T-TESS and TIA

Understanding the T-TESS Role

Once a teacher is in an eligible teaching category in the local designation plan, they  will be included in the data capture year.  The data must be validated for the system to be approved before teachers are able to obtain TIA funds. In order to be eligible for a designation, teachers will be required to have a minimum of one full observation  and have student growth data.  The cutpoints for these will be set by the district.  The goal of including T-TESS as a component of TIA is to promote both teacher and student growth. Every teacher who is in an eligible teaching assignment for their local designation system will have a minimum of a full observation annually. 

What's Observed?

Dimension scores for Domains 2 and 3 are used in data validation process.  Districts may opt to use scores for Domains 1 and 4 in their optional component category.  

Domain 2

Think of this as your interactions with students, behavior monitoring, expectations, and arrangement of physical classroom space. 

Domain 3

This section includes explanation of the content, student participation, quality of student engagement, the structure of the lesson, and monitoring and feedback. 

What is the T-TESS best practice?

Teachers authentically engage in reflection about current professional practices, identify professional growth goals, establish and implement a professional development plan to attain those goals, and track progress toward the goals over the course of the year. 


Being an active participant in your T-TESS process is essential to professional growth. Make sure you are looking at the full rubric to identify areas for growth and reflection along the way.