Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents

The Leadership | The Advocate | The Voice for Latino Learners and Leaders

The Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents is the premier organization in advocacy for the growth and advancement of Latino learners and leaders. With an unrelenting commitment to improving learning outcomes for Latino learners, TALAS provides leadership development, collective impact, advocacy, and a proactive voice for Latino and non-Latino leaders who have a passion for serving the fastest-growing student population in Texas.

Most Recent News

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Leadership

3.2.1: On the danger of a good idea, how to do your best work, and a question to inspire action

I.

“Beware the student of one teacher. A good idea spirals into dogma when it gets applied to everything and stretched beyond the areas where it is useful. Remain open and embrace a lot of teachers.”

​II.

“Your best performances will come when you are working in a way that is a full expression of you. The work becomes a natural display of your personality. This is when you not only get better results, but also love the activity — because in doing the craft, you feel alive.”

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Best Practices

3 School Leaders on Supporting and Motivating Teachers After Winter Break

Award-winning principals describe their preferred strategies for uplifting educators at the start of a new semester.

The first month or so after winter break is a full-on sprint for teachers, with prep days (including for rapidly approaching standardized tests), professional learning community meetings, and other back-to-school events. Teachers are catching up with some of their students and meeting new students. For some educators, all of this is not a problem—after winter break, they feel refreshed and ready to go. They’re thriving. Others aren’t necessarily energized, but they’re ready to return to a normal work routine. 

Students come back from winter break with their own slate of priorities. They get to see their friends again. Depending on their grade, they might have different teachers and classes, seating chart swaps, and potential new friends (or even crushes!). Winter sports and extracurriculars are almost immediately in full swing. And who knows what homework assignments might be on the horizon? It’s a lot at once.

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National News

Trump Admin Guts School Safety Committee Created to Combat Mass Shootings

When a broad group of parents, educators and activists met in late October at a government office building in Arlington, Virginia, they gathered around a shared goal: Make America’s schools safer. 

There, three parents whose children were killed in mass school shootings sought to bolster student mental health and crisis intervention services. Some advocates favored increased school policing and physical security while others sought to limit how those hardening measures can harm children’s civil rights. Each was there as a check on recommendations being made by the federal government.

But membership on the 26-person committee, which was created through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 — passed in the wake of mass shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket — was short-lived. On Monday, the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, all members were terminated. For members of the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse External Advisory Board, the October gathering was the group’s first time meeting — and also its last.

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Best Practices

4 Ways School Leaders Can Show Up for Their Staff

Leaders don’t have to be perfect—but they do need to be present. In this exclusive book excerpt, Carrie Bishop and Jessica Holloway share how to create a culture where teachers feel safe, seen, soothed, and secure.

To keep great teachers in the classroom, schools must move beyond traditional recruitment and hiring practices. Attracting and retaining exceptional teachers requires leaders to create work environments where educators feel valued, supported, and inspired to stay. And this necessitates a shift in perspective—one that highlights what schools can offer teachers, not just what teachers can offer schools.

In this excerpt from Make Your School Irresistible: The Secret to Attracting and Retaining Great Teachers (ASCD, 2025), Carrie Bishop and Jessica Holloway explain how leaders can foster a culture where teachers feel safe, seen, soothed, secure—what the authors refer to as the 4 Ss of good leadership. For leaders, these principles provide a framework for building trust, strengthening relationships, and making your school a place where teachers want to grow and thrive.

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National News

Reading, math continue slide in 2024 NAEP results

Average reading scores dropped 5 points for both 4th and 8th graders from 2019 to 2024. Math scores also saw significant declines.

The nation’s 4th and 8th graders once again posted underwhelming performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, with 2024 results showing little to no progress toward regaining pre-pandemic levels in math and reading.

Average scores in reading actually dropped from 2022 in the latest results for the assessment, known as the Nation’s Report Card, released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

Reading scores in 2024 for each grade level fell 5 points from 2019 levels. For math, the average score dipped 3 points for 4th graders and 8 points for 8th graders between 2019 and 2024.

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Events

Tarrant County Event

Hyatt Place Fort Worth 2512 W, Berry Street, Fort Worth, TX, United States

New Year, New You!  Tarrant County is looking for you! Come join this fast growing TALAS Affiliate at their next social event.

Alamo Area TALAS Kick off

Luna Rosa Puerto Rican Grill & Tapas 910 S. Alamo Street, San Antonio, TX, United States

We are excited to launch Alamo Area TALAS ! Looking forward to seeing you there!

Summer Leadership Summit

El Paso, Texas

Mark your calendars for this incredible event!  TALAS State Conference is moving to El Paso! Hope to see you there.  Details are forthcoming. Call for proposals is available here. If […]

TALAS Partnership Spotlight

Lexia Learning

We are thrilled to share the latest episode of the TALAS Partnership Spotlight series. Dr. Rick Fernandez is joined by guest Dr. José Viana, Senior Education Advisor at Lexia Learning. In this entertaining and very informative episode, Dr. José goes in-depth on the push for bilingualism in the U.S. and the way we need to improve if we want to achieve this goal, Dr. Rick asks all the right questions that teachers and parents are wondering, Dr. José does a fantastic job of laying out the vision Lexia Learning has and his excitement to share the new ways they will help improve the world of education.

Become a Sponsor

Sponsorship opportunities allow TALAS to work with innovative partners who are interested in supporting the TALAS mission. Sponsors who partner with TALAS enjoy direct access to TALAS leadership teams committed to improving the educational outcomes for all students and their communities.