What It Means to be a Provider
The Texas Virtual School Network serves as a statewide catalog for courses provided by Texas school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, education service centers, and public or private institutions of higher education. Each course in the catalog is reviewed for alignment to course TEKS and the North American Council for Online Learning National Standards of Quality for Online Courses. Once approved by TxVSN, the online course catalog displays all approved courses with each course description and objectives, associated technology specifications, schedule, assessments, costs, and other relevant data for each TxVSN Provider District. School personnel and students can review options to select the course that best meets students’ needs.
Overview
How to Become a TxVSN Provider Video Series
This is a three part informational video series focusing on the process and other basic information on how to become and expectations of a course provider for the Texas Virtual School Network.
Assess Capacity
An LEA interested in providing courses should assess its capacity to serve students statewide. Some factors to be considered and discussed may include:
Online Course Instructors
- availability of Texas-certified teachers to teach online course
- verification that instructors have completed TxVSN-approved professional development from an identified provider
Student Capacity
- consideration of the number of students that can be served
- consideration of the number of sections or seats to be provided through the TxVSN
It is suggested that LEAs interested in providing courses review the TxVSN Policies and Procedures Manual, the TxVSN Provider Agreement, as well as the TxVSN Course Review section on this website.
Preparation for Course Review
TxVSN online courses must meet the basic definitions set forth by Senate Bill 1788 and Texas Education Code Chapter 30A. Online courses are defined as follows: instruction and content are delivered primarily over the Internet, a student and teacher are in different locations for a majority of the student’s instructional period, most instructional activities take place in an online environment, the online instructional activities are integral to the academic program, extensive communication between a student and a teacher and among students is emphasized, and a student is not required to be located on the physical premises of a school district or open enrollment charter school.
Before moving on to the course submission process, a potential provider district should self evaluate their course(s) to verify that they meet the above definition of an online course.
Course Submission
When submitting a course for review, potential Provider Districts will supply general course information such as course name, PEIMS number, semesters, contact information, and technical requirements. TxVSN Course Review will also need course access and login information for each Reviewer. Details and submission forms are further explained on the Course Review section of the TxVSN website.
TEA Course Review recommendations
After the Texas Education Agency approves Course Review recommendations, TxVSN Course Review will conference with each potential Provider District regarding the results. Initial course data will be added to the TxVSN course catalog for all approved courses.
Provider District Agreement
After the Course Review conference, TxVSN Central Operations finalizes a Provider Agreement with the potential provider. The agreement relates to course semester availability and enrollment schedules, the number of sections and seats available per course, course cost, and other relevant data needed to populate the TxVSN course catalog. When the agreement is finalized the Provider District’s courses are published in the TxVSN online catalog and are available to Receiving Districts.
Sample Provider District Agreement
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Who
Course Review, with TxVSN, conducts the review of electronic courses offered through the state network.
Central Operations and Course Review solicit courses from eligible providers for review. Providers who meet these requirements, are eligible to submit courses: Legislation 30A reference.
- Texas school district rated academically acceptable or higher [30A.101a]
- Open-enrollment charter schools rated recognized or higher [Legislation 30A.101b]
- Public or private institutions of higher education
- Educational service centers [30A.114]
Course Review employs teachers to conduct online course reviews. In order for reviewers to qualify they must meet these requirements:
- Be a Texas certified teacher
- Be content specific certified
- Successful completion of the Course Review training program
If you are interested in becoming a reviewer contact txvsncentral@txvsn.org.
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How
The TxVSN Course Review Submission window continuously remains open to collect submissions and determine potential demand for course reviews.
How Course Review Happens
- Funds are allocated each budget year (September 1 - August 31)
- All courses submitted to TxVSN are collected by Course Review
- Texas Education Agency (TEA) selects courses to review (based on priorities, demand, and available budget)
TEA’s Priorities for Courses Selected for Review
- Grades 9-12 courses that are needed for high school graduation requirements found in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 74
- Foundation courses that satisfy the new 4:4 requirements in English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies
- Advanced placement courses Languages Other than English
Information for each Provider
- Each provider district will be informed how many of their courses will be reviewed
- Any course not selected immediately will be kept on file and in the submission pool for future review based on budget availability
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Process
Course review consists of evaluating one online course whether it is a single semester course or a full year course.
NOTE: If course is a year-long course, a provider district must:
- Submit both the first and second semesters, in tandem, for review. Example: Algebra 1 credit requires the course to take place over 2 semesters, a provider district would submit both Algebra 1A (first semester) course and an Algebra 1B (second semester) course for review.
- Both courses will be reviewed individually for the National Standards
- Reviewers will use data from both courses to determine overall course TEKS alignment.
A full-year fee will be assessed for the course reviews, rather than 2 separate semester fees. (See Course Review Fee below for applicable fees)
Before Course Review:
Potential provider districts completes the following form through the Electronic Course Submission System (ECSS):
- TxVSN Provider District Application to Central Operations
- Once accepted as an eligible provider district by TxVSN Central Operations, Provider district begins completing the Course Review forms:
- TxVSN Course Review Submittal Form (for each course submitted for review)
- TEKS alignment documentation (for each course submitted for review)
- Course Review Questionnaire as a supplement to the review process (for each course submitted for review)
- Course syllabus (for each course submitted for review)
- TxVSN Course Review Access Form
- If submitting a science course the Science Field and Laboratory Investigations Course Review Documentation will need to be completed for each science course submitted
- If submitting an Advanced Placement Course, College Board AP documentation will be submitted with course review submittal form
During Course Review:
- Courses selected for review will be assigned to a team of reviewers (terminology).
- Reviewers will independently review courses thoroughly, to determine if the course meets TxVSN standards, using:
- Provider district completed TEKS Alignment Instrument, and
- The National Standards Instrument
After Course Review:
Note: All review results remain confidential during the review process. Course Review will provide course review results to TEA and provider district:
- Results summarize where, if at all, a course does not meet expectations/requirements and offer suggestions for improvement.
- Course results are assigned an overall Course Ratings:
- Approved – Course will be placed into the TxVSN online catalog and contracting begins with Central Operations
- Approved With Modifications (Level 2)– Provider district will make minor modifications indicated within 45 days of review results
- Not Approved - Major Modifications (Level 3)– Provider district will make major modifications indicated within 120 days, or 4 months of review results Not Approved – Course will not be used as it is in the TxVSN catalog. For course to be considered again, the provider district will need to modify and resubmit course for full review
Course Review Fee
The Texas Educational Agency shall pay the reasonable costs of evaluating and approving electronic courses. If funds are insufficient to pay the costs of evaluating and approving all electronic courses submitted, the agency shall give priority to paying the costs of evaluating and approving courses defined in HB3646 Section 31.
If funds are insufficient and the agency determines that it will be unable to cover the costs of evaluating and approving a submitted electronic course, the school district, open-enrollment charter school, or public or private institution of higher education that submitted the courses for evaluation and approval may pay the costs in order to ensure that evaluation of the course occurs.
TxVSN reserves the right to pass along the costs of evaluating and approving electronic courses to the school district, open-enrollment charter school, or public or private institute of higher education that submitted the course for evaluation and approval if the course provider does not include the approved course in the Texas Virtual School Network catalog for a minimum of 4 semesters.
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Courses
As TxVSN builds its course offerings for schools, the courses to be reviewed by TxVSN for Grades 9-12 shall include a full range of course options that are needed to complete high school graduation requirements found in 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 74. Priority will be given to foundation courses that satisfy the new 4:4 requirements in the areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies; advanced placement courses, languages other than English and the classroom portion of a driver education and traffic safety course. High School
This list is not a comprehensive list, but allows potential course developers to see areas of need.
This table includes a list of courses that the Texas Educational Agency would like to see developed.
|
Courses Offered
|
# of
Courses
|
Courses Needed |
|
Economics
|
6
|
German I, II, III
|
|
Algebra I
|
7
|
Chinese I, II
|
|
Algebra II
|
6
|
Spanish III, IV, V
|
|
Biology
|
6
|
Latin I, II, III, IV
|
|
English I
|
6
|
French I, II, III
|
|
English II
|
5
|
Music I History
|
|
English III
|
5
|
Music I Theory
|
|
English IV
|
9
|
AP Statistics
|
|
Geometry
|
6
|
AP Physics
|
|
Chemistry
|
4
|
AP Biology
|
|
Foundations of Personal Fitness
|
6
|
AP Calculus
|
|
Physics
|
3
|
AP Chemistry
|
|
Precalculus
|
5
|
AP Government
|
|
Spanish I
|
7
|
AP Macroeconomics
|
|
Spanish II
|
6
|
AP Microeconomics
|
|
World Geography
|
4
|
AP World History
|
|
World History
|
4
|
AP United States History
|
|
US Government
|
5
|
Digital and Interactive Media (CTE)
|
|
US History
|
5
|
Web Technologies (CTE)
|
|
Health
|
5
|
Audio-Video Production (CTE)
|
|
Math Models
|
3
|
Commercial Photography (CTE)
|
|
|
Business Information Management I & II (CTE)
|
|
|
Principles of Information Technology (CTE)
|
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Terminology
Independent
An electronic course is developed independently by a district, an open-enrollment charter school, public or private institution of higher education, or ESC, if an employee of that provider is responsible for developing each aspect of the course, including:
- Determining the curriculum elements to be included in the course
- Selecting instructional materials for the course
- Determining the manner in which instruction is to be delivered
- Creating a lesson plan or similar description of the instructional aspects of the course
- Determining any special projects or assignments a student in the course must complete
- Determining the manner in which a student's progress in the course will be measured
Provider District
A school district, open-enrollment charter school, public or private institution of higher education, or and Educational Service Center.
Reviewer
An individual who:
- Is a Texas certified teacher
- Holds a specific content certification
- Has successfully completed the Course Review training program
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