Teacher Incentive Allotment

House Bill 3 established the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) to recognize effective teachers on three different levels: 

• Recognized
• Exemplary
• Master

These teacher designations generate additional teacher-focused allotment funding for districts in order for them to reward their top performers.

Eligible teachers may earn up to an additional $32,000 annually.

Anyone who is coded as a classroom teacher in PEIMS is eligible for a TIA Designation. However, which teachers are considered for the program is dependent on each district and the categories or criteria the district chooses to include in its Designation System.

The TEA requires that:

• The teacher must have a valid SBEC certificate. Eligible types of certificates include: 
  • Classroom Teacher (Chapter 233)
  • Reading Specialist (Chapter 239)
  • Legacy Master Teacher
• The teacher must be coded as 087 (Teacher) per the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) description of codes for 90 days at 100% of the day (equivalent to four and one-half months or a full semester) or 180 days required at 50-99% of the day and compensated for that employment. 

No. The TIA Designation Program is meant to recognize classroom teachers only. Instructional coaches, librarians, administrators, counselors, etc. are not eligible. 

To be eligible a teacher must be coded as Role ID 087 in district PEIMS reporting. Role ID 087 includes teacher of record, assistant teachers, and support teachers. Interventionists, reading specialists, inclusion teachers, etc. are generally coded as 087. Districts must check with their PEIMS specialists and payroll personnel to ensure that teachers meet eligibility requirements before submitting them for designation. 

Designation FAQs

TIA requires districts to submit data with value added measures (examples include: STAAR scores, EOC scores, M-Class, STAR Renaissance) as part of the student growth measure component. After much consideration the committee chose to start the TIA process with grades and content areas that already have value added measures established to assure validity and reliability of the student growth data.

Eligible Teachers Phase 1: Teachers of courses with growth measures currently in place

• K-8th Reading and Math
• Pre-K
• 8th Science
• 8th Social Studies
• HS EOC Courses
• AP Courses
• Special Education
• Intervention

However, the district is committed to providing an opportunity for all teachers in the district to earn a designation under the local designation system. To meet this goal, the district is actively working to put student growth measures in place in every grade and content area and will expand the TIA plan to include additional teaching assignments during the Year 2 data submission.

Eligible Teachers Phase 2: All Rockdale ISD Teachers

When an allotment schedule is determined by the TIA Committee, it will be provided. Allotments are based on a teacher receiving one of three designations: Recognized, Exemplary, and Master.

Teacher designations have a base allotment. 

• Recognized base $3,000
• Exemplary base $6,000
• Master base $12,000

The TEA has more information and examples of how allotments may be calculated at this website: https://tiatexas.org/allotments/

If a teacher is in Phase 2, can they waive their formal observation during the first data capture year? Yes. We will only submit the eligible teaching assignments we are including for your first year.

Once a teacher receives a designation, can they waive their observation until they need to re-designate in 5 years or until they choose to try to earn a higher designation? Best practice is to include as many teachers with full appraisals as possible. While full appraisals are not required for 100% of teachers in eligible teaching assignments, beyond the initial data capture year, districts are encouraged to use waivers sparingly so that there are no potential complications with data validation. 

Districts receive annual allotment funds when they employ eligible designated teachers.  These funds must then be used for teacher compensation on the campus where the designated teacher works. All TIA teacher compensation is TRS eligible.

In RISD 90% TIA funds will be distributed, minus the payroll burden and TRS.

Districts are required to spend at least 90% of their allotment funds on teacher compensation on the campus where the designated teachers works. Districts may use up to 10% for costs associated with implementing a local designation system or supporting teachers in earning a designation.

RISD will use the 10% from TIA funds for implementation costs including T-TESS Observation Training, Calibration Expenses, Additional Metric Tools (as Needed for Phase 2), and Data Services for TIA Reporting.