1. Children enter kindergarten school ready

2. Central Texas eliminates Achievement Gaps while improving overall performance

3. Students graduate from high school - college and career ready - and prepared for a lifetime of learning

4. Central Texas, as a community, works with educators to prepare children to succeed in life

Are you a student, parent, community member or interested in the topic? We welcome comments and feedback on these goals!

E3 Alliance’s Blueprint for Change – 2008 Leaders Summit, held January 23rd at the Four Seasons in Austin, was a unique forum that brought together over 150 Central Texas leaders representing a cross-section of business, government, community and education to explore ways to collectively drive the educational future of the region. Summit Leaders worked together to set education priorities that will drive systemic change over the next decade.

Commissioner Raymund Paredes of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board opened the event from a national perspective, emphasizing the need for change. He highlighted the often big disconnect between what the education system produces and what the business market needs. Paredes emphasized that it is in the self-interest of every CEO, college president, superintendent and community leader to commit to true systemic change - not just for their organizations, but for the region and state.

Executive Director, Susan Dawson, shared some of the ground-breaking research that has been undertaken by E3 Alliance, as well as the thousands of hours engaging Central Texas grass roots communities over the last year. Together, this research and the voice of the community provided the input to the Blueprint for Change.

The Blueprint for Change is the regional strategic plan that defines critical leverage points enabling systemic alignment of our education systems from early childhood to workforce prosperity, based on the strategic goals prioritized at this Summit.

The Blueprint for Change will define quantified goals and strategic actions for the alignment of practices and institutions, optimization of resources, needed policy changes, and financial opportunities. The completed Blueprint will provide a way for people at every level to connect into and engage in education reform for our region.

Summit Leaders took the better part of the morning discussing, prioritizing and adopting four strategic education goals based on research and community input compiled by the E3 Alliance. They examined how Central Texas has responded to the educational challenges of the region, and how we could adopt ambitious goals to “move the needle” in educational and economic outcomes.

Senator Kirk Watson then led an inspirational “auction” process where over a hundred leaders from across the region pledged to champion one or more of the selected goals. In his closing remarks, Senator Watson spoke of the centrality of education to the future of Central Texas. “Education is the most socially responsible way to address economic development. We must all become MOTOs (Master Of The Obvious) for education to secure a winning future for every child in Central Texas.”

The summit far surpassed expectations of attendees, presenters and hosts. By combining objective data, community input from across the region and the best ideas of our leaders, we launched the Blueprint for Change for Central Texas.

Please contact us if you would like to add your name to the list of champions for any of the strategic goals at info@e3alliance.org.

Of course, the hours and hours of work that went into planning the event should also be acknowledged. The organizers were Susan Dawson, Hannah Gourgey, Millie Marquis, Meg Moore, Rick Olmos and Taylor Willingham.

Leaders Summit 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rick Olmos
Phone: (512) 223-7244
Email: rolmos@austincc.edu

Helping to Build a Blueprint for Change in Education in Central Texas

An open forum to help shape the education system in Central Texas

The E³ Alliance, in partnership with Austin Voices for Education and Youth and Texas Forums, seeks people willing to take an active role in reshaping education in Central Texas by taking part in the upcoming forums. Recent studies have shown that closing the gaps to education across all groups would benefit the Central Texas region by almost $52 Billion by 2030.

Throughout the months of October and early November, the E³ Alliance will host discussions about the impacts of Achievement Gaps in Education in six communities in the Central Texas region including Austin, Bastrop, Eanes (Westbank), Manor, Round Rock and San Marcos. These moderated discussions will allow each community to examine options for improving education outcomes for all students.

“It is vital that the public have an opportunity to participate in a discussion about education and the achievement gaps that threaten our economic future,” stated Susan Dawson, executive director for the E³ Alliance. Over the past year, the E³ Alliance has conducted objective, ground-breaking, region specific research to identify exactly where gaps are occurring between different groups, as well as trends in achievement. “Strategic decisions about education in Central Texas will require broad support, and these forums are the first step in gaining that support. Please join us to discuss how we can improve the educational future of Central Texas; we need your input. ”

The goal of the forums is to give everyone the opportunity to voice their opinion and share their views and, in turn, provide the community, experts and policy-makers more understanding prior to making decisions and setting education policies. These group discussions will strengthen the community’s standing in the eyes of policy makers and will build consensus and increase clarity within the community.

“These discussions will provide tangible approaches for addressing achievement gaps and a basis for an action plan,” stated Sylvia Acevedo, president and CEO of Communicard, LLC. “Ultimately, these efforts will strengthen the community and move the conversation from individual opinions to reasoned public judgment that supports systemic change.”

These deliberations will culminate in a Regional Delegate Forum November 15, where each community will take part in developing a region-wide plan to close education achievement gaps that will lay groundwork for a Blueprint for Change in Education for Central Texas.

For more information about the discussions in a specific community, to RSVP, or for materials, visit the E³ Alliance website at: www.e3alliance.org

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Conversation Schedule

E3 Alliance has partnered with Texas Forums and Austin Voices to conduct forums on Too Many Children Left Behind: Closing the Achievement Gaps in Central Texas.

We need over 100 moderators to commit to leading three sessions in communities throughout Central Texas in October and November.

During October and November, over 600 people in six communities - Bastrop, Manor, Austin, San Marcos, Eanes, and Round Rock - will deliberate ideas for closing the achievement gaps. In mid-November, delegates from each community will gather at the LBJ Library to develop a region-wide strategy and action steps we can take to make sure that ALL of our youth achieve and thrive and contibute to the vibrant economy and culture of this region.

Click here for more information about the project and the dates of the forums.To participate as a moderator, you must attend one of the following training sessions:

North Training Session
Saturday, September 15, 2007
9:00 am to 2:00 pm
Location: Round Rock High School Lecture Hall
300 Lake Creek Round Rock, Texas 78681
(Register) (Will take you to Texas Forums website)

Central Training Session
Monday, September 24 and Wednesday, September 26, 2007
6 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: United Way Capital Area
2000 E Martin Luther King Jr Austin
(Register) (Will take you to Texas Forums website)

South Training Session
Saturday, September 29, 2007
9 am to 2 pm
Location: St. Edward’s University,
3001 S Congress Ave Austin
(Maloney Room, Top Floor Main Bldg)
(Register) (Will take you to Texas Forums website)

WE HAVE AN ONLINE STORE!!!
Come buy some of the E3 Alliance products and show your support around town!

http://www.cafepress.com/e3alliance

Some of the recent activities of the E³ Alliance are outlined here.

Univision Outreach

After a fruitful meeting with Univision, board member Sylvia Acevedo has begun doing weekly broadcasts around education topics of interest to the Latino community. These interviews will include much of the data E³ Alliance has gathered from the Central Texas region. The interviews will air Tuesdays during the 5 pm local news on Univision KAKW Channel 62 (Channel 13 TWC). Thanks, Sylvia!

Information Focus Groups

E³ Alliance is holding focus groups with our target school districts around new data sets. The E³ Alliance has been working for months building Essential Student Indicators through input from experts across the region to develop a target list of data elements that are not collected today but are potentially important in predicting student outcomes. Now they are doing the “feet on the street” test with teachers and counselors in every target district around key student transition points. Hannah Gourgey has also been meeting admission officers from every area college/university as a way to start the higher education new data definition process.

Launching of the Achievement Gap Deliberative Dialogs

E³ Alliance has just completed launch meetings for Achievement Gap Deliberative Dialogues to be held in seven communities across the region. E³ is actively forming 7 planning teams that will be meeting over the summer and early fall in order to start off the actual dialogs process after school begins. They plan to involve over 500 people across the region in a series of structured dialogs about the implications of achievement gaps on all of us. Those communities will then send delegates to a regional planning forum in late October that will then roll up into our Leadership Planning Summit next January. This work is based on the Kettering Foundation national model, but they are excited to be the first region in the country to hold the dialogs. They are working in partnership with Texas Forums, Austin Voices for Education and Youth, and United Way. The implications to all of us are clear: the Texas state demographer has determined that there can be a $300B annual benefit by 2040 to the economy of Texas if we can close the gaps to college while continuing to raise expectations for all students.

Institution Specific Data Sets

E³ Alliance is working on providing customized Central Texas Education Snapshots for district and higher ed partners. These data sets are valuable tools to each entity as they look for best practices and focus areas, and they will also be used as reference materials for our Achievement Gap Dialogs. Round Rock, San Marcos, and ACC are completed and others will be forthcoming soon.

Other Deliverables

Recent deliverables to the community include:

• College Readiness Considerations –a policy guidance paper to provide input on the state’s process to define college readiness

• Barriers to Effective Evaluation –a “white paper” view of the policy and structural barriers to being able to access and use educational information to increase outcomes

• Review of post secondary Developmental(remedial) Education – trends and implications in the region (in process)

• “System map” of the education performance ecosystem in the region – a look at who’s doing what around data performance sets - at the request of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (in process)

We are excited to share that we recently (May 1st) celebrated the one year anniversary of the creation of the E3 Alliance. Huge momentum has been gained over this short period, and it gives great hope and belief in the process of systemic change around our educational capacity in this region and beyond. Some recent milestones include:

1) The public release of the Central Texas Education Snapshot – Phase 1 of our data evaluation and research efforts.

This “snapshot” is actually a 200 slide compilation of literally millions of data elements that represents the most comprehensive review of education outcomes and trends ever compiled for any region in the state, or – so far as we know – the country. This Snapshot contains data never before published, such as comparisons of outcomes in districts with similar and dissimilar demographics, and where and how our students are experiencing success – or not- in post-secondary educational settings. This work will certainly inform future phase research, but is also already being used to drive systemic alignment activities in the region.

The snapshot will be supplemented by a series of additional research efforts which include focus groups (conducted in June in Austin, Bastrop, Eanes, Manor, Round Rock and San Marcos ISDs), and statistical research on at the level of individual student records to get the heart of regional student influences and factors in successful transitions to higher education and careers.

2) We have just recently launched a set of deliberative dialogs across the region on achievement gaps in education.

Where and why are there such large gaps in outcomes across different demographic groups? How do they impact all of us? What can we do to close these gaps while raising the level of achievement of ALL our students?

Central Texas will be the first region in the country to leverage a national Kettering Foundation model for change, and is built to leverage the rich data sets we have just developed. This project, undertaken in partnership with Texas Forums, Austin Voices for Education and Youth, and United Way-Capital Area, will involve hundreds of people across seven communities in the region, rolling up into a regional forum this fall to create a plan for closing gas across the region.

3) One of the areas we have been working on providing better articulation models is nursing.

We have a looming shortage of 8000 nurses over the next few years in our region alone (plenty of demand), and hundreds of students on waiting lists every semester to get into programs (plenty of supply), but the pipeline has many breaks and bottlenecks that makes it impossible to produce enough qualified nurses to meet the regions’ needs. ACC, Texas State, and Concordia and the University of Texas at Austin are all building capacity; the E3 Alliance is working with industry leaders as well as secondary and higher education institutions to create a more seamless “pipeline” to get students through more effectively. We also have been working with political leaders to get state support for program expansion and funding, and we are looking to apply successful models to other industry needs.

4) On June 1 we are holding our second Business Challenge breakfast, hosted by early E3 supporters Alex Brown and Allyson Peerman of AMD.

We are hosting business leaders from key area companies to get broad business support for the work of the E3 Alliance. While we have gotten some funding from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, RGK Foundation, and others, this support from business is critical for work such as the Achievement Gap deliberations, which are critical to gaining broad community buy-in for systemic change and are NOT fully funded.

We hope that this blog will keep you updated on the happenings of the E³Alliance and its partners.

What is the E³Alliance?

The E³ Alliance is a regional collaborative working to increase global competitiveness, economic vitality and overall quality of life of Central Texas by aligning our education systems to better fulfill the potential of every citizen. As part of their Data Analysis and Research mission, the E³ Alliance has developed the most comprehensive set of achievement gap data for Central Texas that is available anywhere in the state of Texas.

Guided by an objective data map and a clear community vision, we propose to better align the system components and practices of our regional education system and allocate our investments and services more efficiently to dramatically and sustainably increase educational outcomes within a decade. By doing so, we can increase our global competitiveness and the economic vitality and overall quality of life in our region.

For more information please visit our website at: www.e3alliance.org