TWC Transmittals
Below is a collection of “TWC Transmittals” from the Adult Education and Literacy State Director/staff that contains general grant-related information, policy clarifications and helpful guidance for AEL-funded programs. This compilation includes select TWC Transmittals dated April, 2018 forward and is updated regularly as new TWC Transmittals are generated. Messages are in date order beginning with the most recent correspondence. To help find topics, you can use your browser’s “Find” function (command + f) to find words in titles listed on this page. NOTE: Meeting Recordings are only good for 6 months from recorded date. |
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2025January 9, 2025Watch the meeting | Agenda | Fiscal Technical Assistance Q&R 2024September 10, 2024Adult Education and Family Literacy (AEFL) Week – Sept 16-Sept 20 Signed Proclamation –Governor Greg Abbott and Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott have proclaimed next week Adult Education and Family Literacy Week in Texas! I will bring the official proclamation to the Fall Institute for photo opportunities. I hope you will participate and share the word (I know you will!) on social media. AEFL Book Drive –TWC is sponsoring a Brown Santa book drive from September 16th, 2024 - October 4, 2024. We will have a box at the Fall Institute for donations of new or gently used books. You can also select a book from the suggested list on Amazon and it will ship to us: Amazon List or send any other donations to: 101. E. 15th Street, c/o Billie Menchaca, Room 660, Austin, Tx 78778. June 30, 2024Good Evening, I hope this finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to congratulate all of you on the tremendous body of work over the last six years. I am grateful for your steadfast leadership and adaptability as we navigate change to position our program to support career pathways under a broader scope of workforce development and education across the state. AEL is not an ‘easy job’, regardless of your role. It can be grueling, heartbreaking even, and the sacrifices do not go unnoticed by myself or your students. The joy in helping an individual be seen and heard, giving them a voice and being part of their work and education journey—that is where the magic happens—that is why we love it. With all that we have accomplished, there will always be more to do. Many of you will be returning for another grant cycle and I look forward to the work. Some of you will not be returning and will be seeking other opportunities or taking a well-deserved retirement and we wish you the absolute best. Job well done. None of what we accomplish as a state could be possible without the individual talent and dedication from each of you. Perhaps it can be summed up with two words – Thank You. There will always be ways to connect back to the work, if you are interested. Keep AEL and TWC future grant opportunities on your radar by registering through our Bonfire Portal. To those of you who received an AEL provider grant award for PY 24-25 under RFA 32024-00017 or RFA 32024-00149, I will send a separate email next week and provide a ‘Welcome Packet’ for PY 24-25 to include:
We still have grants out for signature, so please keep an eye on your inbox to keep those moving. Thank you for all you do. June 13, 2024May 2, 2024Watch the meeting | ACF Grant Opportunity | Final Agenda | Symposium Program April 18, 2024Watch the meeting | Presentation Slides | EOY Checklist | Final Agenda April 4, 2024March 21, 2024February 22, 2024January 25, 2024January 11, 20242023December 15, 2023On December 12, 2023, TWC’s three-member Commission (Commission) approved Texas’s WIOA Combined State Plan (CSP) for Program Years 2024–2027 for posting for public comment. As part of the submission-and-approval process, TWC seeks public comment and input regarding the development of the CSP. The plan covers the following WIOA core programs and one optional program:
TWC welcomes your input. The plan is posted for public comment for 30 days and can be accessed at Rules, Adoptions & Proposals - Texas Workforce Commission. The deadline to submit comments is January 13, 2024. Please submit comments to workforce.editing@twc.texas.gov. December 14, 2023December 12, 2023We just released an amendment to RFA 32024-00017, AEL Core Provider as well as the Question/Answer document. Both are available in Bonfire. The amendment includes several key changes, including:
Due to these changes and the delay in getting the Questions/Answer document published, we have extended the submission deadline for this RFA to January 19th, 2024. TWC AEL Staff cannot answer any questions or further explain responses outlined in the RFA. October 24, 2023The statewide Adult Education and Literacy Request for Applications (RFA) 32024-00017 is available: RFA 32024-00017 Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) Core Provider Important Dates: 10/31/2023—Applicant Webinar @ 1:30-3:00 CDT. 11/2/2023—Deadline for Questions @ 4pm CDT 12/22/2023—Deadline for Submissions, both Applications, 10:00am CST Reminder: The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has partnered with Bonfire Interactive to create a new procurement portal that will allow you to view opportunities and submit Request for Applications (RFAs) to TWC digitally. RFAs information can be viewed on the Texas Workforce Commission Procurement Portal on the “Open Public Opportunities” tab. In order to prepare a submission, please log into the portal. If you do not have a Bonfire account, you can create an account by clicking the "Log in / Register" button at the bottom of the page. Registration is free and easy. If you have any challenges with the registration process, please go to Public Portal Technical Support. TWC is excited about the changes we are making to streamline our electronic procurement process and we look forward to continuing our good relationship with you and appreciate your interest. Please contact RFA Grants (rfagrants@twc.texas.gov) if you have questions. Quick Webpage Link We built a companion webpage https://www.twc.texas.gov/programs/adult-education-literacy/rfa to help support your experience when accessing RFA 32024-00017. Save this to your bookmark for easy access to resources and links to RFA documents. September 12, 2023HEAR YE, HEAR YE ! Governor Greg Abbot and his wife, Cecilia, have supported our request to declare September 18th-23rd, Adult Education and Family Literacy (AEFL) week here in Texas. This is a national recognition, and we are so happy to be a part of the celebration. It is a testament to your amazing work. Next week as we convene to recognize the tremendous efforts of our adult education administrators, instructors, and staff, let us celebrate this amazing program and all the wonderful good we are going for Texans. I have attached a PDF version of the proclamation so that you can use it in your local celebrations and marketing. See you next week! September 11, 2023Good Afternoon, I wanted to make you aware of a change to how TWC will be posting and accepting applications for all of our grant opportunities. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has partnered with Bonfire Interactive to create a new procurement portal that will allow you to view opportunities and submit Request for Applications (RFAs) to TWC digitally. RFAs information can be viewed on the Texas Workforce Commission Procurement Portal on the “Open Public Opportunities” tab. In order to prepare a submission, please log into the portal. If you do not have a Bonfire account, you can create an account by clicking the "Log in / Register" button at the bottom of the page. Registration is free and easy. If you have any challenges with the registration process, please go to Public Portal Technical Support. TWC is excited about the changes we are making to streamline our electronic procurement process and we look forward to continuing our good relationship with you and appreciate your interest. Please contact RFA Grants (rfagrants@twc.texas.gov) if you have questions. July 20, 2023LEA Cohort 5 Please don’t miss the opportunity outlined below – think about growing leadership within your program whether program leadership or instructional leadership and submit those applications by this Friday! If you have been through the LEA previously, but maybe it’s been a few years and you could stand a brush-up for your own leadership skills, we welcome you. The LEA is centered on the newly developed AEL Leadership Wheel, which has 3 main components; leads the organization, leads self and leads others. To find out more, you can contact Beth Ponder at baponder@tamu.edu, and read the information below. I hope you will consider yourself and your staff and submit an application (below). Thank you! July 13, 2023Meeting no longer available to watch June 29, 2023There are important updates in this email, please read them carefully. PY 23-24 TARGETS/ CARRYFORWARD TARGETS Target Tool is due 7/10/2023. Be sure to read the section in the instructions on ‘Carryforward’, it may aide your approach to negotiation. TEAMS RELEASE 6.2 – June 30th 2023 BUSINESS MEETING RESCHEDULED We moved the AEL Business Meeting to July 27th 9a-12p. PD Portal registrations will be moved over, but please ensure you double-check to ensure that you are registered for the revised date. Agenda will be added mid-July. Target Negotiation Tool | AEL Targets Guide | TEAMS 6.2 Full Release Notes June 29, 2023Grantees, TWC and TRAIN PD @ TCALL are excited to begin accepting applications for Cohort V of both the Administrator Leadership Excellence Academy (ALEA) and the Instructor Leadership Excellence Academy (ILEA). Both academies were developed by the American Institutes of Research (AIR) in collaboration with TRAIN PD and will equip participants with data-proven and supported skills to strengthen instructional strategies and program performance. The time frame for participation in the second round of both LEA’s will be from September 2023 through March 2024. The Administrator Leadership Excellence Academy focuses on the development of adult education leaders - how they lead the organization, how they lead themselves and others. The development of leadership, strategy, customer engagement, performance measurement, workforce engagement, and change management to identify and conquer opportunities for improvement based on self-analyses and program data will be covered. Participants will acquire the skills and receive support to lead a program improvement initiative. TWC Grant Recipient Directors may self-nominate for the ALEA. Other candidates, including staff from consortium members, must be recommended, and supported by their AEL Grant Recipient Director; In these instances, the nomination must be submitted by the TWC Grant Recipient’s Director. Participants in the Instructor Leadership Excellence Academy will work with several collaborative models and strategies to support initiative, persistence, and planning. ILEA members will learn to identify and evaluate instructional areas of growth and develop practical solutions to address them through an action research method that is the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research linked to critical reflection. Participants will learn to use data analysis to make decisions about instruction in the classroom and across departments or programs. Candidates must be nominated by their director. Local programs will provide all costs and travel related expenses to participate, unless otherwise notified by TRAIN PD. For questions, please contact Beth Ponder baponder@tamu.edu or Dr. Olga M. Escamilla olga.escamilla@tamu.edu June 15, 2023Watch Meeting | Agenda | Becoming a Pearson Test Site June 1, 2023May 4, 2023Watch Meeting | Agenda | 2023 AEL Fall Institute Session Proposal Form April 20, 2023Watch Meeting | AEL Fall Institute Session Proposal (PDF) (DOC) | Agenda March 23, 2023Watch Meeting | Agenda | Career Pathways Symposium Flyer | Math Tutoting Call Center February 23, 2023January 26, 2023Agenda | TEAMS 6.1 Full Release notes | POP Exiter Management Report January 5, 2023Dear Grantees, Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Due to the delay in publishing of the upcoming Request for Applications (RFA), we have decided to take advantage of space available at the TALAE pre-conference to host a short business meeting. The AEL Business meeting will take place on February 8th, 1:30-4:30pm. TALAE Board is updating registration forms to accommodate this selection. We will have more details next week during the regular Bi-weekly call. I just wanted to get this out as early as possible so that you can start making/adjusting travel, if you plan to attend. We are still working on the agenda, but will share a draft next week. Please share this with consortia members and key personnel. See you then. Thank you 2022December 13, 2022Dear Grantees, I wanted to thank all of you who attended the TWC Annual Workforce Conference held in Dallas last month. I was so happy to get a chance to see many of you and get caught up on AEL happenings in your local areas. Every fall we get to recognize a few AEL grant recipients and providers who went above and beyond and endured some very challenging criteria to be awarded a performance quality improvement award. This year we had two monetary awards: Best In Class and Board/AEL Co-enrollment. Please join me in congratulating the winners. Best in Class
Board/AEL Co-Enrollment
We also continued to celebrate our TWC AEL Scholars of the Year at the conference who were first recognized at our Fall Institute in September 2022. I am hoping to share the conference video with you soon! I have received a few inquiries about the results. Wanted to share the Commission approved criteria and the Best in Class data (attached) for transparency. Each year, I am humbled by your continued dedication to excellence. Thank you for all that you do to support adult learners in Texas! Deliverable Update/Change PD Follow-up Plan Due 2/15/23 for the program year we are in PD Plan Due 6/30/23 for the upcoming program year to begin 7/1/2023 Then, next year, the PD Follow-up Plan will be due 2/15/2024, PD Plan due 6/30/2024 which will be reflected in PY 23-24 grant amendments. The goal is to ensure that there is a plan for PD before the PY starts and then a check-in February each year to see about needed adjustments or additions. PD Plans and Follow-up Plans are to be developed by the PD Coordinator for each program in coordination with the Director and key Instructional staff, please ensure that this coordination is taking place as the Follow-up Plans are being developed this winter. Best In Class Awards | Commission Meeting Material November 17, 2022October 20, 2022Watch the Meeting | AEL Bi-Weekly Call Document October 6, 2022Watch the Meeting | AEL Bi-Weekly Call Document | Draft AEL Contracted Measures and PBF (PY22-23) September 22, 2022Dear Grantees, Thank you for another successful Fall Institute! Again, Happy Adult Education and Family Literacy week, #AEFL Week. We have several media events planned to celebrate adult learners and educators—keep your eye on TWC social media campaign and please share the content out. I neglected to send the below reminders/updates last week, so wanted to get these out to you. First, I am sad to announce that Fabiana Ramirez will be leaving the TWC family next Friday, Sept 30th. Our tremendous loss will be Texas Workforce Investment Council (TWIC) gain. After spending the last six years in AEL, she takes with her deep knowledge of how instrumental our program is for Texans and how AEL can support the entire Texas workforce system. She will no doubt be an advocate for all things AEL and we wish her well! Target Negotiation Tool – We have received and compiled everyone’s request. If you are accepting the TWC Recommendations—no further action needed. If you negotiated your targets, IF we need to discuss further, we will schedule a call or send communication via email next week. We are hoping to get all targets finalized by mid/end October. TEAMS Release 5.9 – Release notes attached. There were several small fixes deployed as we wait for the larger more complex release later in the year. If you have any questions, please reach out to TEAMS.technicalassistance@twc.texas.gov Tableau, Phase II – Tableau is now live for Phase II users. This would include any active TEAMS user that set up an Okta account. Okta account is required to gain access to Tableau—it is the access gatekeeper. Reminder: Tableau will restrict access equal to TEAMS. Example: Staffreader in TEAMS will only see their data in Tableau, not the entire grantee. As a reminder, attached are some instructions and here is a canned video to walk you through the dashboards: https://youtu.be/DmvG0EB4aqE . We will plan another Tableau webinar in the near future. Please get familiar with the reports—there is some very useful data in those dashboards. Be on the lookout for the Bi-weekly call invite updates. I am hoping to get us back on track in October. Be well everyone. Resources: OKTA TABLEAU Instructions | TEAMS 5.9 Full Release Notes July 28, 2022July 14, 2022Resources: Watch Meeting | PD Plan Template | Agenda June 16, 2022Resources: Watch Meeting | Call Draft | Attention DL Students | Attention DL Students (Spanish) May 5, 2022Resources: Watch Meeting | Agenda | TEAMS 5.8.3 Release Notes | TRUE Workforce Announcement April 21, 2022Resources:[Meeting recording no longer available] | Agenda April 4, 2022Resources:[Meeting recording no longer available] | Agenda March 24, 2022[Meeting recording no longer available] February 17, 2022This transmittal is to notify AEL grantees of two public review and comment periods, as described in this message. TRI-AGENCY STATE WORKFORCE GOALS OPEN FOR PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENTTri-Agency Workforce Initiative - Linking Education and Workforce: Spurring Economic Growth Across Texas Public comment will close on March 2, 2022. If you have questions about the public comment form or need assistance, contact triagency.feedback@twc.texas.gov. ABOUT THE INITIATIVE: TRI-AGENCY PRIORITIES WIOA COMBINED STATE PLAN TWO-YEAR MODIFICATION FOR PROGRAMYEARS 2020-2O23 OPEN FOR PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENTTexas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Combined State Plan (CSP) for Program Years 2020–2023 was submitted to the US Department of Labor and the US Department of Education on April 13, 2020, and approved on June 26, 2020. WIOA §676.145(a)(1) requires states to submit modifications to a CSP at the conclusion of the first two years of a four-year plan to “reflect changes in labor market and economic conditions or other factors affecting the implementation of the Combined State Plan.” On February 15, 2022, TWC’s three-member Commission (Commission) approved the required Two-Year Modification of the CSP for WIOA covering Program Years 2020–2023 for posting for public comment. As part of the submission-and-approval process, TWC seeks public comment and input regarding the development of the proposed modification to the CSP. The plan modification covers the following WIOA core programs and two optional programs:
The plan is divided into a strategic section, an operational section, a waiver requests section, and four program sections.
The Commission welcomes your input. The plan will be posted for public comment for 30 days. The deadline to submit comments is March 17, 2022. Submit comments by email to: workforce.editing@twc.texas.gov. January 28, 2022The attached letter, signed by TWC’s Workforce Development Division Director, Courtney Arbour, notifies Texas’ AEL provider network of a training opportunity sponsored by the Department of Education, in collaboration with the research firm, Mathematica. Mathematica will hold an informational webinar on February 3rd at 10:30-11:30am CST, and interested providers may access the webinar directly by clicking “Join Meeting” or links below. For questions about the study and the webinar, please contact Linda Rosenberg at 609-936-2762 or AdultEdStudy@mathematica-mpr.com. Thank you for your consideration. Resources: Department of Ed - Letter of Support - Carreer Navigator Training and Study | Connecting Adults to Success - Brochure January 27, 2022[Meeting recording no longer available] Resources: TEAMS 5.8.1 Full Release Notes | Bi-weekly Call Agenda | Gas Voucher Request Form | Transportation Services Student Contract | Community Action: Standard Operating Procedure for Transportation Support |