ESSA went into full implementation last school-year. This year, districts are preparing for state monitoring visits regarding ESSA Compliance.
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Alyssa Thornley

Alyssa Thornley has spent her career working to support schools and communities in providing opportunity to all students. In positions as a teacher, professional development coordinator, and as a volunteer, she has focused on the community’s role in education, and in designing efficient programs that work for diverse needs. Alyssa leads TransACT’s customer engagement and market strategy efforts, and works to ensure innovative programs, guidance, and thought leadership from across the country’s districts are being shared and spread.
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Recent Posts

Data-Driven School Improvement

By Alyssa Thornley | October 16, 2019

Making the Grade for Students Experiencing Homelessness

We all share the same mission, to provide the best services we can and help students succeed. It is easy to get swept away in the day-to-day of running a district, or Coordinating Title I, Title III, and McKinney-Vento programming or becoming caught up in an overwhelming amount of data without knowing where you can make a further positive impact. 

We are co-hosting a workshop-webinar, Data-Driven School Improvement: Making the Grade for Students Experiencing Homelessness, with two special presenters from the Montana Office of Public Instruction: 

  • Heather Denny, State Coordinator for Homeless Education, State Coordinator for Title I Family and Community Engagement, and Title I Specialist
  • DJ QuirinMai, Data Analyst

This workshop-webinar will help building and district leaders to create school improvement plans aimed at impacting those students who are often among the lowest-performing and the most at-risk of dropping out; students experiencing homelessness.

The presenters will review the types of data that schools collect for state and local governments, and school climate surveys. This interactive workshop will help you take a more detailed look at your data and find some quick wins for impacting student achievement. The presenters will offer best practice approaches to creating programming that meets the unique needs of these students and families, including rural and American Indian populations.

Use your data to drive improvements in the following areas: 

  • school climate

  • academic achievement

  • attendance

  • program collaboration

Click here to register for the upcoming webinar, Data-Driven School Improvement: Making the Grade for Students Experiencing Homelessness. This webinar will be held on October 24th, 2019 at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET.

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TransACT Launches New Web Presence With RightLabs

By Alyssa Thornley | May 1, 2019

TransACT is proud to launch a new web presence, www.rightlabs.com.

ActivityRight, InviteRight, and CampusRight recently joined our family so that we could expand our services to educators. 

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White House's Proposed 2020 Budget Includes Education Cuts - Again

By Alyssa Thornley | March 21, 2019

The White House proposes a budget every year to help inform the U.S. Congress of its priorities. This proposal included cutting the same two major programs that Trump proposed to cut for FY2018, Title II and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (Title IV, Part B). Dr. David Holbrook, Executive Director of Federal Programs and State Relationships, provides commentary on the budget at www.21cclc.com.

Read more here. 

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EL Advocacy Resources from the National Council of State Title III Directors

By Alyssa Thornley | March 6, 2019

The National Council of State Title III Directors (soon re-branding to the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators) held a council meeting and professional development conference in Coronado Springs, Florida on March 6, 2019. NCSTIIID's professional development purposes include ensuring that members are knowledgeable of effective administration of national and state programs for the education of EL students and ensuring that members are knowledgeable of the laws governing the administration of language development programs.

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RightLabs Partners with TransACT Communications to Offer Educators Better Options for Modern Parent Engagement

By Alyssa Thornley | February 14, 2019
TransACT Communications ( transact.com) has partnered with RightLabs, Inc ( www.rightlabs.com), a leader in K-12 and collegiate online form and fees software. RightLabs has over 10 years of experience in developing online registration and parent engagement forms that enable parents to manage their students’ activities and also support the district in compliance, reporting, and streamlining processes. Working together, TransACT and RightLabs are proud to offer educators of all levels a single platform to securely manage forms, fees, and engagement with simplicity.

“Joining teams with TransACT allows us to reach more schools in the United States and bring more form functionality to our Canadian customers. We are thrilled for the opportunities that this partnership has already provided for existing customers, and are looking forward to taking on more projects to increase our service offerings to help more organizations and communities.” - Dave Bodnarchuk, Founder and President, RightLabs, Inc

"We are excited to welcome RightLabs to the TransACT family, and to be able to partner in providing customers with the industry-leading solution automating workflow across departments to deliver mobile-centric notifications and fee payment functionality to parents. Dave and the RightLabs team have been providing outstanding software services to schools for over 10 years, and we found a strong alignment between our respective missions and customers to provide educators at all levels of the education system with cost-effective software that supports streamlined, compliant parent engagement and reduces bureaucratic burden on education agencies. In our work together, TransACT and RightLabs clients will see increased capabilities within their products and a continued focus on exceptional consultative support and service.” - Alex Jarzebowicz, President & CEO, TransACT Communications, LLC.

RightLabs is the creator of ActivityRight, the all-in-one platform for mobile-friendly, cashless and compliant parent engagement. Watch this short video to see how easy we have made activity communications, fees, and payments for parents, teachers and district administrators.  Read More

rSmart, Leader in Post-Secondary, Mobile-Friendly Campus Portal Integrations Partners with TransACT Communications to Increase Service Offerings for Educators

By Alyssa Thornley | December 20, 2018

TransACT Communications, LLC (transact.com) has acquired The rSmart Group, Inc.  (www.rsmart.com), a leader in higher education technology solutions. rSmart has over 19 years of experience in higher education and are leaders in SaaS delivery of campus engagement, verification, and service discovery tools that unify the user experience into a searchable, responsive, mobile-friendly platform. Working together, TransACT and rSmart are proud to offer a broader educational service portfolio that will now span K-12 institutions as well as colleges and universities.

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The Indiana Department of Education Collaborates with TransACT For ESSA Implementation Support

By Alyssa Thornley | November 16, 2018

To help with Parent and Family Engagement requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and to meet the Civil Rights obligations of schools in working with Limited English Proficient (LEP) families and English Learner (EL) students across the state of Indiana, leaders in the Indiana Department of Education are partnering with TransACT® Parent Notices. The new partnership, which started in June of 2018, provides all 467 local education agencies representing thousands of schools and teachers with unlimited access to expertly written parent notifications that meet legal requirements and guidance on required audiences, and recommended timelines.

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Dr. David Holbrook Joins Ellevation's Highest Aspirations Podcast, S01 E17: ESSA's Impact on ELL Programs

By Alyssa Thornley | August 31, 2018

This blog has been modified from its original version, which appeared in the Ellevation blog. 

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TransACT Director of Federal Programs and State Relationships to Serve on Advisory Board for Ellevation

By Alyssa Thornley | August 15, 2018

TransACT Communications, the leader in parent engagement compliance, is proud to announce that Executive Director for Federal Compliance and State Relationships, Dr. David Holbrook, will serve as a policy adviser for the Ellevation Advisory Board.  In this role, which is the first of its kind at Ellevation, Dr. Holbrook will help the Ellevation ELL community understand the impact of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 on the work of English Language Learner (ELL) educators and their students.

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Dr. David Holbrook Selected to be Executive Director for the National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID)

By Alyssa Thornley | August 10, 2018

TransACT’s Executive Director for Federal Compliance and State Relationships, Dr. David Holbrook, has been selected to serve as the Executive Director of the National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID). In this role, David will be responsible for guiding the board and its activities associated with advocacy for English Learners and immigrant students. 

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