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

Schools, DACA, and Increased Anxiety Among Immigrants

By Alyssa Thornley | November 29, 2017

As part of our commitment to provide school district administrators with resources and guidance on federal program compliance and administration, we regularly publish blogs featuring guest writers. We are honored to feature Scott Nyary, the EL Coordinator, Lead ESL Teacher and Title III Coordinator for Lamar County School District located near Hattiesburg, Mississippi discussing his observations following the announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been rescinded:

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ESSA RoadMaps: What You Need to Know for ESSA Compliance

By Alyssa Thornley | October 9, 2017

TransACT RoadMaps are a compliance and guidance component of TransACT Parent Notices subscriptions that existing subscribers can access at any time. RoadMaps use a series of yes/no questions to guide educators through the process of determining which parent notices are required to send out in a particular time period or situation. This helps educators to create a list of notices they need based on the unique characteristics of their school and/or school district. RoadMaps are a helpful, time-saving compliance tool for:

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The Staggering Cost of Parent Communication Requirements Under ESSA

By Alyssa Thornley | June 12, 2017

There is a financial burden related to creating parent notice communications in-house, especially since there are several components to a successful, ESEA- compliant communications plan, including:

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ESSA Basics: What are Title I and Title III?

By Alyssa Thornley | May 25, 2017

Updated on May 25, 2023.

On July 1st, 2017, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as a rule of the land, at least in education. ESSA is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was first signed into law in 1965. The law reaffirms the commitment to equal opportunity for all U.S. students

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Managing Communication with the Parents of ESL Students

By Alyssa Thornley | January 24, 2017

As school districts across America grow in population and the country itself becomes more diverse, the need for enhanced parent communication increases. A one-size-fits-all model cannot work when ensuring all students and parents receive pertinent communications in a language they can understand. 

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3 Ways ESSA compliance helps close the multilingual communication gap

By Alyssa Thornley | January 10, 2017

Bridging the gap between teachers, students and parents presents a daunting proposition to many school districts, particularly those located in areas where many languages are spoken throughout the community.

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Former WIDA Chief Strategy Officer, Jesse Markow, joins TransACT – The leader in K-12 compliance and educational management software solutions

By Alyssa Thornley | December 16, 2016

TransACT Communications, LLC, provider of federal compliance and education
management software and services to the K-12 industry, announced today that Jesse Markow has joined their team.
As Director of Key Accounts and Partnerships, Jesse's addition reinforces TransACT’s commitment to provide districts and states with effective resources for parent and community engagement during the implementation of ESSA.

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ESSA & the presidential transition: A Q&A with Dr. David Holbrook about what to watch

By Alyssa Thornley | December 12, 2016

The election of Donald Trump and the presidential transition presents a number of unknown scenarios for school districts and educators across the country, with many questions surrounding education legislation, federal education funding, and immigration enforcement.

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WIDA panel on English Learner (EL) programs & ESSA: opportunity, challenges & concerns

By Alyssa Thornley | October 20, 2016

On Thursday, October 13th 2016, TransACT’s Director of Federal Programs, Dr. David Holbrook, joined a WIDA panel discussing the opportunities and challenges of ESSA implementation. The panel was moderated by Jesse Markow, Chief Strategy Officer at WIDA, and included Dr. Gary Cook, Research Scientist at WIDA, and Kenneth Bond, WIDA Executive Committee Member and ESL/Bilingual Program Coordinator at the New Jersey Department of Education. 

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Recent changes to the Parent Notices product menu

By Alyssa Thornley | September 29, 2016

Current customers now have access to a small but important change to their Parent Notices document navigation menu. The “All Documents” menu is located at the top left-hand side of your screen after you login, and is where subscribers go to navigate from one document collection to the next.

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