Houston ISD board managers approved a new, locally designed teacher evaluation system that will be used, in part, to determine teacher salaries.

The details

Board managers approved the new system, dubbed the Teacher Excellence System, during the board’s March 20 meeting.

Officials noted the new system will replace the district's current system, the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, which was designed by the Texas Education Agency.

According to board documents, the TES assessments will divide teachers’ evaluations into four categories:

• Quality of instruction will encompass 45% of the evaluation and will be based on spot observations and formal observations in the classroom
• Student outcomes will encompass 35% of the evaluation and will be based on student academic outcomes
• Planning and professionalism will encompass 15% of the evaluation and will be based on lesson plan implementation and achieving professional expectations
• Campus action plan will encompass 5% of the evaluation and will be based on school-wide performance indicators of success

While some of individuals who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting supported the revised evaluation system, others said they feared the “pay-for-performance” aspect of the evaluations could pit teachers against one another.

A closer look

Under the new system, officials said evaluations will use a forced distribution method to rank teachers into seven categories based on where they stand compared to others at the end of the school year.

According to board documents, the distribution of teachers would be sorted into the following categories:

• 3% of teachers would receive an “Unsatisfactory” ranking
• 12% of teachers would receive a “Progressing 1” ranking
• 25% of teachers would receive a “Progressing 2” ranking
• 40% of teachers would receive a “Proficient 1” ranking
• 12% of teachers would receive a “Proficient 2” ranking
• 5% of teachers would receive a “Exemplary 1” ranking
• 3% of teachers would receive a “Exemplary 2” ranking

Officials noted an appeal process will be put into place for teachers who disagree with their evaluations.

What they’re saying

While the specifics of how pay increases would be allotted has not yet been released, several community members spoke out against the new evaluation system during the March 21 meeting.

Houston Education Association President Michelle Williams said she believed the district has trouble attracting educators to high-performing schools with the system because it would be more difficult for those students to improve their scores from the previous year.

“I’ve worked under many evaluation systems, but TES is by far the worst I’ve seen,” Williams said. “It’s inequitable. It penalizes teachers with high-achieving students, emerging bilingual students and frankly, parents of children.”

Minh-Dan Tran, a teacher with the district, told the board she believed the new system will create an environment that forces teachers to compete against one another.

“You are going to see teachers hiding resources, hoarding materials and not helping their colleagues,” Tran said. “Who would want to help their competition at the risk of losing their own job?”

However, officials from area nonprofit Good Reason Houston, which advocates for students and teachers in Houston-area school districts, touted the new system.

"This system is rooted in research, aligns with state requirements for the Teacher Incentive Allotment, and—most importantly—recognizes the hard work of effective educators," Good Reason Houston CEO Cary Wright said in a news release.

What’s next

Officials said the new TES evaluation system will be implemented at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, noting the current system will still be used for the remainder of the school year.