Teacher Incentive Allotment
Teacher Incentive Allotment
Recognition and Reward for Excellence in Teaching
The Texas Legislature created the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) as part of House Bill 3 to provide a realistic pathway for top-performing teachers to earn higher salaries and help retain and attract highly effective teachers.
Rice CISD is part of Cohort G, and we submitted our approved TIA application in April 2024. RCISD worked with a committee to develop the local designation system to be approved by the Texas Education Agency. The district will spend the 2024-2025 school year gathering eligible teacher performance and student growth data to submit to Texas Tech University, TEA's partner in this statewide project. By Spring 2026, TEA will notify Rice CISD of the final designation approval and potential allotment amounts. By August 2026, the allotment funds will be issued to eligible teachers if our system data is approved.
The amount of increased compensation available to each teacher depends on a formula determined at the state level, which also considers the number of economically disadvantaged students. The RCISD spending plan also dictates how the dollars will be distributed. You can learn more at tiatexas.org.
RiceCISD_TIAGuidebookJuly2025.pdf
FAQ
Why is Rice CISD applying for the Teacher Incentive Allotment?
As a school district, we want to reward highly effective teachers who get results. We must ensure our students learn from excellent teachers doing amazing things and experiencing better-than-average growth. Allowing highly effective teachers to earn more without leaving the classroom is important.
How Does TIA Work?
TIA is a performance pay teacher evaluation system that may award additional compensation to teachers based on predetermined effectiveness criteria. This means that the most effective teachers in the district have an opportunity to earn additional compensation and that the District will carve out a growth trajectory for developing teachers to aim for the same goal.
TIA Eligibility
At a minimum, the teacher must be coded 087 (Teacher) per Public Education Information. RCISD’s TIA Committee outlined which teaching positions and the eligibility criteria in our TIA Guidebook.
TIA Teacher Effectiveness Criteria
Based on TIA requirements, the evaluation criteria must include teacher observation and student performance components. While we will create our process for assessing observations and student performance, the state has established guidelines for measuring exceptional effectiveness that we must adhere to.
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.
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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.
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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.
Forwebsite---RCISDTIACommitteeMtg1Oct2023.pdf
Forwebsite---RCISDTIACommitteeMtg2Nov2023.pdf
Forwebsite---RCISDTIACOmmitteeMtg3Dec2024.pdf
Forwebsite___RCISDTIACommitteeMtg4_Feb12024.pdf
Forwebsite---RCISDTIACommitteeMtg5_Feb152024.pdf