In 2023, much of the legislative debate around education in Texas centered on whether to allow families to use public dollars to send their children to private schools. But legislators also debated other public ed issues, and key legislation was passed to address some of the gaps in academic achievement in the wake of COVID’s disruption.
As we approach the end of the school year, we’ll discuss what has helped Texas children catch up with their studies, the lingering challenges, the impact of new laws — like investments in instructional materials, tutoring for struggling students and accelerating advancement in math — and what else the state can do to help.
Join us at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 16, at the Tribune's Studio 919.
Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. and the hourlong conversation will begin at 9 a.m.
Speakers include Gabe Grantham, policy analyst at Texas 2036; Sharla Horton, director of Texas Strategic Support at Education Resource Strategies; Jennifer Saenz, senior director of communications and policy at E3 Alliance; and Gonzalo Salazar, superintendent, Los Fresnos CISD. Our moderator will be Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera, education and urban affairs editor for The Texas Tribune.
Email us at events@texastribune.org
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At Texas 2036, Grantham works on a range of issues in the PK-12 space, including virtual education, teachers, curriculum, early literacy, advanced mathematics, and accountability. Before joining the organization in 2021,
he spent three years with Teach for America, teaching high school science in Tulsa, Oklahoma. While in the classroom, Gabe saw first-hand how vital high-quality education is as well as how policy decisions can have negative and unintended consequences for the students and families that he served.
As senior director of communications and policy at E3, Saenz spearheads initiatives aimed at fortifying the nation's educational pipeline to drive regional economic prosperity. Prior to her tenure at E3, she held the position of director of strategic partnerships and outreach at OnRamps, a program led by The University of Texas dedicated to bridging the gap between high school and college academic expectations. Her firsthand experience at E3 has illuminated the barriers students encounter on their path to postsecondary attainment, motivating her advocacy for student empowerment and engagement.
Salazar has served as superintendent of schools in Los Fresnos since 2006 and has extensive experience in bilingual education. During his tenure as superintendent, the efforts of Los Fresnos CISD’s staff have been rewarded with student performance that has consistently surpassed state and regional averages. Los Fresnos CISD recently received an “A” rating on the Texas Education Agency’s state accountability standards and has been awarded the Post-secondary Readiness Distinction for the past six years (every year since T.E.A. created this measure). He previously served as an elementary principal for six years and a bilingual teacher for four years.
As director of Texas Strategic School System Support, Horton serves as project director for the Texas Strategic Resource Use Network. Her work includes planning statewide network convenings and building relationships with mission-aligned organizations and new district partners across the state of Texas. She has worked as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal in North Texas. Most recently, she served as senior director at The Commit Partnership, where her primary areas of work included high-impact tutoring policy, high-quality math pathways legislation and implementation, and increasing access to quality middle school seats across the region.
Martínez-Cabrera is the education and urban affairs editor for The Texas Tribune. He previously worked as a digital editor at KUT.org, breaking news editor at the Austin American-Statesman and content editor at The University of Texas' Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. He has also worked as a reporter for several English- and Spanish-language publications covering the U.S.-Mexico border, drug violence, immigration, technology and public safety. Martínez-Cabrera is a native Spanish speaker and grew up in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
