Best In Class Impact Report Teaser

THE BEST-IN-CLASS COALITION

Seven years of effort & a lifetime of teacher effectiveness impact across Texas

BY THE NUMBERS ACROSS SEVEN SHORT YEARS:

students were directly impacted by BIC THE WORK HAS CONTINUED TO EXPAND AND NOW REACHES 57% OF TEXAS’ PUBLIC-SCHOOL STUDENTS (3.1M) THROUGH THE TEXAS IMPACT NETWORK

BIC-supported TIA systems statewide have drawn down $120M since 2021 and designated funds for over 5K teachers

BIC INITIATIVES WERE LAUNCHED IN 15 OF 20 OF TEXAS’ EDUCATION SERVICE CENTERS in philanthropic funds invested in BIC, and successes of BIC initiatives led to $3B being invested by the Texas Legislature in state resources since 2019, such as the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) SUPPORTED 58 ACCELERATING CAMPUS EXCELLENCE (ACE) IMPLEMENTATIONS STATEWIDE ADDING 26K QUALITY SEATS IN TEXAS SCHOOLS

45K benefitted from BIC

districts across Texas have been supported by BIC

students in Texas attend a school district impacted by a BIC initiative.

In Spring 2016, a joint venture, called the Best-In-Class Coalition (BIC), between Educate Texas – an initiative fueled by the Communities Foundation of Texas – and The Commit Partnership came into fruition.

Bringing together two leading, uniquely missioned, Texas education non-profit organizations to drive greater teacher effectiveness across the state by amplifying, scaling and expanding on the great work of one public school district – and their own respective organizations – was a novel approach. Seven years later and $10 million in philanthropic funds invested, that decision proved to be seminal for education in Texas as it scaled district efforts into statewide policy and programmatic impact.

BEST IN CLASS BENEFITED OVER 100,000 STUDENTS & 45,000 TEACHERS IN TEXAS

A first-of-its-kind education joint venture In 2016, the Best-In-Class Coalition joint venture between Educate Texas and The Commit Partnership supported by Communities Foundation of Texas was formed with the goal of increasing the number of effective, diverse teachers and school leaders, who would then grow the proportion of Texas students on track for college and career success.

“We unequivocally believe that the number one inschool factor for student success is the effectiveness of the teacher and therefore we leveraged the strengths and the capacity of both organizations [Educate Texas and Commit] and leaned hard into the successes of Dallas ISD’s innovative effective teaching strategies and programs with Best-In-Class,”

These pillars, or continuum of attracting, preparing, developing and retaining the most effective teachers, were then brought to life through a handful of strategic, key initiatives.

In short, BIC’s strategy was to: • Amplify the great teacher effectiveness work already in progress by Dallas ISD; • Learn from those effective teaching efforts and replicate them across Texas; and • Ensure a system and state funding existed to pay/retain the most effective teachers.

– Educate Texas Executive Director John Fitzpatrick.

The partnership addressed the goal through four primary pillars:

ATTRACT

PREPARE

DEVELOP

RETAIN

Attract a greater number of talented, diverse candidates as teachers and school leaders.

Better prepare future teachers and school leaders to meet the needs of students in our region.

Support teachers and school leaders with opportunities for ongoing learning and development.

Increase retention of our most promising and effective leaders.

“We saw a unique opportunity – and a pressing need – to scale an incredibly effective approach to reward and retain our most effective teachers across Texas and to ensure the system was financially sustainable. Seven years later, we’re proud to say that our collective efforts paid off remarkably well for Texas education and the children it serves.”

– Commit Partnership Chairman & CEO Todd Williams.

Critical Initiatives & Inflection Points

BEST IN CLASS TIA SUPPORT HELPED DISTRICTS DRAWDOWN OVER $50,000,000 IN FY23 ALONE.

Across the seven-year joint venture, BIC not only established the baseline for effective teaching across Texas in conjunction with Dallas ISD, but it also scaled best practices statewide across 50+ districts, collectively educating over 11% of students in the state.

Key programmatic highlights and inflection points include:

TIA support by the numbers DRAWDOWN

• Leading the development and expansion of Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE), a school turnaround program which placed and incentivized placing the most effective teachers at the lowest performing schools, from Dallas ISD to 14 districts and 58 campuses across the state.

DESIGNATION 5,090 teachers were designated in FY23. Nearly 70% increase in teachers designated in FY23 compared to FY21.

DISTRICTS 30 districts received support that served over 600,000 students in 2022.

Supported districts across 18 different counties throughout the state.

ACE CAMPUSES ACROSS THE STATE SAW POSITIVE IMPACT ON THEIR STUDENTS STAAR SCORES DURING SUPPORT. ACE SUPPORT BY CAMPUSES IN COUNTY

PERFORMANCE On average, during COVID, ACE campuses saw smaller declines in learning loss compared to non-ACE campuses in Dallas County.

ACCOUNTABILITY 55% of campuses supported through ACE saw at least one letter grade increase from time of implementation to 2022.

DISTRICTS 58 campuses supported across 14 districts. 125,245 students have been supported across these campuses, since 2015.

• Providing proof points from ACE and testimony from teachers, district leaders, and staff that led to the blueprint for the state’s $1 billion investment for districts to implement and scale the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA.) – Funding has been reupped over the past several legislative sessions for a total investment of $3 billion.

REGIONAL FOCUS AREA

Districts awarded over $120,000,000 since FY21. 85% increase in drawdown available to campuses supported from FY21 to FY23.

– Benefited over 100,000 students across Texas and achieved incredible results including Dallas’ Annie Webb Blanton Elementary School, a low SES school outperforming high-SES Highland Park Elementary School.

ACE support by the numbers

BEST IN CLASS TIA SUPPORT

BY DISTRICTS IN COUNTY

REGIONAL FOCUS AREA

• Translating the legislative recommendation through Best-In-Class and the Texas Impact Network (a second joint venture with Commit) to enable nearly 40% of the districts across the state to implement the TIA opportunity.

– BIC supported 30 early adopting school systems in designing and implementing their TIA systems. The work continued to expand through TIN which now impacts 481 school systems educating 57% of Texas’ public-school students (3.1M).

• Funding the development of TeachDFW, part of the national Teach.org online platform, which supported efforts to recruit more diverse candidates into the teaching profession and guide them through high quality preparation programs.

The website yielded 38K unique hits as a result of the campaign.

• Supporting and expanding the Grow Your Own Strategy within Dallas ISD and working with several other districts to understand how to build a robust approach to work with community college students and institutions of higher education.

• Developing the Dallas County Regional High School to Teacher Pathway Community of Practice which has mobilized 10 school districts and seven colleges and universities in North Texas committed to attracting and preparing high school students to enter the teaching profession through high quality dual credit programming and university-based teacher preparation programs.

THANK YOU DISTRICT PARTNERS

FUNDING PARTNERS

Impact made possible by our district partners Aldine ISD Alief ISD Anderson-Shiro Consolidated ISD Anthony ISD Austin ISD Brooks County ISD Canutillo ISD Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Cedar Hill ISD Cleburn ISD Crowley ISD Dallas ISD Denton ISD DeSoto ISD Duncanville ISD Ector County ISD Edgewood ISD El Paso ISD Fabens ISD Fort Worth ISD Frisco ISD Fruitvale ISD Garland ISD Grand Prairie ISD Harmony Public Schools Houston ISD IDEA Public Schools Iola ISD Lancaster ISD Leadership Academy Network (FWISD)

With heartfelt thanks to our generous funders Lubbock ISD Marshall ISD McAllen ISD Mesquite ISD Midland ISD Nacogdoches ISD Navosoto ISD Olfen ISD Ore City ISD Pawnee ISD Pflugerville ISD Pharr San Juan Alamo ISD Plano ISD Richardson ISD Rochelle ISD San Antonio ISD San Elizaro ISD Sinton ISD Slaton ISD Somerville ISD Springlake-Earth ISD Stafford ISD Temple ISD Tornillo ISD Transformation Waco Tyler ISD Uplift Education Victoria ISD Waco ISD

Communities Foundation of Texas Bank of America Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Byrne Family Foundation Ellen Wood Fluor Foundation Mike and Mary Terry Foundation M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation Rainwater Charitable Foundation Raise Your Hand Texas Texas Education Agency

Visit edtx.org for the full report