The Texas Impact Network was born from the recognition that public policy is only as good as its implementation.
Change management takes a great deal of time and effort and school systems across Texas are already stretched thin. This is where the Texas Impact Network steps in – providing catalytic policy implementation support to remove the burden and bring additional resources to pioneering school systems who are working to implement these potentially game-changing policy solutions.
These efforts include the:
Each of these networks tracks and reports out on goals related to implementation of the following policies:
Rural Accelerator Network
The Opportunity
More than 75% of Texas school systems serve less than 2,000 students
If policy solutions are to last in Texas, they must work for all of Texas – meaning large urban systems and small rural systems alike. Given that most small rural school systems across Texas do not have a regional intermediary organization, we have begun to fill this gap by standing up our Rural Accelerator Network. The goal is to provide holistic, focused support for policy-oriented challenges and solutions on high-impact, high-value legislative opportunities such as those outlined here:
The Support

The Texas Impact Network included rural education as a priority focus with dedicated resources from its launch in 2020 with the Rural CCMR Accelerator Program, extending expert coaching and student support services to select rural Texas school systems aimed at increasing postsecondary readiness and maximizing CCMR outcomes-based funding through HB3, which provides the opportunity for districts to draw down per-student funds based on defined College, Career, and Military Readiness outcomes.
The Impact
The Rural Accelerator Network serves 132 rural districts (15.5% of all Texas public rural districts) and 147 organizations total, including universities and community colleges, Education Service Centers, Technical Assistance providers, and other rural-focused organizations as they implement policies related to dual credit access, rural career pathways, advanced math pathways and strategic staffing.
Interested in joining the Rural Accelerator Network? Email lbalkcom@cftexas.org to learn more.
Strategic Resource Use Network
The Opportunity
Chief-level administrators in Texas school districts play a pivotal role in the success of the students they serve, but frequently lack the resources to continuously improve school funding. This is especially true when it comes to accessing and maximizing new funding opportunities created by the passage of state law.
TEA identified three potential models for school systems looking to implement ADSY:
The Support
The Strategic Resource Use Network brings together school system leaders in finance, academics, and innovation who are committed to transforming outcomes for students and maximizing the impact of their districts’ resources: people, time, and money. Facilitated by Education Resource Strategies (ERS), the Strategic Resource Use Network aims to support system leaders by equipping them with the knowledge and skills to enable them to act as strategic leaders within their districts and provide a venue to meaningfully collaborate and learn together.
“How districts use their people, time, and money has a direct impact on what students and teachers experience in our schools and ultimately on student academic outcomes,” says ERS Texas Strategic Support Director Sharla Horton. “The Strategic Resource Use Network helps senior-level district leaders come together and think strategically about how to leverage existing resources to get the outcomes they want for students and teachers.”
The Impact

Interested in joining the Strategic Resource Use Network? Email shwilliams@erstrategies.org to learn more.
Regional Convener Learning Community
The Opportunity
The Texas Impact Network is proud to work with 10 regional partners serving unique parts of the state. Our regional partners offer focused support to a portfolio of school systems in their community. Their established relationships with local leaders allow a level of involvement that can only be achieved with personal, trusted support. Selected regional partners are fully aligned to the mission of the Network and work to improve outcomes of students in their communities. It is only through collaboration with our regional partners that the Network has been able to serve hundreds of Texas school systems.
The Support
Over the past four years we’ve worked alongside our regional partners to create a collaborative environment where the intermediaries are able to work with one another to improve practice, share learnings, and accelerate the work across Texas together. This year, we have set common, shared goals that we are trying to achieve across Texas related to the landmark education laws outlined here.
The Impact
The 10 Texas Impact Network regional intermediaries represent 19 counties in Texas that contain more than half of the Texas population, more than 6% of US public school enrollment and more than 8% of the nation’s youth in poverty. If these organizations are able to successfully impact key outcomes, they can change the trajectory of not only our state, but our nation as well.
Interested in joining the Regional Convener Learning Community? Email sarah.jensen@commitpartnership.org to learn more.
The Policies
COMMUNITY COLLEGE FINANCE REFORM BILL (HB8)

This bill restructures state funding for community colleges, incentivizing program completion over student enrollment. Part of this bill makes dual credit courses free for a majority of Texas students and increased dual credit attainment can result in more funding for community colleges and more access to rigorous coursework for students.
RURAL PATHWAY EXCELLENCE PARTNERSHIP (R-PEP) (HB2209)

This bill codified a program that incentivizes small, rural school districts to partner with one another to offer more college and career pathways for students. Districts that partner for these efficiencies are eligible to earn additional funding for each student who enrolls and completes their pathway.
ADVANCED MATH PATHWAYS (SB 2124)

This bill requires school systems ensure fifth grade students who are achieving in math are put on a pathway to learn Algebra 1 by eighth grade; research shows this is a powerful predictor of postsecondary success.
STRATEGIC STAFFING (HB3 86R)

In 2019, the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) was created through HB3 to incentivize districts to identify their most effective teachers based on quantitative student growth data, and compensate them more. TIA has now exploded across the state with more than 600 school systems implementing or actively building a TIA system. Now, there is an opportunity to support systems in finding ways to maximize the impact of TIA and their most effective teachers on their entire school systems.
Desired Outcomes
Each of our program networks, as well as our individual regional partners, will collect and report out on data related to the successful implementation of each of these policies. It is our hope that successful implementation of each will ultimately result in increases in:
- The percentage of CCMR Outcomes Bonus Funding successfully earned by school districts
- The percentage of high school graduates who successfully complete college credits
- The percentage of 8th graders who earn ‘Meets’ on Algebra 1 before 9th grade
- The percentage of 3rd grade students achieving ‘Meets’ on the 3rd grade STAAR Reading exam
- The percentage of eligible students enrolled in Pre-K
