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Early on College Loftier Schoolhouse (ECHS)

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Early on College High Schools (ECHS) are open-enrollment high schools that allow students least likely to attend college an opportunity to receive both a high school diploma and either an acquaintance degree or at least sixty credit hours toward a baccalaureate degree. Early on College High Schools:

  • Enroll Historically underserved students, targeting at-risk and economically disadvantaged
  • Provide dual credit at no cost to students
  • Offer rigorous instruction and accelerated courses
  • Provide academic and social back up services to assist students succeed
  • Provide students with highly personalized attention
  • Increase college readiness
  • Partner with Texas institutions of college education (IHEs) to reduce barriers to college access

The ECHS Blueprint Provides foundational principles and standards for innovative partnerships with colleges and universities. The ECHS Pattern contains six benchmarks outlining the pattern elements that each ECHS campus must implement before serving students. Additionally, outcome-based measures in Access, Attainment, and Accomplishment provide guidance for ECHS program implementation and continuous comeback efforts.

Description:

To launch a ECHS program, a district must submit a Planning Year Application to be eligible to open a new ECHS campus, get a fellow member of the TEA'south official planning twelvemonth cohort, and begin serving students the following academic year.

The ECHS Planning Year Application is open throughout the autumn semester. Eligible Districts are notified of their status in the Bound to provide 12-18 months of ECHS planning. Over the course of the planning twelvemonth, the ECHS Leadership Squad will receive technical assistance to run across ECHS Blueprint requirements via an assigned technical assistance coach. By the end of the planning twelvemonth, all design elements independent in the vi Benchmarks should be embedded into school structures.

After meeting the design elements of the ECHS Design, the ECHS is fix to serve students and may apply for Provisional Designation. New ECHSs remain Provisional for four years and are held accountable to Provisional Outcomes-Based Measures (OBM) during this time. The TEA will provide technical aid to the ECHS leadership team to promote implementation of the ECHS model with fidelity. Each yr, the TEA will provide OBM data for advisory purposes, throughout the Provisional phase and so that ECHSs can respond to challenges and be ready to run into Designated ECHS OBM Criteria.

At the end of the quaternary year, the ECHS must apply for Designation condition and must meet the state's Designated OBM criteria. TEA requires Designation renewal annually for each ECHS Campus. Campuses that meet the Distinguished OBM criteria for any of the iii OBM categories of Access, Attainment, and Achievement will receive i or more Distinctions.

Note: TEA is currently in a phase-in process for the new ECHS Blueprint. All information are for information and planning purposes but. This information volition not be used to determine designation status.

T-STEM Designation Process

  • ECHS Roadmap to Opening (PDF)

Revision Timeline:

In the 2019-2020 school year, TEA engaged in a blueprint revision process to secure stakeholder input regarding the ECHS Pattern. CCRSM Network members participated in landscape surveys, focus groups, and provided feedback on draft versions via public annotate. The updated ECHS Design released in Baronial 2020 represents the culmination of learnings and insights provided by early college leaders and their collegiate partners beyond the state of Texas.

Network Appointment - Autumn 2019

  • Landscape Survey open from September 3, 2019 through December twenty, 2019
  • Gathered stakeholder input on 2018-19 ECHS Blueprint with focus groups
    • 24 in-person focus groups hosted across Texas with CCRSM Network - Baronial - October 2019
    • 4 virtual focus groups hosted for college and academy partners - November 2019
  • Gathered stakeholder input on Draft of 2020-21 ECHS Blueprint - Public comment open February 3, 2020 - February 28, 2020
    • Download a PDF version of the Draft 2020-21 ECHS, February 2020 (Strikethrough)
  • Validated OBM data indicator thresholds based on ECHS designation data
    • Download a PDF version of the Data Used to Determine OBM Targets for the 2020-21 ECHS Design
  • 2020-21 ECHS Pattern released in June 2020
    • 2020-21 ECHS Pattern (Clean)
    • 2020-21 ECHS Pattern (Strikethrough of 2017 version)
    • Download Overview of the 20-21 ECHS Blueprint

Implementation Year - 2020-2021

  • Conditional and Designated ECHSs operate under the 2020-21 ECHS Blueprint
  • Revised Pattern benchmarks and pattern elements required to be met
  • OBM's continue to phase in with the rising 12th grade accomplice
  • Designation application for 2021-2022 released
    • OBM information shared via TEA log-in (TEAL portal) to drive continuous improvement efforts
    • ECHS in 5th+ year may earn distinctions based on revised OBM

2016-2017 ECHS Blueprint Redesign

In the 2016-2017 schoolhouse year, the TEA engaged Jobs For the Future (JFF) and other national ECHS experts to assist the bureau in designing the Texas ECHS Blueprint and Designation procedure.

  • The standard setting document details the process and information analyzed for setting the targets in the OBMs.
  • View Infographics explaining the ECHS Designation Process
    • ECHS overview Infographic
    • Existing ECHS designees 2018-2018 phase in process infographic
    • Existing ECHS designees 5+ years options infographic
    • New ECHS process Infographic

Network Engagement 2016-2017

  • Collected network feedback to identify recommendation for the ECHS program
  • Gathered stakeholder input on First Draft of Recommendations - Public Comment open April 17, 2017-Apr 28, 2017
    • View of the overview webinar of the first recommendations - March 2017
    • Download a PDF version of the commencement draft recommendations - April 2017
    • Download a copy of the South Texas Early on Higher High Schoolhouse Conference from April 24, 2017
  • Gathered stakeholder input on 2d Draft of Recommendations - Public comment menses was open up May 26, 2017-June ii,2017
    • Download a PDF version of the recommendations May 25, 2017
  • Held ECHS All-time Practices Elevation on August ii-iii, 2017 to gloat the release of the Texas' home-grown ECHS Blueprint
  • Download a .pdf version of the presentation ECHS Blueprint Redesign: The Future of ECHS
  • 2018-2019 ECHS Blueprint

Transition Twelvemonth: 2017-2018

  • Designated ECHSs operated under the existing Blueprint
  • ECHS prepared for implementation of the Outcomes-Based Measures (OBM)
  • TEA released the annual Designation (Renewal) application for 2018-2019

Implementation Yr: 2017-2019

  • Redesigned Design benchmarks and blueprint elements required to be met by all Texas ECHS
  • OBMs 5-yr phase-in period began, starting with the incoming cohort of 9th class students for the 2019-twenty designation year
  • Planning years required for all new ECHS programs