Texas Resource Review Quality Reviewer Job Description
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) encourages Texas educators and experts to apply to become a reviewer of science (grades K–12) instructional materials. These resources, such as textbooks or online instructional programs, are one of the most important tools educators use in the classroom to improve student outcomes. As part of this select group, you will have the opportunity to broaden your impact and work with a talented and supportive group of peers. For your contribution to this statewide effort, you will receive both a stipend and continuing professional education (CPE) credit.
The Project
In 2017, Texas legislators responded to educational research on the positive student impact of high-quality instructional materials by directing TEA to create a web portal meant to assist school districts and open-enrollment charter schools with their selection of instructional materials. The Texas Resource Review is a direct result of this legislation. TEA has contracted with Safal Partners to conduct independent reviews of instructional materials. Using evidence captured by teams of Texas educators, the web portal provides clear, transparent, and user-friendly information. This project supports tens of thousands of educators by making available information that can help stakeholders select high-quality instructional materials knowing fellow teachers and education experts have vetted them.
Safal Partners, as TEA’s contractor, is seeking talented teachers, school leaders, instructional coaches, local education agency (LEA) staff, and Science (grades K–12) content experts across Texas to serve as Instructional Materials Reviewers. Selected reviewers will collaborate with educators and experts from across Texas to collect evidence, conduct quality reviews, and produce instructional materials ratings and reports. LEAs and educators across Texas can use the reports to support their local instructional materials adoption decisions.
Completed quality reviews and more information about the Texas Resource Review are available on this website.
Reviewer Eligibility Benefits
Reviewers play a leading role in supporting the selection of high-quality materials for their colleagues and students across Texas. All Texas educators, subject to the eligibility guidelines listed below, are eligible to apply to be a reviewer. This includes classroom teachers, other school-based staff, district/LEA-based staff, and education service center (ESC) staff. Reviewers should have the following:
- Deep content knowledge and experience with science instruction (grades K–12; grade bands K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12), including an understanding of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for science.
- Experience with Engineering and Design Practices or STEM Education
- A proven track record of achieving ambitious results with students.
- Passion for increasing educator capacity to seek, develop, and demand the highest quality materials.
- Commitment to ensuring Texas students have access to high-quality instructional materials.
- The ability to participate in virtual conferences and collaborate with fellow reviewers as often as once a week during the review cycle.
- Clear and concise, professional communication that is respectful and inclusive.
- Transparent self-reflection and an ability to self-assess growth areas.
- Facility in investing and motivating other adults to achieve a common goal.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced and detail-oriented environment.
- Understanding the importance of objectivity and unbiased viewpoints and the ability to mitigate or eliminate biases.
Selected reviewers will receive the following benefits:
- Applicants are not eligible if they have received monetary or non-monetary benefits from education technology providers or products and/or curriculum developers or publishers, including authoring or co-authoring a textbook currently on the market within the past seven years.
*Reviewers will receive compensation upon completing all the required training and reviews to be determined on a cycle- and subject-specific basis.
Additional Eligibility Guidelines include:
- Applicants are not eligible if they have received monetary or non-monetary benefits from education technology providers or products and/or curriculum developers or publishers, including authoring or co-authoring a textbook currently on the market within the past seven years.
*Reviewers will receive compensation upon completing all required trainings and reviews to be determined on a cycle- and subject-specific basis.
Reviewer Roles
If selected, reviewers will be placed on a team comprised of up to five individuals. Team members will be assigned to one or more of the following roles on their team: Reviewer, Writer, and Team Lead.
- Reviewer: gathers evidence from materials, scores assigned indicators, participates in weekly virtual consensus building during weekly meetings
- Lead: gathers evidence from materials, provides feedback to reviewers on their evidence collection, leads/facilitates weekly team meetings, participates in weekly leads meeting
- Writer: guides/participates in weekly consensus building in weekly meetings and creates draft/final indicator reports (note: content experience requested but not necessarily required. This position requires skills in synthesizing and clearly and succinctly communicating technical information).
The application is uniform across roles, and Safal will engage with candidates during the selection process to provide additional information.
Reviewer Commitment
Review teams are expected to complete the review from May 2023 to August 2023, with the majority of work taking place during May, June, and July. Reviewers, writers, and team leads will commit to the following:
- Team Meetings: 1–2 hours weekly (virtual), individual review of materials or drafting and editing reports: 8–12 hours weekly
- Lead Reviewer (additional responsibilities): weekly lead staff meeting (1 hour), providing weekly feedback to team member’s evidence collection (2–3 hours), preparing for the weekly team meeting (30–40 minutes)
- Routine requests from the Safal evaluation team to collaborate on report development
- Participation in publisher appeals
Selected reviewers must attend mandatory training (tentatively) scheduled for May 19 – May 21, 2023 (updated 4/14/2023).
*Please note that all dates and timelines are subject to change based on TEA priorities and initiatives.
How to Apply
TEA encourages you to complete the brief initial application today. Applications for reviewers are currently being accepted on a rolling basis.
Additionally, if you would like to nominate a fellow educator expert for a position, please fill out the nomination form here: TRR Cycle 6 Nomination Form.
Safal expects to receive more applications from qualified candidates than there are spots available, so educators are strongly encouraged to complete the short application as soon as possible to increase the likelihood of being selected for this competitive role. After the initial application screening, candidates invited to continue in the selection process will complete a performance exercise related to the work of a reviewer/lead/writer. Finalists will then be asked to participate in a final video interview. If you have any questions, please email TRR@safalpartners.com.