Prekindergarten Adoption Support Conference and Virtual Publisher Fair

TEA will host a two-day, virtual Prekindergarten Adoption Support Conference and publisher fair January 12–13, 2021 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with the PreK materials selection process. 

As a part of Proclamation 2021, the State Board of Education has released the state approved list of Prekindergarten products that meets the requirements for percentage of Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines (TPG) coverage for each domain. This conference will help districts use the information provided by the SBOE to make strong, locally driven adoption decisions using freely available resources available to support LEAs in their selection process. LEAs will also have an opportunity to hear from other district representatives who have led successful local adoption processes and learn from their experiences. This two-day event will end with a virtual publisher fair where LEAs can take the knowledge gained about the selection process, along with clarity of their local vision, and ask targeted questions to publishers about their products. LEAs will leave this event with a clear picture of what matters to their district for PreK selection and answers from vendors about how their products could meet local needs.

View the slide deck from the conference
View conference recordings
View recordings from the Vendor Fair

Day 1:

Day 2:

Benefits: The Conference includes the following coaching and support for districts: 

• Guidance on how to set-up a strong adoption process to explore available PreK products that culminates in a final adoption decision in alignment with local needs.
• Best practices to build teacher and school leader buy-in on final adoption decision.
• Guidance to define quality materials and resources, created by teachers, to review and evaluate materials based on quality.
• Explore how the TPGs (Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines) are addressed in different instructional materials.
• Learn from other LEAs who have led successful selection processes in other subject areas by using available resources from TEA.
• Direct access to publishers to ask questions about products based on detailed quality reviews provided by teachers.
   

Target Audience: The conference is designed to support district leaders responsible for adopting Pre-kindergarten instructional materials. In addition, adoption teams or committees within districts comprised of school leaders and teachers may also participate together.  

Next Steps: 

• Determine which staff members should attend. This conference will be structured so that work time can benefit either entire LEA teams or a single LEA staff member.  
• Register for the conference here.

Conference Participant Handout:

Participants should download the handout for use during the conference sessions. Facilitators will reference and use the handout to interact with the audience.

Virtual Publisher Fair Zoom Links:

On January 13 from 2:00–4:00 pm, conference participants have the option to interact with and ask questions of PreK publishers during the virtual publisher fair. Each publisher will have a Zoom meeting link, allowing participants to select the five publishers they are most interested in potentially adopting. Participants must access the appropriate zoom meeting room for each publisher.

There will be five time blocks to meet with vendors during the fair. Participants should only transition between Zoom rooms during the noted transition times below.

If you have questions, please contact Kendrick.Torbey@tea.texas.gov