[William Engfer - NROC] 13:02:00 We have the pleasure of being joined by two fabulous people who are part of the Texas College Bridge program. Timmy Creekmore and Leah Ballard. I'll introduce them in just a little while. Before that, we're going to go through some housekeeping [William Engfer - NROC] 13:03:08 of these presentation slides in an email afterwards. That will also be closed captioned in case you need it. If you have any issues, please reach out to us at community@nrock.org. We'll [William Engfer - NROC] 13:03:35 if you're a current TCB member or not. But going on with that, first I'm going to start off with a little introduction to the NROC project, who we are. We are a nonprofit organization that is a little over 20 years old. We started out originally in the open education resource space, developing a product called Hippocampus and our open coursework. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:03:59 From that, we really evolved it into the adaptive learning platform that is EdReady that launched about 12 years ago. That program works at solidifying students' math and English skills by giving them adaptive learning pathways to cover the skills that they need to know for. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:04:17 post-secondary success, for high school completion, for, you know, a number of different, uh, circumstances, including, uh, Texas College Bridge, which we have been integrated with, um, you know, from the very start, and now is 7 years strong, which, uh, I'm sure Timmy and Leah will. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:04:33 we'll talk a little bit more about, but, um, in case you aren't familiar at all with whatever EdReady is, um, students take an initial diagnostic test that evaluates where they are set based on certain benchmarks. Um, here you can see it outlines if they're tested, not ready. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:04:51 needs review, doing well, or mastered. Um, and then after they've tested that, it allows for students to work up to that mastery. Um, so, from start, they can be not ready in every single category, and still have the opportunity to work through whatever they need to to get up to that mastery. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:05:08 Here's a little outline of what that looks like actually in the application. You can see the score 38 up at the top. That's the initial diagnostic score. 44 is where they're working to get their score right now, and then ultimately they can work closer and closer up to that 100 up at the top. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:05:26 Everything here is color-coded, so you can see the yellow is where you need more work, but, you know, you know some of the material. Green is mastered, the blanks are untested, and red, you need to review. So, that's essentially the fundamental layout of a study path and how it works in EdReady. That feature is the same as it integrates into the Texas College Bridge platform. Obviously, there are some nuances to that. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:05:49 that Timmy and Leah can explain to you, but that's the fundamentals of EdReady as a platform. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:05:56 That being said, I'm going to introduce here Timmy Creekmore, who is the Executive Director of Educational Partnerships, and Leah Ballard, who is the Executive Director of Texas College Bridge. Thank you both so much for joining us today on this webinar, and I will turn it over to you both to. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:06:13 To get us started. [Leah Ballard] 13:06:47 be what it is today and the scale that we've reached across Texas. [Leah Ballard] 13:06:52 Before we actually get started though, whether you are from Texas, new to Texas or outside of Texas, we wanted to go over kind of the Texas terminology with education. We all know no matter what state we live in, there are so many acronyms, but they all mean something different depending on where you live. [Timi Creekmore] 13:07:43 Or Timmy. [Timi Creekmore] 13:09:47 created different exemptions that could be used for students for either enrolling in college or enrolling in dual credit. Some of those exemptions actually went away. Used to, you could use English 2-star scores for students. You could use PSAT scores. [Timi Creekmore] 13:09:57 for students for dual credit, but then they went away. College Prep across Texas was not doing the job it was intended to do, so the results were not great. So, when COVID happened, we did have to react to that, but it was already kind of in the works on what can we do in Texas. [Timi Creekmore] 13:10:17 to help our students. So we created Texas College Bridge. The first thing we had to do was figure out the curriculum. What are what are we going to offer these students? Because we went on a search. There wasn't much out there as far as that. We found English, we found math. [Timi Creekmore] 13:10:33 none of them that we thought had great results, but when we found EdReady, it fit the bill. It was exactly what we needed at the time we needed it in Texas. [Timi Creekmore] 13:10:43 And so on the screen here is just an example of some of the things that EdReady offers already. They've been in business — and somebody's going to correct me. I think it's 25 plus years. William, you may have to correct me on that. But they've been around a long time. [Timi Creekmore] 13:10:59 Um, and they have put together this wonderful platform called EdReady that is where the students, um, do the coursework for Texas College Bridge. When we did first start out, um. [Timi Creekmore] 13:11:12 we… it was… it was scary. What are we gonna do? People didn't know what in the world this is, and it… because it's not just an online program, it was just kind of to help when we were based at home through COVID. [Timi Creekmore] 13:11:24 But it is teacher-led, it is hands-on, so it's not just using EdReady platform, it's a collaboration between everybody. So we were very happy to fund EdReady. So next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:11:39 So, kind of talked through this about where we started and how we began. We just really were trying to get there to help those students at the time they needed it. [Timi Creekmore] 13:11:50 The kids, when they went home-based, could not finish their college prep courses. The college prep course before Texas College Bridge was an all-year course where students had to take a class period out of their day. [Timi Creekmore] 13:12:06 to sit in a College Prep course all year long, whether the student was just right on the bubble as far as demonstrating college readiness through testing, or whether they were very far below where they needed to be and needed a lot of intervention. [Timi Creekmore] 13:12:23 COVID shut us down, kids went home, they couldn't finish these courses. What is so unique about Texas College Bridge is that it is, uh, mastery-based and not seat time, so it is wonderful for the students that didn't need a lot to work through. So when we first created it, though. [Timi Creekmore] 13:12:39 we had to decide how we were going to get our districts to partner with our higher ed, because House Bill 5 created the College Prep course in partnership with a college, at least one college. So the district had to execute an MOU with their local colleges, so let's just say in. [Timi Creekmore] 13:13:00 Dallas, it was Dallas College, they had a local MOU. With Texas College Bridge, we had to decide, how are we going to implement this at scale across the whole entire state? So what we did, we created an opt-in statewide MOU for our colleges. [Timi Creekmore] 13:13:19 to sign. And then we had a participation, data sharing, and requirements agreement for our districts or LEAs to sign. So when they signed, the district signed their agreement, the colleges signed the MOU, that created the partnership. [Timi Creekmore] 13:13:33 So our students could utilize that exemption from testing at any of the colleges that signed on with Texas College Bridge. [Timi Creekmore] 13:13:42 We we are very proud to say that everyone loved it. The districts loved it. It was great to implement. The colleges loved it because they started seeing success by students that had completed College Prep. And we have gone on to grow. And we're going to go over that in just a little bit. [Timi Creekmore] 13:13:59 Um, but you'll see we… we ended last year with 645-ish, I think, um, active districts, which, if you're not from Texas, there's 1,200 districts in Texas. That's over half the state of Texas. [Timi Creekmore] 13:14:13 And for colleges, we ended up with over 100 college campuses. So our students had a choice. It just grew like gangbusters. Everyone loved it. And so here we are today entering in year seven with lots of new improvements. So let's go to the next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:14:32 When I said it was flexible for districts, that's exactly what I meant. They could offer it as a standalone course, just as they did the previous College Prep course, where they're in a classroom with a teacher only working on College Prep material. [Timi Creekmore] 13:14:48 Um, once they work through and master the material, then they have completed the course and earned their exemption. It could also be embedded in, um, a classroom where the student's already sitting. So it could be their English 4 classroom, where they are in English 4, but then the teacher uses Texas College Bridge as a supplement. [Timi Creekmore] 13:15:07 to work with those students to get them over the hurdle to demonstrate college readiness. And then they also could do some independent study with individual students. Like I said, if I was just one or two points away from passing that TSI A2 exam. [Timi Creekmore] 13:15:23 then I might be a great candidate for independent targeting, because I'm going to be very motivated to get through what I need to learn in order to show that I am ready for college. So, very flexible on implementation. [Timi Creekmore] 13:15:37 Next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:15:40 As I said, and I'm just jumping through, Lee and I have gone through all this stuff so many times, we just kind of talk off the cuff, but um… [Timi Creekmore] 13:15:50 We, like I said, the districts had their signing, and the participation by the higher Ed grew across the State very rapidly. In fact, one of the. [Timi Creekmore] 13:16:02 I hate to say a problem, but one of the problems we had at the very beginning was our college partners wanted to use Texas College Bridge for those college, those adult learners that had not been able to demonstrate college readiness. And so that kind of led us to thinking, okay, what else can we do? [Timi Creekmore] 13:16:20 to offer support to all students across Texas, even adult, even after high school, that need to demonstrate college readiness. And so, with that, we have worked to continue to say, what can we do for everyone? [Timi Creekmore] 13:16:36 Um, the addendum we keep listed on the, on our, uh, website, and it lists out all the colleges that have signed our MOU. We also have an interactive map, um, that shows all the colleges where, so the students know where they can go. [Timi Creekmore] 13:16:49 Next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:16:52 And here's an example of the map. We have been working to have this be a more interactive map available for the students. In fact, it's on our website, so it's available to Texas College Bridge students, but any student across Texas can go to this map. [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:08 and look at individual colleges. And what we're gathering from our college partners are things like, what programs of study do they offer at their college? What about their financial aid process? How do they handle admissions? Are there any student tours or virtual tours? [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:26 and a link to their admissions. So we are wanting this to be a 1 stop shop for students to go to figure out where they want to go to college. A lot of high school students don't realize that every college doesn't offer all the same programs. So if you want to be a nurse, there's only certain colleges that offer that program. [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:40 And so we're really working to get our map to include all that information. [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:46 Next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:49 Okay, the scale of Texas College Bridge. [Timi Creekmore] 13:17:54 Texas is a scale in itself, you know. It's like, how many countries can you fit in Texas? We're huge like we are humongous. The number of colleges, number of districts. And so. [Timi Creekmore] 13:18:06 to create a program like this utilizing EdReady at scale took a lot of forethought and planning, like when we did the statewide opt-in MOU. So let's go to the next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:18:21 And just to show you, this video we're gonna show you is after our… [Timi Creekmore] 13:18:29 third or fourth year, I think, or fourth year, it was after our fourth year, um, we had our first face-to-face summit. [Timi Creekmore] 13:18:36 And we had such wonderful, um, registration, people wanting to attend. We had to, uh, cut it off because we had limited space. We even brought in some extra chairs and things. Um, but this video is going to show you the excitement felt in the room from all the… [Timi Creekmore] 13:18:54 Both districts and colleges that participated in Texas College Bridge. So, William, go ahead and hit the play button. I don't know if we can hear the sound, but… [Timi Creekmore] 13:19:01 Look at that. [Timi Creekmore] 13:19:05 it gave me chill bumps, because, you know, you always wonder, are we doing a good job? Are we really helping? And this right here shows you, okay, they love us. So, we are I Heart TCB, kind of like the I Heart New York, um, but that gave us motivation to look at, what else can we do? [Timi Creekmore] 13:19:23 We got to hit more kids. We got to hit adult learners. And so we just, like I said, we keep growing. So go ahead and go to the next slide. [Timi Creekmore] 13:19:32 And I'm gonna start this off, and then, Leah, I'm gonna let you kind of… so I've already kind of talked to you about the evolution where we started in 2020. We were funded by COVID response dollars, which expired. [Timi Creekmore] 13:19:44 but we couldn't close up shop with Texas College Bridge because the need was there, everyone loved the EdReady platform, and so we continued to look at how can we provide a service. And so, Leigh, I'm gonna let you kind of take over this, and did I miss anything in the history of it? [Leah Ballard] 13:20:05 have get graded [Leah Ballard] 13:20:06 And then finally, we do DC slash DE because depending on which state you're talking to, a lot of people just refer to dual credit, but then others refer to dual enrollment. In Texas, it's interchangeable. It is our students who are in high school [Timi Creekmore] 13:20:06 Okay. Oh, one other thing I do want to say, the districts were wanting to use the Texas College Bridge College Prep for the younger students to prepare them for college readiness for dual credit. But because of law at the time, we could not do that. So we were listening. [Leah Ballard] 13:20:09 Taking those college-level courses, and they get high school credit as well as the college credit. [Leah Ballard] 13:20:11 And with that being said, we will move into the actual presentation. I'm [Timi Creekmore] 13:20:22 And Nellie, I'm going to let you take it over. [Leah Ballard] 13:20:27 Perfect. Thank you, Timmy. So yeah, as Timmy said, I mean, we have just grown and grown and grown. Not only have we evolved as a program, but we evolved because the Texas education just landscape evolved. And so we wanted to make sure that we were changing with it. [Leah Ballard] 13:20:51 And that we were able to help as many students as we could. And so, eventually, we just started asking that bigger question, if we know our Texas students have to meet and demonstrate college readiness. [Leah Ballard] 13:21:44 partners for our program. And then, 2023-2024 school year, we had the highest at the time was 604. [Leah Ballard] 13:22:05 That's huge, but you also have to know that was the last free year. That is when those COVID dollars, the grant that was running us at first went away. So then we weren't really sure, like we know that our program is helpful for all students involved. We know the benefits and the [Leah Ballard] 13:22:28 And more course completions than any year before. [Leah Ballard] 13:22:32 This year, just want to make note that it does say year to date, because we're not finished. The school year just started, and a lot of our Texas school districts budgets don't roll over until September. Even some of them October. And so that 370 is where we stand today [Timi Creekmore] 13:22:57 And I want to hop in real quick. The number of students here that you see earn that credential, these are students that would not have probably gone on to college or persisted in college because they hadn't met that college benchmark as far as demonstrating readiness. [Timi Creekmore] 13:23:14 All the stats show if a student has to go into developmental courses and pay for it, or co-reqs, they're not going to continue. So we are very proud that that many students each year has been able to go on to college. [Leah Ballard] 13:23:27 Exactly. And the growth of our program, that's what gave us the entire opportunity to decide, okay, who else can we help? We need to help more and more Texas students, and so let's grab them earlier. [Leah Ballard] 13:23:57 So if you'll go on, William. [Leah Ballard] 13:24:00 And so that is where the earlier preparation conversation started happening, and that is where we developed the TSIA2 test prep. [Leah Ballard] 13:24:15 Whether you are from Texas or a different state. Earlier college readiness helps so many more students with opportunities. The biggest [Leah Ballard] 13:24:39 that post-secondary momentum. So many of our younger students haven't had those college conversations. They may not have the framework at home and the foundation to have those. And then the staff that they're working with on their campuses may not have had those conversations yet. And so, for a young student to pass RTSIA2 or the Accuplacer. [Leah Ballard] 13:25:13 I mean, that really shows them, oh, wait a minute, I am capable of college. I can do dual credit now, and then I can continue. So keeping that momentum going, but starting it at a much earlier age has been really, um… [Leah Ballard] 13:26:00 a minimum, the intentional system should start in middle school. [Leah Ballard] 13:26:18 And so, that is really what moved our pilot faster, is, okay, we've got to focus, we've got to start in 8th grade, and we have to start having those conversations that all students are capable [Timi Creekmore] 13:26:52 Well, I can tell you right now, if I was handed, and I knew I was very close to passing that TSIA2 test, and you handed me a big ol' book to prepare for the test, you'd lose me. Because number one, I don't want to sit there and work through all that stuff. [Leah Ballard] 13:26:55 route or handing an eighth grader a TSIA2 book. [Timi Creekmore] 13:27:07 What's great about our program and EdReady is that diagnostic exam and it meets the student where they are. So I go through, take the diagnostic and I score the highest I possibly can. Now, the diagnostic doesn't test every single thing because we don't want to kill the kid with that first test. [Timi Creekmore] 13:27:24 But then I only have to work through what I need to learn and I need a little help with. And so that's what's so wonderful about it. If I'm right on the bubble, I could work through this program and get, I mean, maybe even a couple weeks. It just depends on how motivated the kid is. So, Leah, I hope that answered your question. [Leah Ballard] 13:27:47 It does, and I love that because that's the best part, especially with students who are retesters of TSIA 2. A student can take it as many times as they want, but what you see in a district is a student may say they've taken it 50 times. And I know that sounds crazy, but they've [Timi Creekmore] 13:28:07 No practice, no practice. [Leah Ballard] 13:28:30 study material. They don't have to start over from the beginning. So when we say it's personalized, that is the most beneficial thing for our students, is it is personalized to each individual student, and you don't get that very often. [Leah Ballard] 13:28:48 Next slide, please. [Leah Ballard] 13:28:50 And so the same holds true. If you have different students at different paths. [Leah Ballard] 13:29:02 Needing different support, it's fine. You can still have one classroom with many different needs because the same goal is for every student to meet that college readiness. They're just on different paths, but because EdReady is so individualized. [Leah Ballard] 13:29:42 And so, within EdReady. [Leah Ballard] 13:29:48 Teachers as well as principals and any top-level leadership can go in and see, are the students progressing or are they not? [Leah Ballard] 13:30:08 Is there low study time? Are they clearly just testing and hoping to get to the next unit or the next topic? [Leah Ballard] 13:30:16 And have they stalled in their mastery? Are they even motivated to finish? Then you can go to the student, figure out, is it a time issue? Is it that they've just lost their engagement and are not working on it anymore? Is [Leah Ballard] 13:30:32 small groups of students who are struggling in the same content areas, and do traditional teaching, and have that small group learning, and then put them back into the EdReady program. [Leah Ballard] 13:30:53 They can always adjust the pacing and then also look for those targeted gaps that they really need to go back and focus on. And that within itself is helping the students prepare better instead of just hurry up, get through the program and then go test. We don't want that. We want them to truly understand and learn. [Leah Ballard] 13:31:17 Because that's only gonna help them progress further in their post-secondary journey. [Timi Creekmore] 13:31:53 I'm gonna butt in on this one. [Timi Creekmore] 13:31:55 Okay. So what's so awesome about the reports in EdReady is the amount of detail you can get. Like this screen right here is just a few of the columns that you can look at. So there's a plus you'll see up to the right by clicking on the plus when you're in the, program. [Leah Ballard] 13:32:07 And then finally, the other… Oh, yep, go ahead. [Timi Creekmore] 13:32:12 You can add all kind of information into this view. You can also download copies of it into Excel and work with it. But what's so cool about it is it does show items like time using EdReady. That is the amount of time the kid is in any part of EdReady working. [Timi Creekmore] 13:32:29 But if you'll look over after the score bar where it says time spent studying that is specific to that course or that stage that the kid's working, and that shows you if they're truly working through. [Timi Creekmore] 13:32:45 all the learning resources that are offered. And so, looking at this screen, there's a couple kids that had, like, the second one went from a 72 to a 97 without spending any time studying. Okay, that's a red flag. So that's when you work with the kids, and so just let me know, these reports are amazing, and you can dig down as. [Timi Creekmore] 13:33:04 As deep as the exact question that the kid missed. [Timi Creekmore] 13:33:08 Go ahead, Leah. Sorry, I didn't mean to but. [Leah Ballard] 13:33:20 No, you're good. Thank you. [Leah Ballard] 13:33:20 All right, William, next slide, please. [Leah Ballard] 13:33:25 And then just like Timmy said with the other [Leah Ballard] 13:34:26 see what they answered, see what the true answer is, and work with them on those specifics. And so, yeah, and most everything you can download and you manipulate it in Excel files, and it's just really great for that monitoring. [Leah Ballard] 13:34:49 Okay, now, okay, so we saw a slide like this similarly for college prep. Test prep is the same. We have flexibility. That's what's so beautiful about the program. For test prep, as well as college prep, they can go into a standalone class and just prepare. [Timi Creekmore] 13:36:56 And we're talking about districts right now, but this test prep is also ideal for the adult learners. Once they get out of high school, before they can enroll in college, the colleges can utilize the EdReady program, put the students or adults [Leah Ballard] 13:39:16 Scaling more because we know that we need to keep up with that changing landscape and therefore we introduce the test prep. And now we're looking at how can we help our higher eds, as Timmy [Leah Ballard] 13:39:19 in a flexible system. So TCB, we provide everything that that district needs, that they don't have a lot of times the capacity to do themselves. So we provide that curriculum and the technology and the support. And our program matters. We have years of [Leah Ballard] 13:39:23 Proven student success. We have a third party do our evaluations. We know all of that [Leah Ballard] 13:39:25 But our real value is helping our district strategically think about how all these pieces fit together and how they get all of these students college ready. One, because student is the most important, but then two for the district and especially district leadership superintendents. [Leah Ballard] 13:40:05 shift that we have to work with districts, because it's not always easy changing that culture that's already existing. And so TCB has become that one system, but with multiple readiness pathways, they can start at many different points in our program. [Leah Ballard] 13:40:21 And then next. [Leah Ballard] 13:40:22 Okay, and so this is our team, right? We have more than half the state of Texas involved, and we are a team of four. Now, NROC is also our team, so we've got a lot of people working in the background, but as far as the program itself and who did the district see on a daily basis, it is these four people. [Leah Ballard] 13:41:14 We've worn all the hats. So we truly, when we say we understand and we can help, we mean that because of our experience, but also because we still have the same passion to help the students as we did when we were in an actual classroom setting. [Leah Ballard] 13:41:39 district or ISD. And so, we help them build something that works for students, and we also know that what we help them with has to be practical, um, and something that they can really implement and make those changes with. [Timi Creekmore] 13:41:57 Now, can you hear me? Okay, and so and I'll just tell you from experience. [Timi Creekmore] 13:41:59 especially with, like, collegiate academies or early colleges, there just wasn't anything out there to prepare students. Uh, Lee and I both worked with a collegiate academy where the incoming 8th graders had to pass that TSIA2 test. [Leah Ballard] 13:42:10 Timmy, you're on mute. [Timi Creekmore] 13:42:32 before they enrolled in the any of the dual credit courses. And if they didn't pass it the first time, we didn't really have anything to offer them. We would beg and plead our English and math teachers to come in to help try to figure it out. They're like, well, we don't know what's all on the ACCUPLACER test. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:43:08 Yeah, I'd actually love, if you have any great student success stories that you want to input really quickly here, I'd love to hear what you've heard from some students about. [Leah Ballard] 13:43:10 Definitely. [Leah Ballard] 13:43:10 Thank you. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:43:18 you know, what using Texas College Bridge has been like. Pardon me. [Timi Creekmore] 13:43:30 I'll tell you in the after the first year, I guess we were into our second year. I sent, a Google form out to all the students that had completed the year before because we have access to their email addresses. And I got a lot of kids that responded, which surprised me. [Timi Creekmore] 13:43:50 Um, but one of the young men I talked to on the phone, and he said, I honestly didn't think I was smart. Like, I wish I could have… quote him verbatim, because he's like, I didn't think I was very smart, and I wasn't going to go to college, I didn't know nothing. And he said, but then my teacher… [Timi Creekmore] 13:44:23 told me I need to work through this Texas college bridge, and he said that he, in math especially, he said, I was horrible in math, but after working through it, he said I finished it, I couldn't believe I did, and he said, and now [Leah Ballard] 13:44:28 Yeah. And then I just real quick pulled up the survey results we got from our test prep students, which spans the eighth graders all the way through eleventh graders, and some of the things that they said was one that the learning materials and how it's. [Leah Ballard] 13:44:48 played throughout the EdReady platform was super helpful. It's not just reading, there's a lot of different ways for a student to learn with the different modules. Um, but then also, one of the things that they really liked the most was the fact that it shows their progress, um, so that they know where they need to learn more. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:45:07 That's great. [Leah Ballard] 13:45:47 And of course, as educators, always using the data, not to see where the students just are, but then to see what needs to come next for them in their journey of college readiness. [Leah Ballard] 13:45:51 There's needs to be plenty of time for intervention prior to test day, and then scaling can work as long as you scale intentionally [Leah Ballard] 13:46:12 And you have one system, multiple readiness pathways. That's what we're all about, is we can reach now more than just our seniors who need that last second post-secondary success. We can now reach further down into eighth grade and get them ready and give them opportunities they didn't have before. [Timi Creekmore] 13:46:43 the first year, because we're just, like, biting our fingernails, like, what's it gonna be? And it was overwhelming that the TCB students. [Timi Creekmore] 13:47:04 in both English and math areas [Timi Creekmore] 13:47:05 performed, if not better, at least the same as their peers met by testing. The other thing that was in the evaluation is, remember I told you that House Bill 5 College Prep was around before, but it was just mixed results across the state. It was only as strong as the implementation by the district. [Timi Creekmore] 13:47:47 But the results of the college performance with the students before Texas College Bridge was horrible. So then we have compared our program with other House Bill 5 programs, and we are in some areas, 20% higher [Timi Creekmore] 13:47:55 And these are kids that probably wouldn't have gone [Leah Ballard] 13:47:59 I think that's a great place, Timmy, for us to say thank you. Thanks for joining us this afternoon and we are ready to answer any and all questions. [Timi Creekmore] 13:48:01 Thank you. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:48:07 Yeah, thank you all so much. Thank you both for, for your, um, for your insights here. You know, I know there's, um, there have definitely been some questions. Um, if you're putting your questions in the chat, just please be advised, uh, please change your, your send to everyone, if you're able, um, instead of just hosts and panelists, so everyone can see. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:48:26 your question. I have a question in the chat about somebody who took a test 20 times to get mastery, and only spent about 30 minutes studying. How can you prevent that from happening in the future? So, talking again a little bit more in detail about maybe what some of the controls are about making sure that. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:48:45 You know, in this era, we know there are a lot of tools, AI and otherwise, that students can try and use to sort of cheat the system. You know, how do you address that with the Texas College Bridge system, making sure that students are actually working through and doing the proper study time? [Timi Creekmore] 13:49:08 Leah, you want me to answer that? [Timi Creekmore] 13:49:09 Okay. [Timi Creekmore] 13:49:09 Chime in. Okay, so we have… there are certain things built into the, uh, the program, like the ability to lock the system. So, if I'm a teacher, and I want to make sure that they are not at home, uh, just testing over and over and over at midnight. [Leah Ballard] 13:49:12 I would love for you to, and then I'll chime in. [Timi Creekmore] 13:49:29 um, you can lock it down to where when they go home, they can't work in Texas College Bridge, they can only do it, or in EdReady, they can only do it when they're at home. Um, that's one thing that we have utilized. Um, the other thing is the reports. [Timi Creekmore] 13:50:13 take that unit test right now, right in front of me and see what happens. All right, Leah. [Leah Ballard] 13:50:13 Right. And then did you mention the reCAPTCHA that was implemented? [Timi Creekmore] 13:50:26 No, I did not. Mm-mm, mm-mm. [Leah Ballard] 13:50:27 So, excuse me, with AI taking over the entire world, and it's moving at the speed of light or faster, we also have figured out ways to help the system know if there's kind of an AI agent working the system instead of an actual human student. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:50:47 That's great. Um, well, pivoting a little bit here, because I know we do have some other questions, um, there's a question in our Q&A box, um, can a student pay for this independently, or does it have to go through an ISD? And, you know, you can certainly answer that from Texas. [Leah Ballard] 13:50:53 And so a lot of times the student may get an error message that they've been locked out and it's just because of that new feature was able to shut them down. And so that's been really [William Engfer - NROC] 13:51:04 College Bridge perspective, um, that being said, EdReady as a platform, since we are a nonprofit organization, if you want to use it independently for study work, you are more than able to for free independently as a student. Now, that will not count for any of the TCB initiatives that, um, you know, Timmy and Lee have been talking about, and. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:51:24 you know, Timmy, really, if you want to talk a little bit more about how that cost breakdown works. [Timi Creekmore] 13:51:32 So, uh, that has been a problem, because we've had a lot of people reach out to us wanting to use it, um, and so we are kind of addressing that one at a time, um, like, because I know we have some homeschool students and all that, so Leah, do you want to answer how we're kind of handling. [Leah Ballard] 13:51:51 Yes, we can offer different things, but for the majority, it's a district-wide model. And so, we tier the districts by their 9th through 12th grade enrollment that we pull from the TEA. [Timi Creekmore] 13:52:03 those students. [Timi Creekmore] 13:52:07 Mm-hmm. [Leah Ballard] 13:52:21 And then we tier them based on similar size. [Leah Ballard] 13:52:21 If there is a homeschool student, there are two options right now. They can either go to what would be their local school district, and if the school district agrees, they can work through the program in that sense. [Leah Ballard] 13:52:51 that have joined us. And so, it just kind of depends on your situation, but if you reach out to us, we would love to hear from you. And as William said, the Public EdReady site does have so much study material that you could just go that route, too, if you need to. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:53:20 Yeah, the real thing that we're gatekeeping there is that data, that access, that control on the administrator, the educator level to have those insights on what's actually going on in a classroom. We want to offer the access to every student, but having that collaborative model with districts helps us as an organization and with districts do even more for students. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:53:46 That's great. That's great. We also have a question here, which is a little bit of a Texas-specific question. Do you foresee the Texas Education Agency reinstating TCB's math program as one that students can use to earn the CCMR indicator points? [Leah Ballard] 13:54:12 Hmm. [Leah Ballard] 13:54:12 That was a great answer, Timmy. I love that. We cannot, but we are reapplying the application TEA has just sent out for the 27-28 school year, and so we will submit that application. [Leah Ballard] 13:54:36 Again, like the years before, we won't know anything until this summer, and so unfortunately, we have nothing… we don't even have, like, a spoiler alert to give you, or a sneak peek of anything. Just know we are applying again, um, and we'll see where it goes from there. [Timi Creekmore] 13:54:40 For free, and I'm going to also say that the thing is, if we were to just let each kid pay for it, there's no adult intervention. There's no monitoring, and that's part of what makes this program work is the collaboration between the student and the teacher and the program. [Timi Creekmore] 13:54:44 -H [Timi Creekmore] 13:54:44 And I have directed several students to the public EdReady site. Yeah. [Timi Creekmore] 13:54:45 We cannot speak for TEA. [Timi Creekmore] 13:54:46 And just so you know, we still have math college prep. It is still the law. House Bill 5 is still there. Students still get that exemption. The only thing that the district doesn't get is that CCMR point. But with our test prep now, you can get those students. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:55:09 Well, that's great. Um, I think, you know, we've been able to cover a lot of different areas here. Um, thank you so much for… for such a comprehensive overview. Um, one thing I'd love to dive a little bit more into is… is just about, um, you know, you started off, obviously, with this college prep model. Moving into the test prep model. [Leah Ballard] 13:55:10 Yep. [Timi Creekmore] 13:55:11 to pass that test earlier, and then you earn your point. So don't think that, because math wasn't approved, that it doesn't exist, because it is still in existence. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:55:24 What were some sort of challenges you found when coming with that approach? What was easy about it? You know, did it require any sort of strategic adjustment on your part to make it realistic, you know, adapting the TCB model to. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:55:38 that TSI… TSIA2, all these acronyms, oh my gosh, um, TSIA2 Prep. [Leah Ballard] 13:55:50 So it was definitely a long plan. Um, we started just discussions about bringing in a test prep, I think, two or three school years ago. Um, and then we also are big on following the policy and legislature sessions, and so… [Leah Ballard] 13:56:12 When TEA made some decisions that affected a school district's accountability. [Leah Ballard] 13:56:17 So we went from kind of a slow planning process to, oh, we need this right now [Leah Ballard] 13:56:40 Um, and so there was a lot of late nights, but the best part was, is because we already had EdReady, and the curriculum was already there, the tech team may not agree with me, but I feel like it was probably easier on that sense to build it. [Leah Ballard] 13:56:52 Um, because we weren't trying to start from scratch. [Leah Ballard] 13:56:55 And… we made sure that it has… [Leah Ballard] 13:56:56 any and every piece of curriculum that a student could possibly be asked on that actual TSIA2, where our college prep was made to meet the requirement of that House Bill 5, and therefore the college prep doesn't have as much curriculum because. [Leah Ballard] 13:57:25 We had that vetted by our higher ed faculty, as well as K-12 faculty, and we just needed to make sure the students were truly college-ready by completing those courses. Where test prep, there's not an exemption for test prep. We are truly trying to prepare the students to pass. [Leah Ballard] 13:57:39 the Tsi to successfully, because that just opens up a whole new world of opportunities. I think it was probably the most challenging was the pilot was only a semester, so that was challenging for us, but it was challenging for the districts, because. [Leah Ballard] 13:57:56 I mean, they plan ahead so many months in advance that starting a new pilot in January… [Leah Ballard] 13:57:58 Kind of through… they had to pivot a bit, you know, and so that was challenging for them. We were all learning together, which I guess could be a challenge, but was also a great benefit, because our pilot districts really helped us make changes before we rolled it out to the [Timi Creekmore] 13:58:20 Yeah, another challenge, I think, is that, like Leah said, we covered every single item that possibly could be on that test, which means there's a lot to work through. Um, good news is a kid can test out of what they know, but… [Timi Creekmore] 13:58:39 The other thing was to take unit tests and final exams and all that in EdReady for all the things that the tests were just massive. And when we worked through it ourselves, I'm like, oh, forget this. I'm not doing all these tests. But so we did. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:58:59 That's great. Well, only one last little question here that just came in the chat. Diana said, or Diana said, our math department uses IXL. Would this test prep be better equipped to help students? [William Engfer - NROC] 13:59:16 Um, if you want to approach that, I would say, obviously, from a bias perspective, yes. But, uh, if you… if you would like to, you know, expand on how we can compare there, um, you know, I think, uh… [Leah Ballard] 13:59:25 That's what I was going to say too. [William Engfer - NROC] 13:59:29 The test prep options that we have available are extremely robust, but yeah, if either of you want to speak a little bit to that, too. [Leah Ballard] 13:59:39 So, I can't speak directly to IXL. I've seen it, but I haven't used it, and I've not looked into their data as far as how the students are successful afterwards. I do know with our test prep, as William said, I mean, we're biased. Of course, our test prep is way better than any other option you have, but… [Leah Ballard] 14:00:08 Through our test prep pilot, we did do analysis on that data from the pilot districts who provided the data back to us. And we saw huge gains, especially in TSIA2 math for your younger students. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:00:42 Yep. [Timi Creekmore] 14:00:44 And I'll tell you also, um, as a price point, I have no idea what they charge, um, but NROC, who owns EdReady, is a non-profit, and the courses are very reasonably priced, so I would do some price comparisons as well. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:00:57 Great. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:00:58 Well, with that, thank you so much, uh, both of you. Uh, just a quick reminder, please join us at, uh, NACEP if you're gonna be there. That's one of our upcoming events. We'll also have other upcoming NROC webinars. Um, that being said, thank you both so much. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:01:15 for your participation and explaining about the Texas College Bridge platform, all the exciting developments you've made over these past seven years. It's really been fantastic to see. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. If you have any questions, reach out to us. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:01:30 Emails are here on the screen. Please, you know, book a demo with our team if you're interested in learning more about EdReady. You can also get in contact with the Texas College Bridge team if you have questions as a current TCB partner, a prospective one. We are open to all questions and to any of your needs. So, thank you both very much, and with that, we'll. [William Engfer - NROC] 14:01:51 We'll close out this webinar.