In the spring, the district was granted approval from the Texas Education Agency for a total of 267 teachers to receive designation through the program after completing a three-year process.
How we got here
The Teacher Incentive Allotment was created by House Bill 3 in 2019 as part of the 86th Texas legislative session and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. The TEA website states the program’s goal is providing outstanding teachers an accessible pathway to a six-figure salary.
According to the TEA, the school of a teacher who earned a designation through the TIA program receives additional funding from the state based on their level of designation.
Teacher Incentive Allotment programs include:
- 3 designation levels based on teaching effectiveness: Master, Exemplary or Recognized
- Funds for districts to receive $3,000-$32,000 for each designated teacher
- Prioritization for high-need and rural campuses
- A requirement that 90% of state funding from the program must be spent on teacher compensation on the designated teacher’s campus
The district began its TIA process in 2020 when it submitted a letter of intent to the state, according to the district’s website. Currently, Conroe ISD is focusing its TIA program on 26 campuses that have a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students, according to discussion at the Sept. 17 board meeting.
During a presentation to the board Sept. 17, TIA Administration Coordinator Terral Jackson said the district will continue looking to:
- Add additional campus and teacher assignments
- Monitor systems to ensure successful data validation
- Consider use of additional instruments for student growth measurements
- Implement new components without overburdening teachers and administrators
“One of the challenges of growing is that we would need instruments that are valid. That’s one of the moving pieces that we have to look at if we want to expand it, we can but we may have to invest in infrastructure to purchase more instruments to help us do it,” CISD Superintendent Curtis Null said.
“Remember the program is for the highest-performing teachers at our highest need campuses. We were strategic when we chose those campuses because we wanted to ensure that our highest-need campuses had those best teachers,” Jackson said.
Next steps
The board discussed the topic at its Sept. 17 meeting but did not take action. It was not on the agenda for the Oct. 15 meeting.
