Empower Schools | Texas

Our Work in Texas

Empower Schools partners with Texas communities to strengthen local leadership, build sustainable structures, and shape policies that help students thrive in school and in life.

ON THIS PAGE

Our Approach

Our Policy Expertise

Where We Work

Our Team

Texas Resources

Our Approach in Texas

Local progress
Greater opportunity

Across Texas, communities identify what students need, build sustainable structures, and use evidence from implementation to shape policy and field learning. Each stage strengthens the next, turning local progress into broader opportunity.

  1. Empowered Partnerships

    Local leaders design and sustain solutions grounded in community priorities.

  2. Enabling Policy

    Evidence helps strengthen the conditions for lasting change.

  3. More Opportunity

    What works locally becomes useful to more students and communities.

Three Ways We Empower

Expanding opportunity across Texas

Innovation Schools, Rural Collaboratives, and Early College & Career Pathways respond to different needs while advancing a shared goal: expanding what is possible for students and communities.

Two students conducting a science experiment together

Innovation Schools

Educators, school systems, and community partners create flexible, accountable school models shaped by local priorities and designed to improve student outcomes.

Rural Collaboratives

Rural districts and regional partners share staff, programs, and resources to build sustainable structures and expand opportunities no district could provide alone.

Early College & Career Pathways

K–12 systems, higher education, and industry partners connect students to college-level learning, credentials, further education, and careers.

Texas Expertise

Policy knowledge paired with implementation experience

We work alongside leaders from early exploration through launch and long-term sustainability, then translate lessons from implementation into tools the wider field can use.

Innovation Schools

SB 1882 Texas Partnerships

We bring deep experience in policy, partnership design, school-level autonomy, governance, communications, and the local conditions high-quality Texas Partnerships need to succeed.

  • Partnership strategy and design
  • Governance and performance agreements
  • Stakeholder engagement and communications
  • Launch, implementation, and sustainability
Texas Partnerships Toolkit resource cover

Featured resource

Texas Partnerships Toolkit

Practical guidance, tools, and templates for designing and implementing strong SB 1882 Texas Partnerships.

Explore the toolkit
Rural Collaboratives

Rural Pathway Excellence Partnerships

Drawing on experience supporting the first-of-its-kind Rural Schools Innovation Zone and shaping R-PEP policy and implementation, we partner with rural districts, higher education, and industry to build shared pathways aligned with regional opportunity.

  • Regional readiness and pathway design
  • Coordinating entity and partner structures
  • Labor-market-aligned program planning
  • Funding, designation, and implementation support
R-PEP 101 resource cover

Featured resource

R-PEP 101

Overview of Texas R-PEP policy, funding, partnership structures, and implementation.

Read the resource
See More Texas Resources Get Support from Our Texas Team

Texas Map

Where We Work

We work throughout Texas to support Innovation Schools, Rural Collaboratives, and Early College and Career Pathways. Explore highlighted Empowered Partnerships to see what our work looks like on the ground.

Partnership markers show approximate locations rather than campus-level boundaries. ESC region geography is based on the Texas Education Agency School District Locator .

Our Texas Team

Boots on the ground

Our Texas team combines deep state context with experience across innovation schools, rural collaboratives, policy, and early college and career pathways.

Texas State Leads

Headshot of Hannah Sharfman

Hannah Sharfman

Texas State Lead | Rural Collaboratives and Early College and Career Pathways

Contact Hannah
Headshot of Victoria Vasquez de la Paz

Victoria Vasquez de la Paz

Texas State Lead | Innovation Schools and Early College and Career Pathways

Contact Victoria

Texas Team

Texas is also supported by a team of Empower Schools national team members and advisors who contribute additional expertise across strategy, policy, implementation, research, and communications.

See All Empower Schools Team Bios

Texas Resources

Resource
R-PEP 101
Resources, One Pagers, Texas, Rural Collaboratives
R-PEP 101
Resources, One Pagers, Texas, Rural Collaboratives

R-PEP 101 is Empower Schools’ practical guide to Rural Pathway Excellence Partnerships, a Texas model that helps rural districts work together to expand college and career pathways. The guide explains how policy, funding, higher education partnerships, and workforce collaboration can support rural students and communities.

Read more →
Resources, One Pagers, Texas, Rural Collaboratives
Texas Partnerships Toolkit
Resources, Innovation Schools, Case Study, Reports, Texas
Texas Partnerships Toolkit
Resources, Innovation Schools, Case Study, Reports, Texas

Empower Schools created The Texas Partnerships Toolkit, bringing together statewide data, local examples, and practical tools to help communities understand how Texas Partnerships work, what they are accomplishing, and what high-quality implementation can look like.

Read more →
Resources, Innovation Schools, Case Study, Reports, Texas
A Practical Guide to Work-Based Learning
Resources, Case Study, Early College and Career Pathways, Rural Collaboratives, Texas, Guide, Indiana, Colorado
A Practical Guide to Work-Based Learning
Resources, Case Study, Early College and Career Pathways, Rural Collaboratives, Texas, Guide, Indiana, Colorado

This national guide examines six work-based learning programs and the policies, partnerships, staffing, funding, and infrastructure that help career-connected learning succeed. Four of the featured programs are supported by Empower Schools.

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Resources, Case Study, Early College and Career Pathways, Rural Collaboratives, Texas, Guide, Indiana, Colorado
The District of the Future
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas, New York, Tennessee
The District of the Future
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas, New York, Tennessee

Empower Schools CEO and Partner Alyssa Morton planned and moderated this NewSchools Summit 2026 conversation with leaders from NYC Public Schools, Aldine ISD, and Sumner County Public Schools. The panel explores career-connected learning, AI, student voice, philanthropy, facilities, and the leadership required to scale innovation across districts.

Read more →
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas, New York, Tennessee
Unlocking Student and Educator Empowerment
Resources, White Papers, Innovation Schools, National, Texas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana
Unlocking Student and Educator Empowerment
Resources, White Papers, Innovation Schools, National, Texas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana

Empower Schools’ report on Innovation School policy examines how state laws can create enabling conditions for school-level innovation. The report analyzes policy design, school autonomy, educator empowerment, accountability, and sustainability, with recommendations for states seeking to support high-quality, durable Innovation Schools.

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Resources, White Papers, Innovation Schools, National, Texas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana
Innovation in Action
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas
Innovation in Action
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas

Empower Schools Partner Matt Matera speaks with educators from the Leadership Academy Network about how an SB 1882 partnership between Fort Worth ISD and Texas Wesleyan University supports teacher retention, professional growth, instructional flexibility, and stronger student outcomes.

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Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Innovation Schools, Texas
What's More Bipartisan Than Rural Career Pathway Initiatives?
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Rural Collaboratives, Colorado, Texas
What's More Bipartisan Than Rural Career Pathway Initiatives?
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Rural Collaboratives, Colorado, Texas

State lawmakers and rural education leaders examine how shared career pathways, sustainable funding, and cross-district collaboration can expand opportunity for rural students.

Read more →
Resources, Videos & Podcasts, Rural Collaboratives, Colorado, Texas
SB 1882 Prekindergarten Partnerships Guide
Resources, Guide, Innovation Schools, Texas
SB 1882 Prekindergarten Partnerships Guide
Resources, Guide, Innovation Schools, Texas

Created and published by the Texas Education Agency in partnership with Empower Schools, this guide walks Texas districts through assessing community need, selecting a pre-K partnership structure, combining funding sources, authorizing an operating partner, and meeting staffing, enrollment, and regulatory requirements.

Read more →
Resources, Guide, Innovation Schools, Texas

Empower Schools reports, toolkits, case studies, white papers, guides and more, created for Texas leaders, educators, and champions.

SEE ALL TEXAS RESOURCES