This report highlights key lessons from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Community Partnerships portfolio evaluation. It assesses the communities' progress over the course of the investment, and describes their work in the areas of building public commitment, using data, building and sustaining partnerships, and aligning policies and practices. The OMG Center served as the national evaluator of this initiative and the report also discusses the steps these communities can take to sustain their programs.

Imagine a community where all students enter kindergarten ready to learn. They succeed in school, earn a college degree, and then contribute to advancing regional economic prosperity. This is the vision in Central Texas, and the foundation for a collective impact initiative that is known as E3 Alliance (E3), or Education Equals Economics.

Imagine a community where all students enter kindergarten ready to learn. They succeed in school, earn a college degree, and then contribute to advancing regional economic prosperity. This is the vision in Central Texas, and the foundation for a collective impact initiative that is known as E3 Alliance (E3), or Education Equals Economics.

Imagine a community where all students enter kindergarten ready to learn. They succeed in school, earn a college degree, and then contribute to advancing regional economic prosperity. This is the vision in Central Texas, and the foundation for a collective impact initiative that is known as E3 Alliance (E3), or Education Equals Economics.

This report presents the key findings and recommendations developed by the Texas Teaching Commission over the last year. It addresses the seven phases of the teaching continuum, grounding each phase in context (state, national and international), highlighting the challenges and issues in each phase, and presenting a series of interrelated statutory, regulatory, and district recommendations for improving the teaching continuum in Texas The goal of this report is to implement policies that will lead to improved classroom instruction and student growth.

Over the course of a year, members of the Commission deliberated and worked to build consensus around the key set of recommendations included in this report. In a few instances, however, the Commissioners were unable to reach consensus. Dissenting opinions appear in certain sections of this report. Additionally, although the report offers recommendations for each phase of the teaching continuum separately, the Commission considers these recommendations to be a package of interrelated and aligned actions that will be most effective if they are made in concert. In every section, the report divides recommendations into three categories: statutory (Texas Legislature); regulatory/administrative (education agencies -- TEA or THECB); and school district recommendations. The last section of the report presents an alignment summary of the recommendations.

Texas is ready to take the steps proposed in this report. The state has a history of bold and thoughtful action, and is the only state to achieve the full set of policies for college-and career-readiness, including aligned assessments used for accountability purposes and public reporting of statewide performance goals.

With the Commission's recommendations in place, Texas teachers will be much better supported in preparing students for the new, more rigorous assessments and accountability measures that will demand the best that teachers have to give.