Texas College Access Network (TxCAN) November 16, 2011 North Texas Alignment Committee Kick-off Planning Session

THSP has made strong progress in developing the core TxCAN pilot strategy and key initiatives, and received positive feedback at the North Texas TxCAN kick-off event We have identified the need to develop three committees – Awareness, Alignment, and Impact Measurement – and have great participants for each committee Each committee needs to identify leaders to chair each committee who will work with THSP team to help drive TxCAN strategy Today’s meeting is the Alignment Committee’s planning kick-off to discuss the committee’s strategy, key goals, and deliverables. Our goal for the meeting is to gain agreement on the committee strategies and key focus areas, set dates for key activities, plan for upcoming committee meetings and the next full network convening in January Executive Summary 2 We intend to make every meeting action-oriented and appreciate your active participation We intend to make every meeting action-oriented and appreciate your active participation

Introductions & General Feedback from Kickoff Meeting Review Alignment Committee Goals and Network Feedback – Potential challenges & resources needed – Workgroup goals and activity planning Team Activity: Draft Schedule of Events Committee Communications Next Steps 3 Agenda

“As a community, we must work together to increase access to all levels of education, and I applaud each of the organizations working towards that goal.” ~ Mayor Mike Rawlings 4 But first… great North Texas Kick-off event! “TxCAN is one of hopefully many partnerships that will be established in the near future as institutions focused on education in Dallas begin to work even more closely to use common data, share best practices and together drive student success across the region.” ~ Commit! Chair Todd Williams “When I have people that help me with college, it kind of eases me the way into managing my time doing homework and applying for college.” ~ Jennifer Rangel, Molina HS senior

5 Introductions Name Title and Organization Brief overview of your organization Name Title and Organization Brief overview of your organization

6 What we heard from the kick-off event “I appreciate the open dialogue” “Very informative and collaborative” “An introduction of all that attended would have been helpful since some of us were meeting for the first time” “Communication will be key to make this work” “Would have liked more time for discussion/ in groups” “Great opportunity to meet others who are doing similar work in person” “Well organized presentation” “I appreciate the open dialogue” “Very informative and collaborative” “Communication will be key to make this work” “Would have liked more time for discussion/ in groups” “Great opportunity to meet others who are doing similar work in person” “Well organized presentation”

Awareness: –Who is doing what in college access and how can we better inform students of the available resources? Alignment: –How can we work together to achieve better outcomes? Impact Measurement: –How do we know if what we’re doing in college access is working? Recap: three strategic areas of focus for TxCAN 7 Impact Measurement Alignment Awareness

TxCAN GoalKey ActivityDescription 1.Increase AWARENESS of college access services and programs Create Asset Map Develop a sustainable process for tracking college access services Build awareness of services available to students in each region Maintain Communication Develop network-wide strategy to ensure consistent and relevant information is communicated across partners 2.Improve ALIGNMENT of existing college access services & resources Disseminate best practices Identify strong practices that can be shared across the group, particularly among counselors Create tools that allow them to continually refine and improve services Support Staff Development Identify and provide training opportunities for counselors and advisors 3.Provide tools and resources to MEASURE IMPACT of collective and individual efforts Develop College Access service database Identify online portal/ tool to track all student services and interventions consistently Enable data capture and reporting that is accessible to service providers, students, counselors, parents, teachers, etc. Create link to IHE’s for students to ensure greater dialogue and visibility into PS options Create College Access Dashboard Develop a user-friendly snapshot of student’s performance Provide transparent information that enables self-direction from student and clear needs assessment for student’s advisors 8 Recap: TxCAN Goals and Key Activities

9 What we heard: Best Practices Resources Challenges NCAN Counsel on Educational Opportunities ESC National Association for College Admissions Counselors ISD’s P-16 Coordinated Training (wish) Provider of resources to provide training to Counselors Gen-TX AVID College Board/ACT ISD’s and Community Colleges THSP T-STEM Awareness (GenTX) Funding Earlier access or monitor access (9 th grade) Limited access for students (THSP T- STEM)

10 What we heard: Training Resources Challenges After School Workshops Calendar/Roadmap (Opportunity) – By year e.g. Freshman, Senior – Within Year Organizational convenings (counselor/teacher) THECB training Video/Phone Conference/Webinars Annual Conference – train the trainers to reach out to smaller communities No central location of resources Participation Consistent strategy among agencies Sense of urgency and accountability Sharing of best practices among districts/ orgs Funding/ manpower

Alignment: what are our objectives and strategies? 11 Impact Measurement Alignment Awareness Align college access services so that resources are used more efficiently, duplication of services are minimized, and better outcomes are achieved 1.Convene key stakeholders regularly to provide forum for collaboration, networking and shared learnings 2.Identify and disseminate best practices and tools 3.Identify and provide training opportunities for direct service providers, e.g. those that work directly with parents, students or other college access professionals To be discussed THSP Alignment Committee Objective Strategies Activities

12 So how will we do this? Let’s think about our phases of work for the activities… Delivery of Best Practices & Training Delivery of Best Practices & Training Content Development Content Development Planning What should we offer network? e.g. top five topics When should these be offered? Who will provide trainings or best practices? What resources do we already have? What will need to be researched or developed? How will we deliver these? e.g. Webinars, presentations, documents How will we coordinate? We’ll start working on these activities today…

Have we properly identified the correct strategies based on our existing resources or highest areas of need? Have we covered the necessary activities? What are the quick wins? What resources do we need to support these activities? As we discuss, please consider the following questions for discussion We greatly appreciate your input on this process 13

14 PLANNING: DRAFT schedule of key college access activities Key College Access Milestones SepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAug College Exams PSAT SAT / ACT College entrance (e.g. Accuplacer) College Applications Campus research/ visits Applications Financial support FAFSA Scholarships Academic preparation TBD Other (??) Introduce Deadline Plan LET’S DRAFT THIS TODAY Illustrative

What are the critical topics we want to include?  Academic Preparedness  Leadership development  ???  College Exams  ???  Applications  Researching & visiting campuses  Essay Writing  ???  Financial support  FAFSA  Scholarships/Grants  ??? 15 Team exercise (I) And what are the deadlines for each of these? And who will take the lead on each one, for either a best practice or a training? What else do we need to develop this by January?

Standing meetings? How often? Regular communication via conference calls or ? Smaller teams to focus by topic? What else can THSP to do help facilitate the committee’s work? Our Communication: How do we want to work together? 16

Committee coordination  Identify committee chair(s)  Confirm other committee members  Set dates for additional committee meetings  Confirm resources needed for committees Strategy & Planning  Identify teams to support each topic  Plan for January 12th network convening Reminder: THSP will sending a survey next week to capture baseline data of TxCAN’s effectiveness… Next Steps 17

18 APPENDIX

19 Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (I) Area of focusKey Activity Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Responsible: Create Alignment: Identify Committee needs Provide network feedback and input THSP team Determine schedule of college access activities Full Committee Determine strategy for sharing best practices and trainings Share strategy and schedule with network Full Committee We’ll start working on these activities today…

20 Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (II) Area of focusKey Activity Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Responsible: Create Alignment: Identify and disseminate best practices Collect recommendations of best practices Individual Committee members Develop schedule of best practice sharing/ presentations for convenings Full Committee Research additional Best Practices Individual Committee members Identify method to document best practices Full Committee Disseminate best practices THSP Team We’ll need each of you to help with these activities…

21 Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (III) Area of focusKey Activity Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Responsible: Create Alignment: Identify and provide training opportunities for direct service providers Inventory existing trainings for each college access milestone Full Committee Identify gaps and research additional opportunities Full Committee Develop schedule of training opportunities for network and revise as needed Full Committee Share schedule with Network Coordinate each training as needed Individual Committee members We’ll need each of you to help with these activities…