AUSTIN – Commissioner of Education Mike Morath today announced the launch of the Texas Gateway (www.texasgateway.org), a free online resource library for educators and parents provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The Texas Gateway not only builds upon the success of TEA’s online learning community Project Share but also expands access to resources—such as videos, interactives, formative assessments, professional development courses, and other classroom support materials—designed to strengthen classroom instruction to help every student succeed.
“The Texas Gateway reflects many months of work and collaboration with our educators who asked TEA for an avenue that promotes a Texas-specific approach to online resources,” said Commissioner Morath. “And while teachers will no doubt find the resources on this site to be valuable tools, items found on the Texas Gateway are also available to parents, students, and all Texans at no cost.”
Commissioner Morath noted that the Texas Gateway provides open access to instructional resources that align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the state standards that describe what students should know and be able to do at every grade level. A majority of the current resources focus on middle school and high school subjects in English language arts and reading, math, science, and social studies. Each resource contains a lesson or series of lessons that introduce a new idea or skill and then give the learner opportunities to practice and apply what he or she has learned.
While Project Share relied heavily on the use of usernames and passwords, the Texas Gateway does not. Visitors to the Gateway are able to search and use resources by grade level, subject, TEKS, and keywords. Upon identifying resources that may be helpful in supporting students, parents and teachers can voluntarily create and manage personal accounts to save lists of resources. The saved lists can then be easily shared with other teachers, parents, and students.
Educators may also search and self-enroll in online professional development courses. Science Safety Training for High School and Career and Technical Education (CTE) 101 are the first two courses to go live in the new system. Other popular courses such as Science Safety Training for Middle School, Science Safety Training for Elementary School, professional development for CTE courses acceptable as math or science credits, and English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) Academies will go live during the spring semester. The self-paced courses allow educators to earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits as they complete interactive lessons designed specifically for Texas educators.
The list of resources and courses, which were developed in response to teacher feedback and requests, will continue to grow, and with the transition to the Texas Gateway, resources and courses will be easily shared with education service centers (ESCs) and districts through integration with local online learning solutions. Over the next few months, TEA will work with ESCs and school districts to share content and to gather feedback on future goals for the Texas Gateway.
To learn more about the Texas Gateway and the available resources, please visit www.texasgateway.org or contact TEA at txgateway@tea.texas.gov.