Question: Why is Palmer ISD applying for the Teacher Incentive Allotment?

Answer: As a school district, we want to reward highly effective teachers who get results. We must ensure our students learn from excellent teachers who are doing amazing things and experiencing better-than-average growth. Allowing highly effective teachers to earn more without leaving the classroom is essential to PISD's success.

Question: How Does TIA Work?

Answer: TIA is a performance-pay teacher evaluation system that may award additional compensation to teachers based on predetermined effectiveness criteria. This means that the district's most effective teachers have an opportunity to earn additional compensation and that the District will carve out a growth trajectory for developing teachers who aim for the same goal.

Question: Who is eligible for TIA?

Answer: At a minimum, the teacher must be coded 087 (Teacher) per Public Education Information.

PISD’s TIA Committee outlined which teaching positions and the eligibility criteria in our TIA Guidebook. 

Question: What are the criteria for TIA Teacher Effectiveness?

Answer: Based on TIA requirements, the evaluation criteria must include teacher observation and student growth components. While we will create our process for assessing observations and student growth, the state has established guidelines for measuring exceptional effectiveness that we must adhere to.

Question: What are the designations and performance incentives for TIA?

Answer: 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 student assessment administration protocols.  

• When a full year of data, e.g., T-TESS observations and student growth scores, has been collected, that information will be used to calculate a composite score for each eligible teacher. If they meet the criteria, each teacher will be assigned a potential designation based on the composite score. 

• Teachers may receive performance-based incentives based on their designation following the criteria in our spending plan. 

Question: What is the TIA timeline and process?

Answer: 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. Palmer ISD is 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: 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

Question: What are the TIA Activities Happening This School Year (2024 - 2025)?

Answer: 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 PISD teachers and leaders.