Description
MISSION: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) will improve outcomes for all public-school students in the state by providing leadership, guidance, and support to school systems.
Core Values:
- We are Determined: We are committed and intentional in the pursuit of our main purpose, to improve outcomes for students.
- We are People-Centered: We strive to attract, develop, and retain the most committed talent, representing the diversity of Texas, each contributing to our common vision for students.
- We are Learners: We seek evidence, reflect on success and failure, and try new approaches in the pursuit of excellence for our students.
- We are Servant Leaders: Above all else, we are public servants working to improve opportunities for students and provide support to those who serve them.
New hires, re-hires, and internal hires will typically receive a starting salary between the posted minimum and the average pay of employees in their same classification. Offers will be commensurate with the candidate’s experience and qualifications and will thoughtfully consider internal pay equity for agency staff who perform similar duties and have similar qualifications. The top half of the posted salary range is generally reserved for candidates who exceed the requirements and qualifications for the role. The maximum salary range is reserved for candidates that far exceed the required and preferred qualifications for the role.
Position Overview
The Deputy Associate Commissioner of Student Supports and Continuous Improvement (Deputy Associate Commissioner) provides strategic leadership to ensure the needs of students in special populations are fully embedded across all academic and non academic initiatives of the agency and in public schools. This role leads cross functional work within the agency and with external partners—including other state agencies, education service centers, and private/nonprofit education organizations—to drive coherent, system level improvements that positively impact student outcomes.
The DAC is responsible for aligning policy, practice, resources, technical assistance, and professional learning across student support areas such as special education, emergent bilingual education, foster care, military connected students, students experiencing homelessness, and students identified as at risk under state or federal law or by local educational agencies. A central responsibility of this position is to design and sustain mechanisms that change adult behavior and strengthen systems, including: (1) launching and maintaining the agency’s foundational special education continuous improvement framework, the Special Education Performance Diagnostic, and (2) developing and maintaining a leadership impact and development series of professional development for special education leaders. The role emphasizes measurable impact—ensuring agency supports translate into improved practice and outcomes for students.
The Deputy Associate Commissioner provides executive level project management leadership, ensuring that multiple high priority projects progress simultaneously with clarity, precision, and urgency. This role establishes enterprise level systems for planning, scheduling, risk management, quality assurance, and performance monitoring to ensure statewide initiatives deliver measurable results. The position requires advanced skill in designing, reviewing, and refining high quality products, including statewide guidance, technical assistance frameworks, instructional tools, and implementation resources that meet TEA’s standards for accuracy, coherence, accessibility, and strategic alignment.
The Deputy Associate Commissioner demonstrates executive thinking and systems leadership, anticipating statewide needs, identifying emerging issues, analyzing complex data, and making strategic decisions that impact millions of Texas students. This role regularly collaborates with senior TEA leadership to align priorities, advise on policy direction, and ensure coherent implementation across agency divisions.
Success in this role requires exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder leadership. The Deputy Associate Commissioner must be able to communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, including legislators, school system leaders, TEA divisions, ESCs, advocacy organizations, and families. This includes building consensus across large scale initiatives, translating policy into actionable guidance, and ensuring that partners across the state understand expectations, timelines, and resources.
The Deputy Associate Commissioner oversees multiple statewide programs, manages budgets, directs grants and initiatives for LEA capacity building, and leads high performing teams charged with delivering timely, high quality supports to LEAs, ESCs, and families. This role ensures that strategic objectives are implemented with fidelity and that supports provided to LEAs are data driven, equitable, and aligned to TEA’s statewide priorities.
Through strategic vision, operational excellence, and strong influence across the education ecosystem, the Deputy Associate Commissioner advances TEA’s mission by ensuring that students with diverse learning needs have equitable access to rigorous instruction, effective services, and meaningful college, career, or military pathways.
Flexible work location in Texas may be considered for qualified candidates.
Please note that a resume and cover letter are required attachments for applying to this position. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Applicants who are strongly being considered for employment must submit to a national criminal history background check.
Essential Functions
Job duties are not limited to the essential functions mentioned below. You may perform other functions as assigned.
1. Lead Systems-Level Alignment for Special Populations: Ensure the needs of students with diverse learning needs and in special populations are proactively integrated into all academic and non-academic initiatives, policies, and programs across the agency. Serve as a cross-functional leader who promotes shared ownership of outcomes across offices. Lead the coordinated project management, implementation, and continuous improvement of statewide initiatives impacting students with diverse learning needs by establishing clear execution plans, managing multiple high priority workstreams, driving cross agency alignment, and ensuring all curriculum, instruction, assessment, and special populations’ integration efforts meet defined timelines, quality standards, and measurable outcomes.
2. Executive Leadership and Oversight of Special Education Continuous Improvement, Leadership Development, and Technical Assistance: Launch and sustain the Special Education Performance Diagnostic as the agency’s continuous improvement framework for special education by ensuring the diagnostic integrates relevant indicators and qualitative/quantitative inputs and aligns with other agency initiatives. Coordinate internal and external implementation supports for the diagnostic so that it drives practical changes in district systems and adult behavior. Provide executive leadership and project management oversight for the end-to-end design, development, and statewide implementation of special education technical assistance and field support systems by directing the creation of high quality tools, trainings, and implementation models; coordinating cross agency workstreams; ensuring products meet evidence based and regulatory standards; and establishing continuous improvement cycles, including feedback loops, performance monitoring, and quality assurance mechanisms to ensure statewide supports are scalable and have established measures of implementation and impact (usage, fidelity, behavior change, outcome indicators).
3. Design, implement, and oversee a multi-year outcomes and performance framework around nonacademic factors that impact educational outcomes: Nonacademic factors for this work, include, but are not limited to, mental health, behavior, discipline, high mobility, English language acquisition, and family and community supports. Ensure and emphasize alignment with OSPSS systems, cross division processes, and broader agency priorities to ensure consistency, sustainability, and integration across student support efforts. Create a shared, long-term strategy grounded in clearly defined outcomes, intermediate milestones, and meaningful performance measures. Establish a durable structure for tracking progress, diagnosing gaps, guiding technical assistance and resource allocation, and continuously improving student results over time.
4. Policy Guidance, Implementation, & Accountability Alignment: Provide executive leadership and project management oversight for statewide policy development and implementation by partnering with TEA leadership to shape rules and guidance related to special populations’ instructional practices; ensuring all policies reflect current federal and state requirements; directing cross division collaboration to identify policy gaps and strengthen coherence across agency systems; and ensuring that all technical assistance, guidance documents, and field implementation supports accurately operationalize policy expectations and translate them into high-quality, actionable resources for LEAs and ESCs.
5. Team Management & Executive Leadership: Provide executive leadership and strategic project management oversight for the department staff by leading and mentoring directors, managers, and statewide teams; building a high performing, mission aligned division through hiring, coaching, and structured professional growth systems; establishing clear outcomes, timelines, performance metrics, and accountability mechanisms across all workstreams; and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, continuous improvement, service, urgency, and excellence that elevates statewide supports for students with diverse learning needs. Lead by overseeing the department’s project portfolio: scope, milestones, dependencies, risk management, and delivery timelines. Ensure all investments of federal and state funds are timebound, outcome-driven, and in compliance with law and instructional priorities.
