Texas College Access Network ( TxCAN )

1. Texas College Access Network (TxCAN) November 16, 2011 North Texas Alignment Committee Kick-off Planning Session www.thsp.org

2. Executive Summary • 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 We intend to make every meeting action-oriented and appreciate your active participation

3. Agenda • 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

4. But first… great North Texas Kick-off event! “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 • “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

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

7. Recap: three strategic areas of focus for TxCAN • 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? Awareness Impact Measurement Alignment

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 (9th 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

11. Alignment: what are our objectives and strategies? Awareness • Align college access services so that resources are used more efficiently, duplication of services are minimized, and better outcomes are achieved • Convene key stakeholders regularly to provide forum for collaboration, networking and shared learnings • Identify and disseminate best practices and tools • 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 Objective Impact Measurement Alignment Strategies THSP Alignment Committee Activities

12. So how will we do this? Let’s think about our phases of work for the activities… Planning Content Development Delivery of Best Practices & Training • 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…

13. As we discuss, please consider the following questions for discussion • 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? We greatly appreciate your input on this process

14. LET’S DRAFT THIS TODAY PLANNING: DRAFT schedule of key college access activities Illustrative Introduce Plan Deadline

15. Team exercise (I) And what are the deadlines for each of these? • 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 • ??? 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?

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

17. Next Steps • 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…

18. APPENDIX

19. Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (I) We’ll start working on these activities today…

20. Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (II) We’ll need each of you to help with these activities…

21. Alignment Committee: Recommended Activity Workplan (III) We’ll need each of you to help with these activities…