The Fort Bend P-16 Regional Council - Taking Action and Taking Stock
  

Heading into its third year of improving fifth grade math in Fort Bend County, the Fort Bend P-16 Regional Council went on retreat to take stock of its work and talk about its next stages of development.
 
The Council invited All Kids Alliance (AKA) to facilitate the retreat.  Consistent with its coaching practices across Greater Houston, AKA used the StriveTogether Theory of Action to guide Fort Bend’s discussions.
 
The StriveTogether Theory of Action is organized around four “Pillars” which span four “Gateways.”

The four Pillars express the most fundamental principles in the cradle-to-career approach to improving education outcomes for children: shared community vision, evidence-based decision making, collaborative action, and investment with sustainability.

StriveTogether’s Gateways document the developmental progression of cradle-to-career partnerships.   Gateways move, in sequence, from “Exploring” to “Emerging” to “Sustaining” and, finally, “Systems Change.”
 
The Council and AKA affirmed that Fort Bend is currently operating in the “Exploring” Gateway and has made significant progress meeting many of the benchmarks in that Gateway.  What’s more, Fort Bend’s math collaborative involves some activities associated with an “Emerging” cradle-to-career partnership.
 
Next steps: the Fort Bend Council will reconvene in September to take up the remaining benchmarks in the “Exploring” Gateway.  When it completes them, the Fort Bend Council will be positioned to measure itself using the StriveTogether Partnership Assessment. If successful, the Fort Bend P-16 Regional Council could be the first in Greater Houston to qualify for membership in the StriveTogether National Network.

All Kids Alliance is pleased to be coaching the Council through this framework and is proud of their accomplishments!