Teacher-led. Community-powered. Future-focused.

Thank you for participating in our first Student Success Summit this past Saturday.

This summit – and the upcoming ones – mark an important step in advancing our regional strategy, and we’re looking forward to building on this momentum as we continue this work across Texas.

Throughout the day you heard from different stakeholders, including Teach Plus Texas' teacher leaders, on the importance of Career-Connected Learning, including its challenges and the tasks at hand.

In the morning, we started with Dr. Jared Williams inviting us to re-envision career-connected learning as "not just about preparing students for jobs, but about walking alongside young people and their families as they build a future they can actually see themselves in, a future where they can flourish and thrive."

In light of that he challenged us to ask three simple questions about our work:

1: Are we listening to students?

2: Are we aligning our systems with their realities? 

3: Are we bold enough to build something different together?

Then we heard from a panel of experts on the different opportunities of the work and ways to advance it. 

In the afternoon, our Fellows highlighted some of the findings from their statewide research, which will be published as a report within the next few months. It was great to hear from many of you about your learning through these presentations. 

Again, thank you for sharing the space with us, and for inspiring us to reconsider what career-connected learning may look like as we work together to create a brighter future for students and teachers alike. 

We're looking forward to continuing this journey in El Paso.

Warmest regards, 

Dr. Hjamil A. Martínez-Vázquez

Texas Policy Program Manager