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Restore Education pitches RestoreTech charter to TEA, seeks to enroll 400 adults in year one
Summary
Restore Education told Texas Education Agency staff that its proposed RestoreTech adult charter will use an accelerated, individualized model to serve adults and offer industry credentials; applicants said they plan to enroll 400 students in year one and ramp to 2,000 across three campuses by year five.
Restore Education told Texas Education Agency interviewers on Feb. 19 that its proposed RestoreTech charter would create an adult high school pathway combining accelerated coursework, industry credentials and wraparound supports aimed at helping marginalized adults complete a high school diploma and move into the workforce.
Kelly Rhodes, Restore Education—EO and a planning committee member for RestoreTech, described the organization s a 17-year operator of dropout recovery and adult education programs and said the the RestoreTech model would expand those services. "Our programs have served over 21,000 individuals in just 16 short years," Rhodes said, citing past enrollment and workforce programming as the foundation for the charter.
Why it matters: TEA uthorizers evaluate whether applicants have the systems, staff and pipeline to enroll and serve students. RestoreTech told the panel it expects to open with one campus and up to 400 students in year one, expanding to three campuses and a maximum enrollment of 2,000 students by year five.
How they plan to reach students and measure progress: Rhodes and other RestoreTech leaders said roughly half of their applicants come through word-of-mouth and partner referrals. They described an outreach network of more than 120 community partners and a contact database of about 15,000 prospective participants that they plan to use for targeted recruiting. The team said it will issue pre-enrollment forms, track responses, and monitor recruitment performance through a KPI dashboard that includes enrollment, marketing response rates and capacity planning.
Program design and instructional model: Carrie Rhodes, chief program officer, said the instructional approach will be largely self-paced with guided small-group instruction, an integrated skills lab and a flexible block schedule to allow part-time attendance. Dr. Mary Jewell, proposed board member with prior campus leadership experience, described a nine-week accelerated cycle aligned to the TEKS and industry-based competencies to support mastery-based progression.
Next steps: TEA staff told the applicants they expect to notify them of the commissioner's proposal on or around March 7. If approved, RestoreTech leaders said they intend to follow the startup timeline in their application with a focus on onboarding a superintendent and operational staff ahead of an August launch.
