Texas Early Learning Needs Assessment

The Texas Early Learning Council (TELC) conducted a statewide birth-five needs assessment as required by the Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five (PDG B-5) awarded to Texas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Education. PDG B-5 required certain elements to be addressed within the statewide needs assessment and allowed the state the flexibility to include additional elements. TELC adopted recommendations for additional elements during the February 2019 meeting. Using the recommendations provided by TELC, TEA staff developed a list of questions that were addressed in the statewide needs assessment report. Click here for the list of questions. Needs assessment questions were answered through four primary sources of information:

  1. Statewide stakeholder survey
  2. Stakeholder focus groups
  3. State and federal agency data
  4. Other (existing needs assessments, research, policy scans, funding analysis, etc.)

View the needs assessment here.

Statewide Stakeholder Survey

The statewide stakeholder survey was conducted March 25-April 5, 2019. The survey was distributed by a network of state agencies and organizations. The survey was intended for families, staff of early childhood programs and services (direct providers), early childhood organizations (non-providers), and community partners. A total of 8,848 responses were received. View all survey questions here.

Stakeholder Focus Groups

A total of seven focus group were conducted in May 2019. The target audiences of focus groups include:

  1. Administrators and Professors at Institutions of Higher Education (2-year and 4-year)
  2. Teachers in rural communities
  3. Teachers in urban communities
  4. Families in rural communities
  5. Families in urban communities
  6. Administrators of early childhood programs and services
  7. Programs and organizations engaged in partnerships

State and Federal Agency Data

Data sets from the following agencies were utilized:

  1. Administration for Children and Families / Office of Head Start
  2. Texas Department of Agriculture
  3. Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
  4. Texas Education Agency
  5. Texas Health and Human Services Commission
  6. Texas Workforce Commission
  7. U.S Census Bureau

Texas Early Learning Strategic Plan

The Texas Early Learning Council also developed a birth-five strategic plan as required by the Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five. The strategic plan was informed by the Early Learning Needs Assessment. The Council engaged in two strategic planning sessions. The first session, held during the July 2019 TELC meeting, focused on brainstorming ideas for the vision, guiding principles, and goals for the strategic plan. During the second session, held during the September 2019 TELC meeting, the Council refined the vision, guiding principles, and goals of the strategic plan and began the process of creating strategies to address each goal. View the strategic plan here.