas. Some will remain test-optional even once the pandemic passes.

When bluebonnets carpet Texas roadsides, it's time for many juniors to make plans to take the SAT. Given the impact an SAT score can have on admission decisions and scholarships, we want to ensure that students are as ready as possible when test day comes. That's where Khan Academy SAT prep comes in.

For many students and families, especially first-generation college students, interpreting ACT test results may seem like interpreting a foreign language. It is important to help students and families understand what their scores mean and how they can use the scores during the college application process.