Alice High School earns a “B” after focusing on improving instructional practices

Intro

When Lety Maynard and Teri Clement visited Alice High School for the first time in 2023, their primary goal was to learn. The two former educators are part of E3 Alliance’s Center for School Transformation (CST). That team partners with Texas school districts to strengthen instructional practices and leadership systems to empower local educators to improve student outcomes.

Alice ISD is a South Texas school district with 4,500 students. Alice High School was identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement after getting low ratings under state and federal accountability systems. The district applied for and received the Texas Education Agency’s Effective Schools Framework Focused Support Grant for 2023-2025. They partnered with E3 Alliance.

Lety and Teri’s focus with Alice High School was to improve Tier 1 instruction — high-quality, evidence-based instruction that aims to support all students.

“We’re not disruptors”

During their first on-campus visit, Lety and Teri spent the day with the principal, Dr. Marissa Kubala, and Dean of Instruction, Maria Gonzalez, to learn about the needs of the campus and the work that was already underway.

Listening authentically is key, Teri said, especially for building a working relationship based on trust. She added it’s crucial to have humility when entering someone else’s professional learning community.

“It’s super important that they come to see you as somebody who’s consistent, someone who is compassionate and someone who is genuine,” Teri said.

That genuine approach is something Maria noticed right away.

“They are looking to just give their very most authentic selves, and you can be yourself and really tell them ‘Here are our problems,’ and they are nonjudgmental,” Maria said.

Marissa, who was in her first year as Alice High principal when she began working with Lety and Teri, said they took the time to get to know the campus.

“We worked hand-in-hand in building a partnership and that partnership included coming up with a framework and systems that help drive our teachers and our campus forward,” she said.

Lety pointed out when they’re working with schools, they’re not there to be disruptors.

“We’re not here to create chaos. We’re here to be your partner in this,” she said.

Teri also said educators are already working so hard, the CST team stays flexible and is careful not to pile more work onto their plates.

“We’re trying to help people who are working busy days where hundreds, sometimes thousands of lives of students and educators are being managed by the systems that they lead in every moment of every day,” she said.

“A wealth of change”

Once the E3 Alliance team had a deep understanding of Alice High School’s needs and systems, they could collaborate with campus leaders to refine their systems.

To do that, Lety and Teri created a playbook of instructional strategies that was shared with Alice High staff. It let teachers know what administrators were looking for when they walked into a classroom and helped administrators be precise and prescriptive in their feedback to improve instruction. They were especially focused on fostering what is known as “frequent small group purposeful talk,” where students drive the discussion.

Marissa said working with E3 Alliance helped her understand how to support teachers more effectively in her role as principal.

“I thought I knew what it would take to help our teachers but by working with Teri and Lety, and with my team…I was able to see how to really dig deep,” she said.

Lorie Orta, Alice ISD’s Executive Director of Leadership and School Improvement, said Lety and Teri built capacity and knowledge campuswide.

“There has been a wealth of change since we began our partnership with E3,” she said.

Lorie explained E3 co-developed systems that administrators and teachers were trained on and those changes transferred into the classroom. As a result, they saw growth in their academic outcomes, including higher test scores in core subjects.

There was also dramatic improvement in the percentage of students considered college, career, and military ready, which plays a key role in how TEA evaluates high school performance. That rose from 48% in 2024 to 89% in 2025.

Maria said working with E3 Alliance deepened her understanding of instructional practices.

“I think with [E3’s] guidance and facilitation we were able to make strides,” she said.

Jumping from a “D” to a “B” Rating

The strides made while E3 Alliance and Alice High School worked together were significant. Under Texas’ A-F Accountability System, Alice High School earned an overall “B” in 2025 after receiving a “D” in 2024. TEA also awarded the campus two distinction designations for academic achievement in reading/language arts and science.

“I was so happy for them [when we saw that Alice received a “B”] because they were under so much pressure,” Lety said. “We just helped them create a system that worked for them.”

Teri said, ultimately, the CST team wants to help improve school systems to improve what students experience.

“If you ask any of us why we do what we do, without taking a breath, we say ‘for students, for kids,’ it’s our why,” she said.

The E3 Alliance Center for School Transformation now has the opportunity to work with more Texas schools as an approved provider for the TEA’s Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities (LASO) grants program.

You can find more information about LASO Cycle 4 here and schedule a free consultation with Senior Director for School Transformation Lori Davis here.