CLI Engage is a comprehensive professional development and assessment platform for early childhood programs. CLI Engage offers free access to professional development and child progress monitoring tools and resources originally developed for use with preschool teachers participating in the Texas School Ready Project (TSR). Developed by the Children’s Learning Institute at UTHealth in partnership with the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Workforce Commission, the TSR Online tools are available for free to all school districts, charter schools, Head Start programs, public institutions of higher education, Texas School Ready participants, and Texas Rising Star certified providers. In addition to TSR tools, CLI Engage hosts a number of free professional development courses, activity collections, and assessments that do not require eligibility.
History of CLI Engage
For nearly 15 years, the Children’s Learning Institute has managed the implementation and ongoing enhancement of the Texas School Ready Project (TSR) —a data-driven, comprehensive professional development and child progress monitoring program aimed at increasing school readiness skills in at-risk students. Since 2003, thousands of preschool teachers in a variety of settings have participated in TSR – positively impacting the quality of instruction and classroom environment of more than 500,000 children in Texas. In 2014, TSR’s tools were integrated into an innovative online platform that became known as CLI Engage.
CLI Engage is an online delivery system that includes professional development courses, child assessment and reporting tools, supplementary lessons, and more. During the 2014-2015 school year, the Children’s Learning Institute conducted a large-scale pilot of the TSR tools and resources on the CLI Engage platform with Houston ISD, Dallas ISD, and Fort Worth ISD. More than 2,450 teachers participated in the pilot. In fall 2015, CLI Engage was launched statewide and now serves over 23,000 teachers from over 900 school districts and other organizations across Texas.
In fall 2017, the Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA) was launched to school districts statewide, as well as a new online series for training on the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines (Revised 2015). The Children’s Learning Institute continues to add new resources for teachers of children ages 0-6, including three additional infant and toddler teacher courses over the 2017-2018 school year.
Additional resources for teacher preparation programs, including those affiliated with public higher education institutions and high school career technology education (CTE) programs in Texas, were also added during the 2018-19 school year.
