1. Teach For America & IDEA in the RGV
2010: Investing in Innovation Grant (i3)
A unique partnership on this grant between PSJA ISD, IDEA Public Schools, and Teach For America focuses on improving human capital pipelines in school districts
2013: Teach For America alumni win national awards
Jennifer Corroy (RGV’04) and Rob Garza (RGV’02) were recognized for transforming students’ lives through extraordinary leadership
2014: 1,400th RGV corps member since founding
2001: IDEA founded by Teach For America alumni
IDEA Public Schools is founded by Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama
2004: 500th RGV corps member since founding
1989
1991
2001
2004
2008
2009
2010
2012
2013
2014
1989: No student data
Texas Education Agency does not have Region One student performance data, despite having it for all other areas in the state
1991: Teach For America Launches in RGV
2008: Brownsville ISD receives Broad Prize for Urban Education
Recognized for narrowing performance gaps between Hispanic and White students across Texas
2009: 1,000th RGV corps member since founding
PSJA ISD recognized for early college programs
PSJA has a very successful early College program, with four High Schools designated as Early College and approximately 1,700 High School students enrolled in college courses through dual and concurrent enrollment programs

2. The Human Capital Pipeline
Attract highest quality candidates
Recruitment
Selection
Onboarding
Staff Development
Evaluation
Career Progression
Make timely decisions about retention, promotion, dismissal and strategic placement
Teacher & Leader effectiveness drives student performance
Utilize clearly defined and measurable student achievement goals combined with observation and feedback
Utilize an ever improving, scientific process to select new staff
Train and coach new hires early and often
Create and implement aligned, consistent coaching and training that enables excellence in current roles and/or progress to other roles

3. Lessons Learned: Partnering across Institutions
A partnership must be formed based on an authentic need from all parties that has been derived from shared beliefs, not shared programming.
Define commonalities to discover areas for mutual benefit
Project deadline created that forced a working relationship
DANNY KING (4 MIN)
Partnership must be an authentic need from both parties—based on shared beliefs not necessarily shared programing
Example – we both new we needed structured Recruitment, Selection, Training and Development
Example – We agreed that clearly defining what great teachers and leaders look like is the cornerstone to hiring, development and evaluation. But our exact definition doesn’t always match. So rather than focus on those small differences, we’ve created parallel definitions of teaching excellence and partnered on the common principals of our rubrics.
LEONORE (3 MIN)
Lessons Learned while forming our partnership:
First define commonalities to discover benefits
Defined need for high quality teachers and what that looks like in practice.
Relationship was built while developing a program that had to be accomplished on a firm deadline
The result from the pressures of the project deadline was a collaborative working relationship
Not until this did we have strong, trusting relationships across employees at both districts
Ex- This is why we have recently created learning communities centered around end goals, like the instructional coaching summit
Partnership unfolds into more than you initially think
Ex- Coaching Summit
TOM (3 MIN)
The greatest lesson learned is that our shared focus on increased student achievement is the central way we can come together. All of the programs we’ve created together are great, but we should really only invest in them if they have a measurable impact on our student outcomes. Although we won’t have our third party validated results from our evaluators until the end of the project, we are tracking to meet some important metrics
– One goal of this project is to increase the # of new and experienced teachers and other instructional leaders that receive high quality training and support. To date, we have trained 538 at PSJA and 420 at IDEA
Improved teacher retention is something IDEA has experienced through this work as teachers feel more supported and that they can develop at professionals. This year, IDEA is 4% higher than previous years even through rapid expansion and organizational change
Overall, this is about student impact, and together, students at 75 schools across both districts have received instruction from a teacher or leader that has been through this training. We look forward to monitoring the academic achievement at the end of this project at well.
Outcome was a strong, trusting relationship across employees and organizations
Partnership has created new opportunities we didn’t initial foresee

4. Collective Impact: A Framework
Collective Impact, By John Kania & Mark Kramer Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations.

6. Over 40 Organizations and 100+ Individuals Are Currently Working Together on this RGV Collective Impact Effort

7. RGV FOCUS Communities united for educational success
All RGV learners will achieve a degree or credential that leads to a meaningful career
We will achieve this by strengthening each step of the educational pathway; better connecting our education system; and aligning community resources to provide the supports learners need to succeed throughout high school and postsecondary in order to pursue a meaningful career in the RGV and beyond.
Our
Vision
All RGV students graduate high school college ready
All high school graduates transition to postsecondary within a year
All postsecondary students can achieve a degree or credential on time
All postsecondary graduates can be employed within 6 months
Our
Goals
We are focused on students
and their experiences, strengths, challenges, and aspirations
The strategies we pursue are transformational both for individual institutions and the RGV at large
We collaborate across institutions and sectors, and invest the resources to ensure this collaboration will be sustained
Our work is community centered and depends on the voices of many organizations and individuals across the RGV
We are evidence driven in our approach and use shared data and metrics to drive constant improvement across the region
Why This Work Will Succeed