Ballinger ISD TIA Teacher Performance

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?

Ballinger ISD uses T-TESS to evaluate teacher performance. Domain 2 (Instruction) and Domain 3 (Learning Environment) have been established as priority areas of emphasis by TIA. Based on statewide observations data, TEA has also identified minimum score averages as measured across both domains of T-TESS. More information can be found in TEA's Teacher Observation Performance Standards document. 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

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

Domain 3

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

What is 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.

Find the full T-TESS Rubric here.

Teacher Observation Performance Minimums

To be eligible for a TIA designation, teachers must earn a minimum teacher observation performance outcome. Based on statewide performance expectations, TEA established minimum expectations for teacher observation performance. More information can be found on TEA's Student Growth Performance Standards document.

Ballinger ISD T-TESS Evaluation Criteria

The T-TESS total score is 40% of the TIA score to determine designation. Data is collected formally as outlined below:

Formal T-TESS Appraisal

All probationary and term contract teachers will have one (1) formal forty-five (45) minute observation annually scheduled by the appraiser.

All teachers will receive a written annual appraisal report provided to the teacher no later than fifteen (15) days prior to the last day of instruction for students.

T-TESS Walkthrough

All probationary and term contract teachers are required to have a minimum of one (1) documented walkthrough (scored) per semester. A walkthrough will consist of at least 15 minutes in length.

Additional documented walkthroughs and/or informal observations may be conducted at the discretion of the appraiser or other supervisors.

T-TESS Domain/Dimension Scoring

Each dimension is scored on a 1-5 point scale as displayed in the below T-TESS Scoring chart. Domain 2 and 3 total score is determined by calculating the average of all dimensions across Domains 2 and 3 from a teacher's walthroughs and observation score. This information will be exported from Eduphoria.

To be eligible, teachers must earn a 3.5 or above in Domains 2 and 3 and have no component with a score lower than 3 on the T-TESS walkthroughs or observation.

T-TESS Scoring (1-5 point scale)

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