Hello, educators! We had an amazing session on February 11 showcasing updates and data related to the Texas First Program. Our expert guest speakers from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) highlighted informational resources to help keep Texas’ best and brightest students on track for postsecondary success including a student scholarship story that offered educators a unique perspective to the Texas First Program process. Here’s a brief recap of our session:
Overview of Texas First Diploma Program:
The Texas First Early High School Completion program, established by the 87th Texas Legislature, honors Texas’ high achieving students. THECB’s Suzane Morales-Vale highlighted the program’s minimum requirements and introduced the FLATS test, which students can use to fulfill the Languages Other Than English requirement. Additionally, TEA’s Ashley Hermes provided an informational handout outlining the Texas First Program for educators to share with students and their families.
Texas First Scholarship:
The Texas First Scholarship is available to all Texas public institutions of higher education, including all public colleges, universities, and technical colleges. THECB’s Alex Bobe joined our session to explain the Texas First Scholarship process flow and provided educators with details on scholarship amounts and eligibility requirements. Additionally, Bobe showcased the informational Texas First Program Factsheet that outlines eligible institutions, program eligibility, scholarship certificate, and award amounts.
Student Scholarship Story:
During our session, we had the pleasure of introducing Josie Brunner, who shared a successful student scholarship story and offered a unique perspective on the Texas First Scholarship process. She provided tips and strategies for guiding students through the process, highlighting valuable resources such as FAFSA tools, the Subject Assessment Rubric, and the Texas First Diploma Requirement Checklist.
For those of you who couldn’t attend our session, do not worry! You can view our most recent session by clicking here. Our next Professional Learning session on the Texas OnCourse College and Career Readiness Curriculum will take place on March 18. Curriculum writers from Texas OnCourse will share the structure of a lesson and teaching strategies, the curriculum scope and sequence, online student learning modules that support unit content, and how to use the Texas OnCourse Academy to enhance curriculum lessons. We hope to see you there!