It’s a wrap! The first cohort of the Teacher Advocacy Leadership Institute (TALI) has ended, coinciding with the end of the legislative session. The institute was designed to help teachers gain a more thorough understanding of public charter school laws and to teach them help to advocate for policies and laws that are needed to support the public charter school movement in Texas.

Twelve teachers representing charter school networks across Texas participated in the program. They are:

Donnie Beeson, KIPP Austin Brave High School
Cristina Correa, IDEA College Preparatory San Juan
Travis Helm, Austin Achieve Public
Tristan Jones, KIPP Houston High School
Jeremy Lippart, Harmony Science Academy Austin
Brooke Lucero, Great Hearts Northern Oaks San Antonio
Shelley Pridgen, IDEA Public Schools,
Heather Richmond, University Academy-Palestine
Cameron Starc, Founders Responsive Education Classical Academy of Leander
Darla Sutton, Responsive Education Premier High School Amarillo
Amanda Walsh, KIPP Comunidad-Austin 

In addition to receiving advocacy training (provided in partnership with Teach Plus Texas), participants responded to action alerts, wrote op-eds, facilitated school tours with lawmakers, prepared for and testified before the House Public Education committee, met with lawmakers, and kept their peers informed on the issues.

Building upon their work in the TALI program this year, teachers Cristina Correa, Brooke Lucero, and Heather Richmond have been accepted into the Teach Plus Texas Fellowship program for the 2019-2020 school year, where they will be continuing their advocacy training. 

Thank you to our wonderful teachers for all you do for your students and for going above and beyond this year by becoming an advocate too! We are grateful for you.

Applications for Cohort 2 for the 2019-2020 TALI fellowship will open in August. Please email Shree’ Medlock at smedlock@txcharterschools.org if you would like to be notified when the application is available.