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Teacher Incentive Allotment

Karen Ford

Texas Instructional Leadership

kford@esc5.net

Cindy Moss

Texas Instructional Leadership

cmoss@esc5.net

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Overview

The Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) is a key part of House Bill 3, dedicated to recruiting, supporting, and retaining highly effective teachers in all schools, with particular emphasis on high-needs and rural schools. Districts that choose to participate are charged with developing local teacher designation systems that measure teacher effectiveness based, at a minimum, on both teacher observation and student growth data. These systems must be submitted to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for approval and undergo a data validation process, which will be conducted by Texas Tech University

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Rationale

Retention and Recruitment Challenges

HS students do not want to become teachers http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2018/08/high_schools_students_teaching_better_pay.html
Parents do not encourage their children to become teachers https://www.the74million.org/new-poll-for-first-time-ever-a-majority-of-american-parents-do-not-want-their-children-to-become-public-school-teachers/
Working conditions and pay cause teachers to leave profession https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/09/50percent-of-teachers-surveyed-say-theyve-considered-quitting-teaching.html
High number of economically disadvantaged students being taught by inexperienced teachers https://www.atpe.org/ATPE/media/ATPE/PDF/2008-ATPE-TeacherQualityStudy.pdf

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HS students do not want to become teachers http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2018/08/high_schools_students_teaching_better_pay.html

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Parents do not encourage their children to become teachers https://www.the74million.org/new-poll-for-first-time-ever-a-majority-of-american-parents-do-not-want-their-children-to-become-public-school-teachers/

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Working conditions and pay cause teachers to leave profession https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/09/50percent-of-teachers-surveyed-say-theyve-considered-quitting-teaching.html

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High number of economically disadvantaged students being taught by inexperienced teachers https://www.atpe.org/ATPE/media/ATPE/PDF/2008-ATPE-TeacherQualityStudy.pdf

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Is this just a new version of what we’ve seen before?

How is it different?

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Past Incentives Career Ladder Governor’s Educator Excellence Texas Educator Excellence Grant District Awards for Teacher Excellence	Teacher Incentive Allotment Based on formula funding (FSP) Fair, balanced measures of teachers Available to all teachers Keeps teachers in classroom longer instead of moving into higher paying leadership position

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5 KEY POINTS OF TIA

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Key Points of TIA

Three Designations
Recognized
Exemplary
Master

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Key Points of TIA

2. LEAs can receive up to $32,000 annually per designated teacher

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Key Points of TIA

3. High needs and/or rural campuses = more $$$

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Key Points of TIA

4. Must use 90% of funds on teacher compensation on designated teacher’s campus

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Key Points of TIA

5. Designation is good for 5 years and will be added to teacher’s SBEC certification

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Funding Factors

Designation
Socio-economic percentage
Rural/non-rural status https://tea.texas.gov/acctres/analyze/1718/district_type_1718

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How the Allotment is Calculated

Teacher designations each have a base allotment and a multiplier rate.

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How the Allotment is Calculated

Each student at the designated teacher’s campus is assigned a point value as determined by the census block of the student’s home address. Each point value has a corresponding tier - the same tiers used for Compensatory Education.

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How the Allotment is Calculated

Students at rural schools are assigned a point value that is two tiers higher than their assigned Comp Ed tier.

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How the Allotment is Calculated

The average point value is then multiplied by the designation’s multiplier rate. That value is then added to the designation’s base allotment, giving you the total incentive allotment.

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Possible Funding Amounts

across different socio-economic tiers for both rural and non-rural campuses

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Kountze ISD Current Projected Allotment

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Designation System Development

District Role

Develop and implement a designation system based on

Teacher Observation
Student Growth
Optional Additional Factors

State Role

Approve system based on a qualitative and quantitative review

TEA - System Review
Texas Tech - Data Review

State will NOT approve teacher designations. They only approve the district-created system giving the distirct the authority to make teacher designations.
Why Tech? Vetted by TEA due to work they have done in this area
TEA - qualitative - basically looking at components of plan
Tech - quantitative - looking at hard data (comparing observation data to student growth measures/validity and reliability)

This is not a 1 person job for the district. It is collaborative. The start-up committee must include staff members who are knowledgeable about the district’s observation system, including calibration , reliability, and validity of teacher observations, AND the various student growth measures used in the district.

However, the district does need one person as the main point of contact. Your “Lead” should be someone who can either lead discussions around the 6 success criteria of TIA, especially Teacher Observations and SGM or be able to delegate those sessions to others.

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Process

Planning - 1-2 years

Data Capture - 1 full year

District Data Analysis - Spring to Fall in Data Capture Year

Data Review/Final Approval/State Funding - the following academic year

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Building the Designation System

Stakeholder Engagement
Communication Plan
Spending Plan
District Long Term Supports

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Stakeholder Engagement

Who: Include teachers, parents, community members, board members, neighboring districts

How: focus groups, surveys, interviews, website information

When: throughout the development of the plan

What: plan to identify highly effective teachers and how to compensate designations

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Stakeholder Engagement (cont.)

Considerations

Eligibility
All vs. subset
Application
Spending/distribution
Details of plan

Only SBEC certified teachers are eligible for designations.
Open to all teachers or a subset of teachers (campus, grade level, department, tested subjects, core subjects, etc)
Some districts are having eligible teachers apply to be considered for TIA - takes burden from having to do numerous full evaluations while still making it available to all eligible teachers.
No plan that included all teachers was approved
If teachers are not using valid and reliable student growth measures and are part of the plan, the plan will not be approved.

Individualized per student
SGM can include STAAR growth measures, so basically looking at grades 4-8, but what about non-tested teachers?
Portfolios with validated and reliable rubrics, pre-post tests that are validated and reliable, SLOs, etc.
Most teachers who are using these do not go as in-depth as what Tech is looking for when evaluating the data
Most districts use Value Added Measures determined by an outside agency
Eduphoria and DMAC will not show the kind of growth they are looking for.

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Communication Plan

Articulate purpose and rationale
Regular updates
Continuous improvement

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Spending Plan

Funds go directly to district, not the designated teacher

District Responsibility

90/10 split
Plan must include how funds will be spent

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Spending Plan (cont.)

Considerations:

Stipend vs. salary
All 90% vs. distributed
Attrition vs. new hires
All districts need a plan, even if they are not participating in TIA

Teachers want this to count as part of salary but many districts are planning to include the allotment as a stipend. Legal advice is often sought on this part of the plan. Consider TRS.
Who gets the 90%? Some districts give it all to the teacher and use the other 10% for administrative fees to implement the system. Some “share the wealth” - departments, grade levels, or all campus equally. District discretion. Give examples of what this could look like.
If a designated teacher leaves the funds follow him/her to the new district
If a designated teacher moves into the district you will need a local plan to spend the allotment and continue to incentivize
NB teachers could possibly leave a district that is not participating in TIA to get additional $
Teachers will likely “shop around” for districts with the best % going directly to designated teacher

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District Long-Term Supports

Is this sustainable?

Consider how observations are currently being done.

Can we grow TIA and begin including other subsets of teachers in future cohorts?

How do we grow our teachers so that all eligible teachers are truly working toward a designation of Master Teacher?

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Timeline

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Fully Approved Cohort E Spending Diagram

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Kountze - Application Considerations

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Supports for TIA

Texas Instructional Leadership

Other individualized ESC services

National Board Teacher Certification

Non-ESC 5 contracted services

Best in Class (offered to Kountze ISD for SY 2021-2022)

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TIA/TIL Connection

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Best in Class

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Questions?

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Region 5 Education Service Center Contacts

Dr. Byron Terrier, Deputy Executive Director

409-951-1758

bterrier@esc5.net

Karen Ford, Program Coordinator - Texas Instructional Leadership

409-951-1724

kford@esc5.net

Cindy Moss, Program Coordinator - Texas Instruction Leadership

409-951-1768

cmoss@esc5.net

Stacey Hughes, Grants & School Finance Specialist

409-951-1766

shughes@esc5.net

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Resources

Schwartz, Sarah. “Few High School Students Are Interested in Teaching. But Better Pay Could Help.” Education Week - Teaching Now, 7 Aug. 2018, blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2018/08/high_schools_students_teaching_better_pay.html.

Stringer, Kate. “New Poll: For First Time Ever, a Majority of American Parents Do Not Want Their Children to Become Public School Teachers.” The 74, 27 Aug. 2018, the 74 million.org/new-poll-for-first-time-ever-a-majority-of=american-parents-do-not-want-their-children-to-become-public-school-teachers/

Hess, Abigail J. “50% Of Teachers Surveyed Say They've Considered Quitting, Blaming Pay, Stress and Lack of Respect.” CNBC, CNBC, 9 Aug. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/08/09/50percent-of-teachers-surveyed-say-theyve-considered-quitting-teaching.html

Fuller, Edward J, et al. “Teacher Quality & School Improvement in Texas Secondary Schools.” Association of Texas Professional Educators, ww.atpe.org/ATPE/media/ATPE/PDF/2008-ATPE-TeacherQualityStudy.pdf. Accessed 21 February 2020

Auguste, Byron, et al. “Closing the Teaching Talent Gap.” McKinsey & Company, www.mckinsey.com/industries/social-sector/our-insights/closing-the-teaching-talent-gap

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Resources (cont.)

Texas Education Agency. “District Type, 2017-18.” Texas Education Agency, Texas Education Agency, 2019, tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/school-data/district-type-data-search/district-type-2017-18

Texas Education Agency. “House Bill 3 Texas School Finance, 86th Legislative Session.” Texas Education Agency, Texas Education Agency, 2019, tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/HB%203%20Master%20Deck%20Final.pdf. Accessed 21, February 2020

Texas Education Agency. “”Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA)” Regional Convenings. Region 4 Education Service Center, Houston, TX 19 February 2020. ESC Leads.