Hello again from the HEC staff.  Summer is finally here!. New this month on HEC Online:

•    Save the Date! The Texas Reading First Higher Education Collaborative (TRF-HEC) and the Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative present the New English/LA/Reading TEKS August 13 and August 14, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa (Lost Pines, Texas, 15 minutes south of the Austin Bergstrom International Airport).

o    August 13: K-5, Spanish & English
o    August 14: Grades 6-12
o    (you may register for one or both days depending upon your needs).

•    Save the Date! For the November 3rd and 4th Fall TRF-HEC Seminar 2009 in Dallas. Special presenters are Dr. Randi O’Connor and Dr. Freddie Hiebert among many other exciting presenters and sessions. This seminar’s topic is Back to the Basics.  We will delve into the state of the current evidence within each component of reading instruction.

•    May Seminar Materials:
o    Center on Instruction Handouts (mentioned by Katie Tackett)

o    Extensive Reading Interventions (mentioned by Deb Simmons)

o    Practices and Perspectives ("snapshots" of 5 schools implementing RTI).

o    Notes from the collaborative groups (lunch bunch meetings)

o    Powerpoint slides from presenters

o    The Tigard-Tualatin school district’s website on EBIS (http://www.ttsd.k12.or.us/district/ebis/ebis-1) (the district that Daryl Mellard spoke about during his RTI presentation).

•    Recent news items:
o    32nd Annual TED Conference: Teacher Preparation in Changing Times: Fostering Partnerships Between Special and General Education: http://www.tedcec.org/

o    Graduate Fellowship at Southern Methodist University: http://www.smu.edu/EducationPhD

o    CEC’s RTI blog: Exploring Response to Intervention: http://www.cecblog.typepad.com/rti/

o    The National Center for Education Evaluation’s report on Hispanic High School Student. To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=114

o    The National Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) - a research program funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, is holding the CREATE conference in Austin, Texas on October 5 and 6, 2009.

The conference: Improving Outcomes for English Language Learners: Oral Language and Literacy Learning Across the Curriculum is open for registration: http://www.cal.org/create/events/create2009/index.html

o    2009 Fall Teacher Education Conference: http://www.csotte.org/csotte_conferences.htm

And finally, IRA is identifying distinguished teacher preparation programs. Details for having your program considered are available on the front page of HEC Online.


We wish you the best,
•    Marty, Erica, Lisa, Jin, and Eric