TIA FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions about the Teacher Incentive Allotment

1. Why is Crandall ISD applying for the Teacher Incentive Allotment?

As a school district, we want to reward highly effective teachers who get results. It is essential that we ensure our students are learning from excellent teachers who are doing amazing things and experiencing better-than-average growth. We believe it is important to provide the opportunity for highly effective teachers to earn more without having to leave the classroom.

2. How Does TIA Work?

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

3. TIA Eligibility

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

Crandall ISD’s TIA Committee will develop a plan to determine which teaching assignments will participate initially and in future years. 

4. TIA Teacher Effectiveness Criteria

Based on TIA requirements, the evaluation criteria must include both a teacher observation and a student performance component. While we will create our own process for assessing observations and student performance, the state has established a set of guidelines for measuring exceptional effectiveness that we must adhere to.

5. Designations and Performance Incentives

The idea of using multiple criteria to measure teacher effectiveness, e.g. observations and student growth, is referred to as the use of multiple measures. For every TIA eligible teacher we will track progress against these measures over the course of 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.

• Over the course of the school year TIA eligible teachers will receive multiple T-TESS observations and follow standardized student assessment protocols.  

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

• Teachers may receive performance-based incentives based on their designation. The designation details and funding allocation have yet to be determined. Teachers will be engaged exploring implementation options for both. Refer to this tool from TIA Texas to determine how much each Crandall ISD campus is eligible to receive. Note that the final amount actually allocated to each campus depends on a number of variables

6. TIA Timeline and Process

The work we are undertaking to secure TIA funding for the district is a multi-year process. TIA Texas established a rolling application process, whereby districts can apply in one of many cohorts. Crandall ISD is initially applying in Cohort F. The high-level timeline and for our application and designations is noted below and could be subject to change:

Cohort F:

• System Application Posted: Nov. 1, 2022

• System Application due to TEA (no fee required for submission): April 15, 2023

• System Application Result Final Notification: August 15, 2023

• Data-Capture Year for Applicable Teaching Assignments: 2023-2024

• Data Review due to Texas Tech University (data processing fee required for each teacher put forth for designation): Fall 2024

• Final Approval Notification: Spring 2025

• Final Designation and Allotment Notification: May-June 2025

• Initial Payout with Reimbursements for Approved Systems: August 2025

7. TIA Activities Happening This School Year (2022 - 2023)

When it comes to TIA, this school year will be focused on gathering stakeholder input and feedback to inform the design of our TIA Designation System. While TIA Texas has set a number of strict requirements, we have an opportunity to customize the TIA program so that it matches the culture, goals and needs of Crandall ISD. A few of our current plans for stakeholder engagement are described in the next question. The application we submit in April 2023 will reflect the preferences and priorities of Crandall ISD teachers and leaders.

8. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication in Crandall ISD

Best practices indicate that including teachers, campus leaders, district leaders, and community members in planning and reviewing a local teacher designation system results in a stronger system with more buy-in. In addition, school board input and approval are recommended. The committee members will be responsible for seeking input from the groups they represent and sharing communication to/from the committee.

A TIA Committee will prepare and review the stakeholder feedback and will take a deep dive and seek feedback on the TIA classroom observation model, student growth measures, designations and scoring to make decisions based on the feedback.