Program Administrator V

Program Administrator V – Office of Educator Development and Accountability

Texas State Board for Educator Certification 2003 – 2006

Had primary responsibility, with guidance from senior staff, for directing large-scale high stakes testing programs.

  • Assisted in defining the test development scope of work, building and maintaining test development schedules -both high-level external schedules and detailed internal schedules, and integrating them with the overall program schedule.
  • Served as the agency liaison to other state and federal agencies for testing and development issues.
  • Lead and participated in client meetings and internal team meetings. 
  • Provided consultation services and materials to stakeholders on item and test development procedures.
  • Responsible for reviewing program materials, meeting deadlines and quality standards for tasks, whether the tasks are performed by in-house staff, subcontractors, or external consultants.
  • Lead and participated cross-program and cross-divisional teams in collaboration with Credentialing staff and executive level managers in the development Texas Administrative Code related to SBEC. 
  • Established and maintained excellent relationships with key staff within the Texas Education Agency, as well as organizations such as the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO, INTASC lead), Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA) and The Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators (TASPA).

 Large-scale high-stakes test development projects

  • Defining the test development scope of work, building and maintaining test development schedules -both high-level external schedules and detailed internal schedules, and integrating them with the overall program schedule, developing and monitoring budgets, serving as the client interface for test development issues, overseeing the units and staff responsible for content-related products, reporting on test development status, participating in client meetings and internal team meetings, providing consultation services and materials on item and test development procedures, and participating in development of proposals and change orders.

 Program Evaluation

  • Designed and developed the approval and evaluation processes and materials for Texas educator preparation programs and for Continuing Education Providers (CPE) for Texas teachers. 
    • This included a creating database system for tracking CPE providers and educator preparation programs from which legislative data is extracted and utilized in forming agency and legislative policy for both areas.
  • Worked as a team member to develop and implement the educator preparation program evaluation process, as well as a process to evaluate potential and current continuing education providers.

 Special Projects Coordinator

  • I was responsible for the coordination of the Agency Strategic Plan and Legislative Appropriations Request for 2005.
  • I served as the SBEC Fiscal Analyst for the 79th Texas legislative session.
  • Served as lead Program Administrator for teacher Continuing Education Requirements, streamlining the system from 10% efficiency to 90%.
    • This included the creation of a database that is still utilized for the evaluation and tracking of information related to teacher professional development programs across the state. 
  • Provided information, reports and technical assistance to legislative committees, the SBEC Board, the SBOE, higher education institutions, school district personnel, stakeholder groups, teachers and community members.
  • Provided oversight and strategic guidance for the Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS).
  • Served as lead for Career and Technology Education teacher credentialing.
  • Served as SBEC representative (in the sted of the Executive Director) to the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) and the Center for Teacher Quality (CTQ).
  • Created a database that is still utilized for the evaluation and tracking of information related to teacher education preparation programs across the state, created new pages and maintained content for the SBEC website.
  • Co-authored two major studies examining math and science teacher supply and demand.
  • While at SBEC I was responsible for the agency performance measure reporting to the Legislative Budget Board.  I successfully gathered, organized and analyzed ten years of performance reporting data and subsequently trained senior level managers to utilize this information for program improvement.

 Item and Test Development

  • Analysis of curricular standards as the basis for the assessments, development of and consultation on test blueprints and specifications, score reporting domains and clusters. 
  • Development of the program’s item writing guidelines, style guidelines, and item specifications. 
  • Development of items and scoring rubrics for open-ended/performance items. 
  • Review of item statistics from pilot or field testing. 
  • Review and sign off of test forms, production blue-lines for test forms and answer documents.
  • Review of item and test form statistics following test administrations.
  • Acted as liaison between SBEC and TEA curriculum staff in coordinating appropriate representation of TEA in development activities.

 Development of Ancillary Materials

  • Review of and sign off on content-related text for program brochures, publications such as Test Specifications and Item Specifications, Practice Tests and Released Item Booklets, content-related components of Technical Manuals, and content-related components for Score Interpretation Manuals.

 Client Meeting oversight

  • Types of client meeting oversight included: Test Specifications Meetings, Item Writer Workshops, Item Reviews, Bias and Sensitivity Reviews, Data Review, Test Form Reviews, Standards Settings, and Teacher Training Workshops.
  • Presented introductory and training components of test development meetings. 
  • Facilitated content-related development meetings.
  • Served as liaison with testing contractor for all general content-related issues.

 Training Experience

  • Designed, developed, and facilitated learning activities for new hires and existing staff to meet business needs of work areas. 
  • A skillful and charismatic presenter, making frequent state, national and international public presentations on eLearning design and development as well as the Credential Project.
  • Supported the implementation of various technical initiatives by consulting with project leads to create learning plans, develop learning materials and coordinate roll out of training in Accountability System for Educator Preparation (ASEP I and II) and new educator preparation program development.
  • Developed and delivered staff development in the form of train the trainer to district and campus administrators and teachers in the areas of program planning and implementation strategies for the integration of national standards into the learning environment.
  • External stakeholder meeting facilitation included both technical and conceptual training in the use of the Accountability System for Educator Preparation (ASEP) as well as meetings in which stakeholders was solicited for input concerning revisions to and new Texas Administrative Code.

 Grant Oversight

  • Participated in the development of proposals (RFP) for test administration and development with an estimated value of 65 million dollars.
  • Monitored and provided oversight for several funded projects for the development of teacher standards and high stakes certification assessments for several curriculum areas.
    • These grants included the development of statewide professional development initiatives to ensure that the field was aware of and prepared for the new examinations.
    • The Texas Master Science Teacher Certificate and Texas Examination of Educator Standards, Co-PI, fiscal years 2004 and 2005.
    • The Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS)
      • TxBESS, 2002. Administered the third year of a four-year ten million dollar Department of Education grant including the evaluation of year three implementation and the final evaluation of the four year pilot project for teacher mentoring and induction.
      • TxBESS, 2003. Administered the final year of a two-year three million dollar Texas Workforce Commission grant including the final evaluation of the two year project for teacher mentoring and induction.
      • TxBESS, Co-PI, fiscal years 2004 and 2005. Successfully secured and administered $750,000 from the Texas Education Agency for a two-year project to re-develop and distribute training and materials for TxBESS.