About - The Texas Impact Network

About The Texas Impact Network

Why We're Investing

The Opportunity

House Bill 3 (86R) transformed public school finance in Texas. Passed by the Texas Legislature in 2019, HB 3 not only added $3.25 billion annually to fund public schools, but also created equitable, innovative funding opportunities that target our state’s highest-need students with up to $4 million in additional investments.
These three data-proven policies are:

Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA)

Funding for school systems that identify and reward their most effective educators to help keep them in the classroom and further incentivize them to teach at rural campuses and/or campuses with high levels of economic instability.

Additional Day School Year (ADSY)

Funding to provide up to 30 additional days of instruction to enhance teacher pay and prevent summer slide for students who tend to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year.

College, Career, & Military Readiness (CCMR) Outcomes Bonus

Equitable funding granted to school systems for each student that both graduates from high school demonstrating college readiness, and completes a successful postsecondary transition to college, career, or the military.

How We Do It

The Strategy

The Texas Impact Network supports pioneering school systems to develop, implement, and evaluate the evidence-based strategies funded through the passage of HB 3. The Network works with regional and statewide partners to create proof points and blueprints for success and facilitates a network of peers sharing their best practices and strategies for assisting school systems in realizing the potential of HB 3’s core innovations.

Partner Organizations

Impactful Results

Desired Outcomes

Broad, diverse and effective implementation

A diverse spectrum of school system partners representing a variety of regions and sizes across Texas demonstrate the equitable potential of HB 3 and its innovative funding opportunities through meaningful implementation that leads to improved student outcomes.

Regional technical assistance capacity to ensure continued support

School systems are provided relevant technical assistance by partners invested in their success and aware of what the region needs because they also live there.

Preservation of HB 3 school finance reform

The opportunities of HB 3 demonstrate the ability to improve student outcomes across Texas and policymakers sustain the commitments made in the 2019 legislative session.

Our Reach

Who We Serve

1 120+ school systems

2 2.1M+ students (39% of Texas public school enrollment)

3 1.5M+ students experiencing economic instability (45% of Texas’ ‘eco-dis’ public school enrollment)

4 305,000 Black students (44% of Texas’ Black public school enrollment)

5 1.1M Latinx/a/o students (38% of Texas’ Latinx/a/o public school enrollment)

6 Total number of students impacted larger than K-12 enrollment of 46 different U.S. states

Our Team

Leadership

Bridget Worley, Executive Director

Bridget started her career in education as a second- and third-grade teacher at Clinton Elementary School in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and then spent time working in governmental relations at Van Scoyoc Associates in her hometown of Washington, DC. In 2012, Bridget moved back to Louisiana to serve as the Policy Advisor to the then-newly elected and appointed Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

After her time at BESE, she joined the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) as the Policy Director, leading the state’s policy agenda around major initiatives including standards and accountability, teacher evaluations, parent choice, and early childhood education. Bridget transitioned to the LDOE executive team in 2015 and worked alongside Superintendent John White as the Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer for the LDOE. She oversaw communications, staffing and professional development, a $150 million operating budget, the annual strategic planning process, and all key organizational decisions for the Department before beginning work on the Impact Network in August 2019.

John Fitzpatrick, Co-Founder

John is the executive director of Educate Texas, the Communities Foundation of Texas’ statewide education initiative. From 1997-2004, John had a dual role as the executive director of Skillpoint Alliance, a central Texas nonprofit, and vice president for education and workforce development at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. John moved to Texas in 1994 to attend grad school at the LBJ School at UT Austin, where he met his wife, Kristen Vassallo. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill for Republicans and Democrats on education, workforce development, trade and other issues.

Todd Williams, Co-Founder

Todd is the founding Chairman and CEO of The Commit Partnership, the nation’s largest educational collective impact organization. He also served for eight years as the Education Policy Advisor to former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Todd is a senior trustee and former board chair for Austin College, one of the region’s leading liberal arts institutions located in Sherman, Texas. In 2017, Todd was appointed to the year-long Texas Commission on Public School Finance by Governor Greg Abbott and chaired its Outcome Committee. A public school graduate from Bryan Adams H.S. in Dallas ISD, Todd earned an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Austin College in Sherman, Texas in 1982.

Advisory Council

In order to meet our desired outcomes, we must align and partner with key leadership and education champions across the state. The Texas Impact Network has built an advisory council which consists of champion superintendents, leaders of regional partner organizations, and Texas Education Agency leadership. The Advisory Council works to introduce the work of the Network to every region in Texas, collaborate and share ideas, and speak in support of HB 3 reforms to accelerate success.

Superintendent/Champions

LaTonya Goffney, Aldine ISD (CCMR)
HD Chambers, Alief ISD (ADSY)
Michael Hinojosa, Dallas ISD (TIA)
Kathy Rollo, Lubbock ISD (TIA)
Celina Estrada Thomas, Hutto ISD (CCMR)

Regional Partners

Dottie Smith, Commit Partnership
Adrian Vega, Education Partnership of the Permian Basin
Susan Dawson, E3 Alliance
Alexandra Hales Elizondo, Good Reason Houston
Rodney Rodriguez, RGV Focus (Educate Texas)
Mattie Parker, Tarrant To and Through Partnership
Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, UP Partnership

Texas Education Agency

Commissioner Mike Morath, TEA
Megan Agazadian, TEA

The Commit Partnership. The Commit Partnership is a collective impact organization composed of nearly 70 backbone staff of diverse backgrounds and over 200 partners across Dallas County and the State of Texas. Together, we cultivate a collaborative educational ecosystem across Pre-K-12 school systems, higher education institutions, city, county, and state governments, foundations, non-profits, employers and workforce agencies. Our true north goal is that by 2040 at least half of all 25-34 year old residents, irrespective of race, will be provided the opportunity to earn a living wage.

Educate Texas. Founded in 2003, under the arm of the Communities Foundation of Texas, Educate Texas works to increase postsecondary readiness, access and success for all Texas students by building partnerships, leading innovation, and scaling practices and policies. Its significant areas of focus are college and career readiness, effective teaching, higher education, and collective impact.

“I’m amazed at what our educators and school leaders have been able to accomplish in spite of every obstacle. ”

Bridget Worley, Executive Director of the Texas Impact Network