TxCRLA represents college and university Developmental English and Math Educators and Learning Support Professionals across the state. 

     Every late fall, we partner with TADE, the Texas Association for Developmental Education and the THECB, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to host the College Academic Support

SHARON MILLER

Programs Conference, CASP.  On October 22-25, our organizations celebrated our 30^th Anniversary CASP Conference in Austin at Austin’s AT & T Executive Training and Conference Center.  Thanks to our site co-chairs, Dr. Russ Hodges and Dr. Carol Dochen, 340 participants enjoyed the expertise of over 150 outstanding presenters, entertainment from student performers in the Austin area, and the excitement of learning from one another.  At the conference, TxCRLA and TADE awarded Dr. Carol Dochen with the President’s Award for Service, honoring her 30 years of service to the organization and to Texas.   Dr. Claire Ellen Weinstein was celebrated with the CASP Lifetime Achievement Award for her research and contribution to the field as well as her many years of service.  Both educators also have the honor of scholarships named for them.  Enjoy the short video posted on this site for a quick insight into that wonderful conference.  [Click here for video.]

     TxCRLA is more than the co-host of a great conference.  We are right in the middle of the great work of improving higher education in the state. 

     Developmental and Math professionals began a “Joyful Conspiracy” to rethink and restructure math last summer.  It is a project embracing the task from many directions, from the state chancellors and presidents to the THECB, from interested legislators to foundations like the Gates Grant, business leaders from the Texas Association of Business, and most importantly, including math instructors from Texas colleges and universities including the Dana Center at the University of Texas. 

     This fall, I was asked to chair a State Leadership Committee associated with the Developmental Education Initiative, which will broaden its original charge to include Developmental Reading and Writing.  This is an unprecedented opportunity for English faculty to participate in “reviewing research, promising practices, and state data to guide policy and planning recommendations,” (DEI State Leadership Charge).  In late November, the THECB also formed state committees to address Program Review, TSI standards, and Assessment.  Now is the time for all of us to get involved, share our resources, and make the right recommendations about what should scale up . . . before decisions are made for us and our students!

     TxCRLA leaders will be doing our part by supporting the CASP Listserv, which is hosted by Eric Paulson at Texas State University, hosting Brown Bag Webinars, aggressively compiling research, searching for best practices, and circulating position papers for your review and comments.  Our first draft addressing student placements began circulating in November and is posted on our website.  Keep up with the latest developments by joining the Listserv (directions are on this website), participating in the webinars, and sharing your resources.  I plan to periodically update our membership through this website and the Listserv.  

     I invite you to join me to expand the “Joyful Conspiracy” and take our place in the Developmental Education and Learning Support decision-making in the state of Texas.  Ultimately, the best we can give will benefit our students as we improve their opportunities to make their American Dreams come true.

All the best for student success!

Sharon Miller

       Early in the new year, THECB will consider making major changes to placement testing in our state including a mandated instrument and cut scores.  The attached Position Paper is a draft recommendation to THECB leaders, and it is vitally important that you get involved in the discussion.  Placement can and should be improved, but assessing current placement instruments and strategies is the correct first step.  Prudently, we recommend using the strategies and principles identified by the National Center for Developmental Education as a best practice.

      I appreciate how busy you are at this point in the semester, but will you please take one minute to read the recommendations and invest another 15 minutes to acquaint yourself with the research and best practice recommendations?  If you agree with these recommendations, will you forward this to your institution Assessment Center leaders, student services, deans, VPIs, presidents and chancellors?  If you have questions, additional information or views, will you reply to all on the CASP Listserv?   [Position Paper]

 All the best,

Sharon Miller, President

TxCRLA

The Conference will be held May 25-27, 2011, in College Station, TX, at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Center.  For more information, click here.

This Texas Legislative session is starting out on a slow track for developmental education.  So far, only two bills relating to developmental education are filed:  S.B. No. 162 (by Shapiro) is  a replica of a bill she filed during the last session; and H.B. No. 1244 (by Castro).

According to Dr. Tamara Clunis, Director of Developmental and Adult Basic Education at THECB, the Shapiro bill calls for a statewide plan for developmental education to be developed by the Coordinating Board.  The plan would then be submitted to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and presiding officer of each legislative standing committee with primary jurisdiction over higher education not later than December 1, 2012.

The Castro bill relates to developmental education courses and the assessment of student readiness. The bill prohibits colleges from setting higher standards of student readiness than required by the state.  The bill also calls for the use of technology in course delivery and requires colleges to provide professional development  programs that includes  instruction in differentiated-instructional methods.

Check the “Capitol Watch” page for additional proposed legislation when introduced.

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  Since this story was initially posted, SB 1092 was filed on March 2, 2011, by State Senator Jose Rodriguez (D - El Paso).  Go to the "Capitol Watch" page for details.]

 This webinar session will provide an opportunity for institution staff at the program and reporting level to hear about the implementation options and reporting requirements for Rider 59.  The Coordinating Board strongly encourages all invited participants to attend in institutional teams to ensure that information shared and questions asked can be presented to all personnel involved with developmental education assessment, registration, programming, reporting, research, and evaluation.  A copy of the Rider 59 document may be accessed by clicking here.

 This webinar session will be held on the MS Live Meeting platform. In order to accommodate all invitees with invitations, THECB  requests that you R.S.V.P. for this webinar no later than Thursday March 3, 2011.   Any questions may be addressed to Isaac Ortega at 512-427-6546.

Sharon Miller joined the founding faculty of Lone Star College-CyFair to teach Transitional English in 2003.  Sharon has won numerous awards for teaching including the Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award at LSC-North Harris and the 2009-2010 Faculty Excellence Award at LSC-CyFair.   Her colleagues have named her the campus Advocate for Excellence, Active Learning Guru, Learning Innovator, Star Morale (Builder), and the President’s Cy-Fair Spirit Award winner.  In 2009, Sharon spent a month at the prestigious Kellogg Institute sponsored by the National Association for Developmental Education, and also gained her Accelerated Learning Starter Certificate.  She has served as TxCRLA Secretary since 2008.

Essie Childers has been a full-time Parallel Studies faculty member at Blinn College in Bryan, Texas, for 3 years.   However, she comes to Blinn College with over 21 years of experience with developmental education.   On the college level, Essie has taught for Austin Community College, Oklahoma City Community College and Tyler Junior College.   Her current assignments at Blinn College are Reading 0306, Study Skills and Education 1300.  Essie also serves as a Co-Chair of Achieving the Dream for Blinn College.  In 2008, Essie was the recipient of CRLA’s Professional Developmental Award.

Sara Weertz

    Mrs. Weertz is presently Founding Director of Supplemental Instruction and Tutoring of Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.  Her program was a finalist for the annual Texas Higher Education Star Award in 2008.  She has produced a series of tutor training workshops on Building Rapport, Mentoring, and the Socratic Method.  Additionally, her most recent workshop was Study Skills Application and Resources.  Mrs. Weertz was the 2007 recipient of TxCRLA’s annual Ann B. Faulkner Award.

     Mrs. Weertz received her B.A. cum laude in English and Professional Writing and her M.Ed. in Instructional Technology with an emphasis in Human Performance Improvement and Training from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.  Prior to coming to Angelo State University, she worked for a number of years as an editor, writing instructional manuals and reference materials for libraries and schools.

     Besides serving as president of TxCRLA, Mrs. Weertz is an active member of the American Evaluation Association, the International Society for Performance Improvement, the National College Learning Center Association, and the American Society for Training and Development.

     In addition to encouraging more statewide participation in TxCRLA, Mrs. Weertz is overseeing the implementation of a series of Webinars for members.  These Webinars will cover a host of topics of interest in college support services.  (Watch for more information at this website.)

Gladys R. Shaw, Ms. Alyea, and Sharon Haigler, TxCRLA President

     Lindley Workman Alyea, Assistant Director of the Student Learning Assistance Center (SLAC) at Texas State University, is the first recipient of the Gladys R. Shaw Professional Development Award.  Ms. Alyea will apply the monetary award to her expenses for the 2010 6th International Conference on Supplemental Instruction in New Orleans, Louisiana.  This conference is held every two years.

   Ms. Alyea first met Mrs. Gladys Shaw, the award’s namesake, at the CASP 2008 Conference in Corpus Christi, Texas.  They worked together as the featured speakers for the 11th Tutor Training Leadership Institute.  It was here that Ms. Alyea discovered that she and Mrs. Shaw shared a “passion  for instilling a variety of life skills” and leadership abilities  in the learning center staff at the SLAC.  Her primary responsibility at Texas State University is the supervision of over forty SI Leaders, working with eight disciplines.

     “It would be an honor to attend [the SI conference] in Gladys R. Shaw’s name,” adds Ms. Alyea.

Tamara Clunis

Ms. Clunis has over ten years of experience with developmental and adult education in Texas.  Prior to joining the Coordinating board, she worked for Austin Community College teaching reading and learning strategies. While at ACC, she taught in learning communities targeting developmental education students.  She was also active on developmental education committees and served on college-wide committees to promote student success for students of color.  She taught developmental reading and educational psychology class for first year freshmen at Texas State University-San Marcos for several years.  Her most recent position was with the United States Military Academy (WestPoint) where she worked as a senior faculty member and developmental reading specialist.  At WestPoint, she redesigned the learning strategies curriculum to focus on contextualized learning to increase student success in the freshman core curriculum.

Ms. Clunis has directed numerous adult education professional grants with Texas State University College of Education and led the statewide project that developed a credentialing system for Texas adult educators.  She holds a master’s degree in Developmental and Adult education from Texas State University and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Adult, Professional, & Community Education program at Texas State University.

Gladys R. Shaw

The award is named in honor of Gladys R. Shaw, Director of the Student Support Services Program at the University of Texas at El Paso.  Mrs. Shaw is a champion in the field of developmental education and traces her passion back to her own personal experience.  “I was a first-generation-college, low-income farm girl myself who earned a scholarship that went with the valedictorian designation for my high school graduating class.”  However, she married her husband while she was still a high school senior and at a time when both honors were denied because of the marriage.  She eventually did earn a B.A degree (Magna Cum Laude) in Business and Education, earning her certification for public accountant after only one sitting for the exam.  Two years later, she earned her M.A. (with honors) in business and education.  Mrs. Shaw has worked in both commerce and education, “especially Developmental Education, but have always been driven back to DE-probably partially due to that high school experience, but also one can really see the difference one makes,” she adds.   ”When I look at my resume, and reflect on the wonderful honors that have come my way, I have to say (as my daddy always told me) we get out of any experiences exponential rewards for the passion and effort we invest.  Of those rewards, which I do treasure greatly, the most important are still the students who succeed and the friends I have made along the way.”

Besides her prized students, Mrs. Shaw has been recognized for many other awards, including her 2004 induction as a Fellow of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations and her recent nomination to the El Paso Women’s Hall of Fame.  She has held offices in and served on numerous committees of NADE and CRLA as well as several other academic organizations.  She was the treasurer of both NADE (1991-1995) and CRLA (1986-1988).  She served as the TADE President from 1991-1992 and its treasurer from 1988-1991.  She has authored and co-authored numerous books, chapters, journal articles, and other publications, most of which were for developmental education.  Mrs. Shaw sums up her past and ongoing career with, “You know the old saying, ’success breeds success?’”  

For more information on the eligibility requirements and application procedure for the Gladys R. Shaw Professional Development Award, go to the “Awards” page.