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Texas Even Start Administrative Manual

June 2004, (Revised January 2008, September 2008)

Project GREAT Centers

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The project GREAT Adult Education and Family Literacy Regional Centers of Excellence meet professional development needs of adult and family literacy practitioners in Texas. There are eight GREAT Centers, one for each of the regions. Each center is managed by a sponsoring organization, in collaboration with Texas LEARNS, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Workforce Commission, the adult and family literacy directors and one-stop directors within the region.

The GREAT Centers operate professional development programs to improve the quality of instruction pursuant to activities required under Title II, Workforce Investment Act §231 (b), including:

• Instruction incorporating the essential components of reading instruction and instruction provided by volunteers or by personnel of a state or outlying area;

• The provision of technical assistance to eligible providers of adult basic skill and family literacy education programs for development and dissemination of scientific research-based instructional practices in reading, writing, speaking, math and English Language acquisition programs;

• The provision of technology assistance, including staff training to eligible providers of adult basic skills and family literacy education programs, including distance learning activities, to enable the eligible providers to improve the quality of such activities;

• The development and implementation of technology applications or distance learning, including professional development to support the use of instructional technology.

Project GREAT Centers serve all areas of Adult Education and Family Literacy, EL Civics, Correctional Education, TANF recipients and Even Start Family Literacy. GREAT Center activities include training for adult basic education, ESL, the Texas Curriculum Framework, workforce literacy, learning disabilities, assessment (BEST Plus, BEST Literacy and TABE), data management (TEAMS and TESPIRS) and other appropriate training deemed necessary by the stakeholders within the regions.

Professional development is delivered in various locations throughout the region. Local programs can coordinate with the regional GREAT Center to provide training at their local sites. Distance education with training delivered via a satellite link or over the Internet is also available at most GREAT Centers.

The following chart lists the eight regions, the sponsoring institutions and the web site addresses:

Region	Sponsor and Web Address
North	Dallas ISD Adult Education http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/north/index.htm
South	Texas A&M University – Kingsville http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/south/index.htm
East	Region VI ESC – Adult Education http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/east/index.htm
West	The University of Texas at El Paso http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/west/index.htm
Far West	Socorro ISD Community Services http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/farWest/index.htm
Central	Texas State University The Education Institute (TEI) http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/central/index.htm
South Central	Region XX ESC – Adult Education http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/southCentral/index.htm
Coastal	North Harris Montgomery Community College District – Cy Fair Campus http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/projectGreat/coastal/index.htm

Each GREAT Center is responsible for the dissemination of information about its activities to local programs. They maintain a calendar of activities on a website hosted by TCALL, organize quarterly meetings with the adult education and family literacy directors within the region, conduct evaluations of training activities and collaborate with and report to Texas LEARNS.

Planning and evaluation for GREAT Center activities is collaborative and depends on the participation of the local programs in each region. Each local program selects a representative to serve on the advisory committee of the GREAT Center.

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