Texas High Performance Schools Consortium
The Texas High Performance Schools Consortium (THPSC) was a group of 22 school districts empowered by the Texas Legislature to improve student learning in the state through the development of innovative, next-generation learning standards and assessment and accountability systems, including standards and systems relating to career and college readiness.
About the THPSC
The Consortium was created as a means to begin work to fulfill the vision outlined by Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas (the TASA visioning document), published by the Public Education Visioning Institute in 2008.
With a visioning document for school transformation in hand, the Institute sought a means to begin work to fulfill that vision. They conceptualized a network of school districts that could do the work and described it in the Guidelines for Establishment of the High Performance Schools Consortium.
In 2011, the 82nd Texas Legislature made the Consortium official with Senate Bill 1557. The law established the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium (THPSC) and charged it with improving student learning by developing innovative high-priority learning standards and assessment and accountability systems.
Principles
- Students should be given the power to innovate and create.
- Teachers should be given the opportunity to use instructional strategies (including assessments) that bring relevance to classrooms.
- School districts have a moral imperative to develop good citizens who are prepared to succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce.
Goals
The THPSC ‘s work centered around a future in which the Texas public education system is built around:
- Dynamic, rigorous curriculum standards in all content areas
- A variety of assessment alternatives that are not limited to paper and pencil tests
- Technology that is integrated into student learning
- Learning that is relevant and responsive to student interests
- Local community involvement in determining the factors that best measure school accountability in that community
- A variety of pathways to graduation
Such a system will prepare students for post-secondary education, the workforce, and productive citizenship.
Reports to the Legislature
Consortium Associates
In 2013, the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium invited other Texas school districts engaged in transformation work to join Mission: School Transformation as Consortium Associates so that more data on the efficacy of transformation initiatives could be collected to inform the Legislature and other stakeholders.
Consortium Associates benefited from sharing ideas, resources, and results with Consortium districts and had access to TASA’s school transformation services and resources, including in-district support, opportunities to engage with national leaders in educational innovation, and research on key transformation initiatives.
Consortium Associates shared a commitment to the principles and premises outlined in Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas and engaged as a contributing partner with Consortium members and other districts in the ongoing transformation work.
THPSC Members
| District | Region |
| Anderson-Shiro CISD | 6 |
| Clear Creek ISD | 4 |
| College Station ISD | 6 |
| Coppell ISD | 10 |
| Duncanville ISD | 10 |
| Eanes ISD | 13 |
| Glen Rose ISD | 11 |
| Guthrie CISD | 17 |
| Harlingen CISD | 1 |
| Highland Park ISD | 10 |
| Klein ISD | 4 |
| Lake Travis ISD | 13 |
| Lancaster ISD | 10 |
| Lewisville ISD | 11 |
| McAllen ISD | 1 |
| McKinney ISD | 10 |
| Northwest ISD | 11 |
| Prosper ISD | 10 |
| Richardson ISD | 10 |
| Roscoe Collegiate ISD | 14 |
| Round Rock ISD | 13 |
| White Oak ISD | 7 |