Deputy Commissioners of Education

Organizational Leadership

Offices of TEA

Analytics, Assessment, and Reporting

The Office of Analytics, Assessment, and Reporting (OAAR) provides tools, services, and supports to school systems to help ensure every Texas student is on track with grade-level knowledge and ready for college, career, or the military. OAAR works to define, track, and measure academic success through high-quality state assessments, a transparent, rigorous, fair academic accountability system, and accurate, comprehensive research and reporting. OAAR develops and implements critical systems for the purpose of continuously improving student performance toward the goals of eliminating achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status and ensuring the state is a national leader in preparing students for postsecondary success. OAAR strives to provide understandable information for educators, families, and other stakeholders to help them know how well their students learned each year’s academic material and whether their students are ready for success in future grades and after graduation. OAAR is made up of six divisions: Assessment Development, Student Assessment, Performance Reporting, Research & Analysis, Analytics, and Data Strategy and Analytics.

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Educator Support

The Office of Educator and Systems Support is responsible for ensuring that Texas recruits, supports, and retains effective teachers and principals to serve the 5.5 million public school students in Texas, as well as supporting innovative practices and continuous improvement of schools and school systems, providing guidance and support to the charter school community, and overseeing the transformation of low-performing schools. Educator and Systems Support leads work to recruit teachers through grant programs such as Grow Your Own, oversees educator preparation programs, certifies educators, provides training to improve teaching practice through programs such as Texas Instructional Leadership and Mentor Program Allotment, and provides support to improve school systems through programs, such as Texas Strategic Leadership, System of Great Schools, School Action Fund, Additional Days School Year, and Teacher Incentive Allotment. The office includes leadership of the Departments of System Innovation, Educator Preparation, Certification, and Enforcement, District Planning and Supports, Authorizing and Policy, and the Division of Educator Data, Research and Strategy.

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Finance

The Office of Finance leads strategies to use agency funds efficiently and effectively in support of the commissioner’s priorities and to ensure that all agency financial functions comply with applicable federal and state requirements. The Office of Finance is composed of the Department of School Finance, the Department of Agency Finance, and the Department of Grant Compliance and Administration. These teams oversee all of the agency’s financial responsibilities and operations, including distributing state and federal education funds, maintaining all functions related to the state’s school finance system, ensuring that the agency operates within its budget, and administering all discretionary and formula grants awarded by the agency.

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General Counsel

The General Counsel reports directly to the Commissioner of Education and supervises the Office of General Counsel (OGC). The OGC provides legal counsel to the various divisions of the agency. In addition to counsel regarding the Texas Education Code, the OGC provides employment, contracting, and ethics advice, as well as legal counsel on matters related to school safety. When necessary, the OGC acts as a liaison to the Attorney General for official opinion requests and litigation involving TEA. The OGC also provides legal support to the State Board of Education. In addition, the OGC administers several other functions for the agency, such as administering hearings and appeals for the agency and assigning independent hearing officers to termination and non-renewal employment hearings at the school district level; administering the special education due process and mediation system to resolve special education disputes; and processing public information requests. The OGC also administers the commissioner’s duty to develop and publish the Texas School Law Bulletin, the compilation of school laws after each legislative session.

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Governance

The Office of Governance strives to improve the governance and overall system performance of local education agencies (LEAs) through the coordinated efforts of two primary workstreams: Field Support and Compliance & Investigations. The collaborative approach with the field, across the agency, and within the office is centered on supporting educational progress and improving outcomes for students in all Texas public schools.

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Operations

The Office of Operations is responsible for coordinating most cross-agency functions and agency-wide strategic planning at TEA. This includes the external-facing work of the Governmental Relations, Communications, Special Projects, and Education Service Centers Strategy and Support divisions. The divisions of Human Resources, Agency Operations, and the Alignment Delivery Unit oversee the day-to-day running of the agency with a special focus on coordinating progress on TEA’s Strategic Plan and performance management. In addition, the Office of Operations is charged with directly supporting the Commissioner of Education.

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School Programs

The Office of School Programs (OSP) supports local educational agencies (LEAs) in meeting rigorous student goals. There are two departments within the OSP: the Department of Standards and Programs and the Department of Instructional Strategy. Programmatic services focus on key content and engagement components, including educational standards development, identification and creation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), and research-based instructional practices (RBIS) implementation support. Additional divisions within the OSP concentrate on a continuum of guidance and resources for high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) and College, Career, and Military Preparation (CCMP). The OSP workstreams align with the Texas Education Agency's strategic priorities, particularly building a foundation for reading and math and connecting high school to career and college.

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School Safety and Security

The goal of the Office of School Safety and Security is to build the capacity of the regional education service centers (ESCs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to promote the physical and psychological well-being of students and staff - recognizing that safer schools positively impact student outcomes. We align school safety and security expertise with guidance provided through technical assistance to ensure effective best practices and state safety standards are implemented across the state.

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Special Populations and Student Supports

The Office of Special Populations and Student Supports is responsible for oversight of special populations program guidance and technical assistance. This includes state and federal compliance, monitoring and reporting, special education complaints and dispute resolution, results-driven accountability continuous improvement, specialized student support programming, and discipline support. To accomplish this, the Office provides resources, services, and supports to improve educational quality, access, and opportunity for students with diverse learning needs in Texas. The Office of Special Populations and Student Supports includes three departments with various divisions. The Department of Special Populations Policy, Integration, and Technical Assistance includes special population policy support, special education guidance, gifted and talented guidance, and specialized technical assistance, special education ESC liaison support, and cross-agency initiative special education program integration. The Department of Special Populations Programs, Reporting, and Student Supports include emergent bilingual supports, highly mobile at-risk supports, federal and state reporting, results-driven accountability, Special Education Supplemental Supports, SpedTex, Multi-Tiered Behavior Supports, Restorative Discipline, and mental health and wellness supports. The Department of Special Populations General Supervision and Monitoring includes special education review and support differentiated monitoring implementation, special education complaints and dispute resolution supports, special populations program monitoring and continuous improvement, and the high-cost funds application program for local education agencies (LEA).

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Technology

The Office of Information Technology (IT) works closely with all agency divisions to implement innovative technology solutions in a cost-efficient manner that supports the goals and priorities of the TEA. 

Key customers and stakeholders include:

• Internal staff
• 20 Educational Service Centers
• 1,200+ public school districts and charter schools
• Legislative offices and the Office of the Governor
• Research groups, non-profits, media, and other organizations
• Parents, students, and the public at large

Core services and supports include:

• Internal leadership on IT initiatives 
• Guidance on security/policy issues and equipment and other technical support
• New application development/enhancements and software acquisition 
• Assistance with purchasing documents such as Request for Information (RFI), Request for Offers (RFO), Request for Proposals (RFP)
• Oversight on data collection and management impacting all school systems and 5.5 million students
• Other data collection and processing support contributing to the implementation of agency programs 

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