HB 3 IN 30: TEACHER INCENTIVE ALLOTMENT

Region 6 ESC provides services related to the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) in the following areas:

- General Application Support

- Teacher Observation and Appraisal

- Student Growth Measures

- Data Analysis

- Human Capital and Compensation

- Change Management/Communication

Districts have the option to locally develop or identify a system for designating high-performing teachers as Recognized, Exemplary, or Master. Districts that employ teachers with designations can receive up to $32,000 per year in TIA funding per designated teacher.

Designations are added to a teacher’s SBEC certificate and are valid for five years. If a teacher moves to a new district, the allotment funding follows the teacher to the new district regardless of whether the new district has an approved designation system in place.

Teachers with National Board Certification may be eligible to earn an automatic Recognized designation regardless of whether the district in which the teacher works is participating in TIA.

GENERAL INFORMATION AND REQUIREMENTS

House Bill 3 provides districts with local control and flexibility in choosing how to evaluate teachers and assign designations. Developing a local teacher designation system requires significant planning, robust stakeholder engagement, adequate time to prepare all necessary materials for rollout, and a strong communication plan prior to the first implementation year.

The Texas Education Agency can provide technical assistance with change management; evaluation of teacher appraisal and student performance; and human capital and compensation strategies. However, TEA will not develop a local designation system for districts and the state will not designate individual teachers.

Districts do have the opportunity to set aside 10 percent of the funds they draw from the Teacher Incentive Allotment to potentially work with external partners that could help them implement or strengthen their teacher designation systems.

DESIGNATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

At minimum, the designation system must include both a teacher observation and a student performance component:

• Teacher observation based on T-TESS; a third-party rubric, such as the NIET or TAP rubric; or a locally developed rubric. District application must show evidence of validity and reliability.
• Student growth measures determined by district. Can include pre- and-post tests, value-added measures, student learning objectives (SLOs), and portfolios. District application must show evidence of validity and reliability.
• Districts can use other factors in determining the teachers eligible to receive a designation, such as student surveys, teacher leadership responsibilities, teacher mentorship responsibilities, family surveys, demonstration of district core values, teacher peer surveys, and contributions to the broader school community.

The systems must be submitted to TEA for approval and undergo a data-validation process, which will be conducted by Texas Tech University. As part of the validation process, Texas Tech will:

• Review alignment between teacher observation ratings and student performance ratings
• Review alignment between student performance ratings and value-added ratings for applicable teachers
• Review data validity by appraiser/rater, by campus, across campuses in a district, and by teaching assignment
• Compare district data to state data by comparing the percentage of teachers a district puts forth for designation to overall district performance

TEA requires a data-processing fee for each teacher designation. Once the district’s local designation system is approved, these districts will receive a reimbursement for these fees and any other application fees. The state will conduct periodic evaluations of the district system to ensure system fidelity remains intact over the course of time.

What is National Board Certification?

National Board Certification is a voluntary advanced professional certification for PreK-12 educators that identifies teaching expertise through a performance-based, peer-reviewed assessment. Teachers are certified based on standards set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). More than 125,000 teachers across all 50 states have achieved National Board Certification.

National Board Certification provides teachers an opportunity to hone their practice, demonstrate their professional knowledge, and reinforce their dedication to their students and their career. National Board Certification opens doors for teachers to make an impact on student learning in their own classroom, and to influence teaching and learning improvements beyond their four walls. The State of Texas and several districts across the state offer financial benefits for board-certified teachers.

National Board Certification Overview

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

REQUIREMENTS:

The certification process is designed to collect standards-based evidence of accomplished practice, and on average takes 1-3 years to complete. To become a Board-certified teacher, eligible candidates must demonstrate advanced knowledge, skills, and practice in their individual certificate area by completing four components: three portfolio entries and a computer-based assessment. The content knowledge component is a computer-based assessment taken at a testing center; the other three are portfolio-based and are submitted through an electronic portfolio system.

Four Components

CATEGORIES FOR BOARD CERTIFICATION:

Certification is available in 25 certificate areas spanning 16 disciplines from Pre-K through 12th grade.

ELIGIBILITY:

To be eligible for certification, teachers must meet the following education, employment, and licensure requirements prior to starting the certification process:

• Possess a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. Candidates for the Career and Technical Education certificate are required to hold a bachelor’s degree only if their state required one for their current license.
• Have completed three years of successful teaching in one or more early childhood, elementary, middle, or secondary schools.
• Hold a valid state teaching license (or meet the licensure requirements established by your state for a school counselor if applying for the ECYA/School Counseling certificate) for each of the three years of employment you verify.
• Provide official American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) certified ratings of Advanced Low or higher from ACTFL speaking and writing proficiency assessments if registering as a World Languages candidate. For more information on this prerequisite for World Languages candidates, refer to the Guide to National Board Certification.

For more information about the National Board and the process for achieving certification, you can visit www.nbpts.org, or visit the Texas page directly at www.nbpts.org/texas. They can be contacted via email as well:  txinfo@nbpts.org

To implement the Teacher Incentive Allotment, House Bill 3 also requires the setting of “performance and validity standards” to ensure that the identification of highly effective teachers under the three designation categories – Master, Exemplary, and Recognized – yield reliable and comparable results across the state. When released, applicants will be expected to use performance standards along with district teacher observation and student performance standards to determine which teachers qualify for designations. Part of the data validation process will include a review of the accuracy of how district systems align their designations to the statewide performance standards.

Teacher Observation Performance Standards

Student Growth Performance Standards

In addition to all Texas school districts, open-enrollment charter schools are eligible to receive TIA funding and develop local systems for designating teachers. Only teachers with an SBEC certification are eligible to earn a designation. Teachers with intern or probationary certificates are not eligible.

Designated teachers who work on rural campuses will generate greater allotments. Campuses are designated as rural if they meet one or more of the following definitions:

• a campus within a district with fewer than 5,000 enrolled students that is categorized as a rural, non-metropolitan: stable or non-metropolitan: fast growing district type by the Texas Education Agency (TEA or agency)
• a campus within a district with fewer than 5,000 enrolled students categorized as rural by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
• a campus defined in TEC, §48.112(a)(1)(A) and (B) that is categorized as rural by NCES in a district with an enrollment of less than 5,000

FUNDING AND DESIGNATION FAQ

General Information:

TEA TIA Presentation

TIA Q&A

Exemplar Answers from TIA Applications

Teacher Observation System Component

Skew in Teacher Observation Data

Application Student Growth Information:

Student Learning Objectives (SLO)

Pre-test/Post-test

Value Added Measures

Application Resources:

System Application Guidance Webinar

Additional Resources