FAQ – Teacher Incentive – Rice Consolidated Independent School District

Why is Rice CISD applying for the Teacher Incentive Allotment?

How Does TIA Work?

TIA Eligibility

TIA Teacher Effectiveness Criteria

Designations and Performance Incentives

We will use multiple criteria to measure teacher effectiveness, e.g., observations and student growth. For every TIA-eligible teacher, we will track progress against these measures over the school year. Detailed TIA Texas Designation System Requirements are available on tiatexas.org.

Teachers will receive regular development, feedback, and progress updates to keep them abreast of their TIA status.
During the school year TIA eligible teachers will receive multiple T-TESS observations and follow standardized student assessment protocols.
When a full year of data, e.g., T-TESS observations and student growth scores, have been collected, that information will be used to calculate a composite score for each eligible teacher. Each teacher will be assigned a potential designation based on the composite score if they meet the criteria.
Teachers may receive performance-based incentives based on their designation following the criteria in our spending plan.

TIA Timeline and Process

We are undertaking a multi-year process to secure TIA funding for the district. TIA Texas established a rolling application process whereby districts can apply in one of many cohorts. Rice CISD initially applying in Cohort G. The high-level timeline for our application and designations is noted below and could be subject to change:

Cohort G:

System Application Posted: Nov. 1, 2023
System Application due to TEA (no fee required for submission): April 2024
System Application Result Final Notification: May or August 2023
Data-Capture Year for Applicable Teaching Assignments: 2024-2025
Data Review due to Texas Tech University (data processing fee required for each teacher put forth for designation): Fall 2025
Final Approval Notification: Spring 2026
Final Designation and Allotment Notification: May-June 2026
Initial Payout with Reimbursements for Approved Systems: August 2026

TIA Activities Happening This School Year (2024 - 2025)

Regarding TIA, this school year will be our first data capture year for Phase 1 teaching assignments. Phase 2 teaching assignments will begin developing a plan to measure student growth with the intent to apply for an expansion of our Local Designation system. The expansion and modification application we submit in April 2025 will reflect the preferences and priorities of RCISD teachers and leaders.