May TIA updates

What’s New

HISD is excited to have successfully submitted its application to Texas’ Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) in April 2023. TIA is a program that supports the recruitment, retention, and placement of teachers through performance-based bonuses, particularly in high-needs districts and schools. As announced in Spring 2021, HISD is eager to participate in TIA because it will increase compensation for the district’s teachers and teaching assistants.

In HISD, local designations for TIA will be determined by three components: Formal T-TESS instructional practice ratings, Student Growth Measures (SGMs), and Student Feedback Surveys (SFS). HISD will be notified in August if the district’s application has been approved by the state. This month’s focus will be on the student growth component.

What is Student Growth?

Student Growth Measures is the component of the teacher evaluation system that measures growth (i.e., how much a student progresses from the beginning of the course to the end of the course) rather than student achievement (i.e., how much a student scores at the end of the course). The primary purpose of measuring student growth rather than absolute achievement is to reward gains in student learning across all beginning performance levels of students, regardless of campus location or content taught.

In the first phase of the Teacher Incentive Allotment, HISD prioritized using current assessments and not adding in additional testing administration. HISD is using SGMs for STAAR, TELPAS, iReady, TxKEA, and CIRCLE. These state and vendor-created assessments are both already in use in the district and are frequently used by other districts earning more funding for teacher pay through the TIA.

Four Methods of Measuring Student Growth

Based on guidelines from the TEA, HISD will use the following methodologies to calculate SGMs for TIA-eligible teachers. HISD calculates student growth differently for each of the four growth measures.

• Houston Student Growth Model (STAAR & TELPAS): The HSGM is a statistical model that calculates the learning progress of a student relative to other students who performed at the same level on the prior year’s STAAR or TELPAS assessment.
• Early Elementary Model (iReady): The EEM calculates a student’s percent progress toward the annual typical growth score calculated for each student by iReady.
• Kindergarten Model (TxKEA): The Texas Center for Educator Excellence’s TxKEA model will be used for kindergarten teachers eligible for TIA. HISD will use KEA’s benchmark levels to determine a student’s growth from Beginning of Year (BOY) to End of Year (EOY). 
• Early Childhood Model (CIRCLE): The pre-K model will include additional subtests to measure growth on CIRCLE for early childhood Math and Literacy courses. District cut points – set based on student growth expectations – will be used to determine an individual student’s growth.

To determine a teacher’s percentage of students that meet or exceed expected growth, all students attributed to the teacher for the course(s) that meet their growth goal will be divided by the total number of students attributed to the teacher for the course(s).

HISD Plans to Expand Opportunities to Earn Designation in the Future

HISD aims for all teacher categories to eventually be eligible to earn allotments. See eligibility guidance here. In future years, HISD plans to continue engaging teachers to identify fair and accurate student growth measures that meet the state’s TIA requirements for teacher categories not eligible for TIA in Phase 1. Teachers with the following assessment types will continue to have the current Student Progress measures in SY23-24 but will not be included in Phase 1 of TIA:

• Advanced Placement (AP)
• International Baccalaureate (IB)
• District Pre-Approved Assessments (DPA) 
• District Performance Assessment Tasks (DPAT)
• Appraiser-Approved Assessments (AAA) 
• Appraiser-Approved Performance Tasks (AAPT)

Please reach out to TIA@houstonisd.org with any questions or concerns.