Teacher Incentive Allotment 

The Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) is a program that provides top-performing teachers an accessible pathway to a six-figure salary without having to leave the classroom. When a teacher earns a designation through their district’s local designation system, or holds a National Board Certification, the designated teacher generates extra funding for their district. 

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.

In order for a teacher to be eligible for the TIA, he or she 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.

The Liberty Hill ISD TIA Committee identified the following teacher groups to be eligible for the initial TIA designations; K - 8th Grade Reading/Math Teachers, Algebra I Teachers and English I and II Teachers.

TIA requires districts to submit data with value added measures (examples include: STAAR scores, EOC scores, iStation, MAP scores) 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 for the 2024-25 school year:

• K - 8th Grade Reading/Math Teachers 

• Algebra I Teachers

• English I and II Teachers

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.

There are two required measures that must be used as part of the locally designed Teacher Designation System:

1. T-TESS 

2. Classroom Student Growth Measures 

Texas school districts must use at least 90 percent of each allotment for compensation of teachers employed at the campus at which the teacher for whom the district received the allotment is employed. The remaining 10% of funds can be retained at the district level and used for costs associated with administration of the locally designed designation system.

For each classroom teacher with a teacher designation under TEC Section 21.3521 employed by a school district, the school district is entitled to an allotment equal to the following applicable base amount increased by the high needs and rural factor as determined below:

1. $3,000, or an increased amount not to exceed $9,000, for each Recognized Teacher.

2. $6,000, or an increased amount not to exceed $18,000, for each Exemplary Teacher; and

3. $12,000, or an increased amount not to exceed $32,000, for each Master Teacher;

The funding is added to the teachers SBEC certification and is valid for five years.

Question & Answer

For Kinder and First grade, should small group administration for monthly ISIPs be given every month or just for the BOY, MOY, and EOY administrations?

For Kinder and First grade, students should administer ISIP in small groups for BOY, MOY and EOY.  The expectation is not to give in small groups every month.

Can intervention teachers help administer ISIP and or MAP Growth to help alleviate the time teachers are spending for small group assessment? 

Yes, we are supportive of this practice.

Can students take the ISIP at home? 

No, students should take the ISIP each month at school following the Norms and Protocols.

Is it okay for teachers to give the ISIP in August?

Yes, this is an option.  However, the September ISIP will be the score that is counted for the BOY Screener for TIA and be compared to the EOY Screener for student growth.

What happens if a student starts a grade level in one class and ends in another due to withdrawing and re-enrolling?

Growth measures for students will count in TIA calculations if the student is on the same teacher’s roster for Fall PEIMS snapshot (end of Oct) and on the roster for the EOY assessment in May. 

Is there a protocol around the time given to take assessments?

Teacher will create a dedicated testing environment and schedule a 55-minute time block for MAP Growth (MAP Assessment takes estimated 45-55 minutes)

Teacher will create a dedicated testing environment and schedule a 45-minute time block (ISIP takes about 30 minutes)

Will self-contained teachers be accountable for BOTH MAP and ISIP growth to be eligible for TIA?

K-3 self-contained teachers’ scores from both MAP Growth and iStation create their composite score for TIA.

For a teacher to receive TIA funds, what percentage of her class needs to show growth on MAP?

Please refer to the TIA Handbook (linked on website)  pg 11-13.

When it comes to TIA, has there been a final answer to whether we are looking at student growth only in homeroom or in all classes?

TIA will look at student growth in all classes. For example, if you are teaching a triad in RLA, TIA is pulling student growth data from all three RLA classes. 

When is the EOY ISIP? 

The EOY ISIP will be May 5-16. The updated LHISD Assessment Calendar 24-25 is linked on the LHISD Universal Screener Website.

Does the student's ORF score affect TIA?

ORF and Text Fluency are not included in the overall score. 

Is there a way for a teacher to see projected growth for her class as a whole (not just individual students)?

MAP Growth Projections are unique to individual students and are not “blanket” projections. MAP takes into consideration the grade, instructional weeks, test, AND starting RIT score. These are student norms. 

Will TIA include all students if we are departmentalized or just our homeroom? 

Teachers will have student growth calculated for all students who they teach directly. (ex. I teach 2 blocks of Math, then scores for all students in both blocks will count for TIA growth purposes.)

Do I have to track my own data for the TIA process?

No.  The data will be tracked at the district level.

If I earn my National Board Certification, will I get a stipend for being certified AND also be eligible for the TIA allotment?

Teachers may only earn either TIA allotment or National Board Certification allotment…not both.

Is the ISIP timed? Does iStation recommend turning this feature off and allowing students unlimited time? 

Yes it is timed for K-8. iStation does not recommend turning off the timer. The program is set up to challenge students in reaching grade level readiness. The purpose of the ISIP screener is to measure growth and not achievement so each student's results will reflect how they are growing their literacy skills throughout the school year.

Is Istation/ISIP considered a District Assessment?  

No, Istation/ISIP is considered a Universal Screener. Istation/ISIP is not graded. The objective of our LHISD universal screening tools is to assess preparedness for grade-level instruction, identify students who may be at risk of encountering difficulties with core lessons, ascertain the necessity and level of intensity of required interventions, and continuously monitor and trace progress over time. iStation’s purpose as a universal screener is to assess and report student ability in the critical domains of reading.  

If the student times out, will the student have to start over on the same ISIP the next time they log in?

When the student times out, this will offer teachers real-time actionable data to understand the child's strengths and areas of need. When the child logs into Istation again, during the remaining days of that given month, they will be sent into an individualized learning path where our computer adaptive programming will meet the child where they are and provide scaffolds and support to master skills needed. The following month, when students take the assessment again, it will gauge the child's abilities by adapting the rigor of the questions dependent upon their answers. It will not start where they left off. For example, the ISIP assessment will begin with easier questions and or skills practice. As a child answers correctly, the rigor increases. If the child gets an answer wrong, the rigor decreases. Once the program gathers enough data from the child, the assessment will come to an end and teachers will have updated data on the child's strengths and areas of need. This data is great for progress monitoring their growth.

If the student is timed out on the ISIP, will the data still reflect the student's results on that ISIP?

Yes, it will identify strengths and areas of need through the Priority Report where Istation lessons are recommended for one-to-one or small group interventions. 

Can the timed feature of Istation/ISIP be turned off? 

Yes, the timed feature on Istation/ISIP can be turned off for students requiring extended time per their IEP or 504 plan.  ARD and 504 committees should consider the impact of turning off the timed feature of Istation / ISIP and make the best decision for the individual student.  The committees should consider the impact to the intervention and the data obtained when deciding if the timed feature of Istation / ISIP.  The ARD or 504 committee should document in the plan if the decision is to turn off the timed feature.