Newswise — HOUSTON – (Feb. 22, 2016) – Thousands of child care programs in Texas will have a greater opportunity to prepare their young ones for kindergarten thanks to new online model designed to help preschool teachers improve their instructional skills and provide a better environment for early childhood learning.
The Children’s Learning Institute, a part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), is inviting Texas Rising Star certified providers and former Texas School Ready participants to sign up for TSR Online, an online platform that includes free access to progress monitoring tools and professional development resources. Hundreds of Texas school districts, charter schools and Head Start programs currently have access to TSR Online tools and resources at no cost, directly impacting more than 100,000 young Texans this year alone.
For more than 10 years, the Children’s Learning Institute has managed the implementation and ongoing enhancement of the Texas School Ready (TSR) project — a research-driven, comprehensive professional development and child progress monitoring program intended to increase school readiness skills in at-risk students. In 2014, the Texas Education Agency and the Children’s Learning Institute partnered to make Texas School Ready’s digital resources more widely available, which led to the development of an online-only version known as TSR Online.
“Through Texas School Ready, teachers receive training and resources that have been proven to help children learn letters, words, sounds and math, which are skills and knowledge critical for children to be successful in kindergarten and later grades,” said Susan Landry, Ph.D., founder and director of the Children’s Learning Institute. “In our first 13 years, Texas School Ready has positively impacted nearly 400,000 at-risk preschool children in Texas. With TSR Online, we have the capacity to positively impact that many children each year.”
Programs that register for TSR Online will have access to Texas School Ready’s eCIRCLE online professional development courses, the CIRCLE Progress Monitoring System, classroom observation tools for coaches and administrators, and the CIRCLE Activity Collection, the new online version of the CIRCLE Teacher’s Manual. Over the next year, new professional development courses and activities for infant and toddler teachers and parents will be added, expanding Texas School Ready’s reach to the critical very early years of development.
“Through TSR Online, the child care programs that previously participated in Texas School Ready, no matter how long ago, can sustain improvements they made during their previous participation,” said April Crawford, Ph.D., director of the Texas School Ready project. “The new online-only TSR model enables us to continue supporting these programs in their efforts to provide high quality early childhood education.”
At this time, only Texas Rising Star certified providers and former Texas School Ready participants — as well as school districts, charter schools and Head Start programs not currently enrolled — are eligible to sign up for TSR Online at www.texasschoolready.org/online. The Children’s Learning Institute is exploring opportunities to expand access to additional programs in the future.
About the Children’s Learning Institute at UTHealth
Founded in 2003, the Children’s Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) impacts children, families and teachers across Texas and the country through its research, clinical programs, statewide early childhood initiatives, parenting programs and teacher mentoring programs. The Children’s Learning Institute has managed the implementation and ongoing enhancement of the Texas School Ready Project since 2003. To learn more about the Texas School Ready Project, visit www.texasschoolready.org.
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