The TEA provides districts some flexibility in determining how to disburse TIA funding. In October 2022, more than 500 teachers and school staff provided feedback through our district-wide survey on how HISD should allocate TIA funding. While respondents were divided on many questions, nearly 70% of teachers who responded said that non-designated teachers should receive some portion of the allocation. Results from a previous survey, administered to more than 1,000 HISD staff in Spring 2021, also suggested teachers want non-designated staff to receive some portion of the allocation. In our most recent survey, 64% of respondents also supported differentiating funding at higher-need schools. HISD leadership relied on these findings to inform final decisions for the district’s spending plan.

In November 2022, the HISD Talent Office hosted three feedback sessions to gather more detailed opinions from teachers and school leaders on the TIA design process. Key takeaways from the sessions included:

• Phase 1 eligibility: Participants generally supported including teachers with designated assessments at all campuses in Phase 1 of TIA in 2023-2024 to increase the number of teachers reached by TIA during early implementation.
• Student growth measures: Teachers were interested in continued sharing of information, including more specifics about how student growth will be calculated and who will be eligible during Phase 1.
• Student feedback surveys: Teachers described the experience of implementing the student feedback survey and wanted access to their SFS data from this fall’s administration. These data will be made available in January 2023.
• T-TESS: Teachers indicated wanting additional calibration opportunities. Pre- and post-conferences have been extremely helpful to teachers.

HISD has decided that eligible teachers at all campuses will be included in Phase 1 in 2023-2024. This exciting development, based partly on teacher and administrator feedback, means many more teachers and campuses will be eligible to earn designation earlier in the process.

Under TIA, districts are required to include SGMs in teachers’ evaluations. Student growth is the component of the teacher evaluation system that measures growth in student learning rather than overall achievement, with the goal of rewarding teachers who contribute to significant student growth, even if achievement is lower than average. HISD currently uses student growth measures in appraisals. HISD has built from current district practices to align to statutory requirements so that teachers can access state funds. Key updates include:

• TIA requires individual student growth data. The district will no longer be able to use comparative growth as currently calculated because it does not reflect individual student growth. As an alternative, HISD has developed the Houston Growth Measure to meet the requirements of TIA.
  • This model measures growth by whether a student’s percentile rank is “at or above” or “below” the median percentile rank for their cohort.
  • The HGM is calculated in-house and uses a very similar methodology to comparative growth. HISD’s Research and Accountability team has been testing the model to ensure it is fair, equitable, and produces a similar distribution to comparative growth.
• Designated assessments in Phase 1 were selected based on their alignment with TEA requirements, rigor, and availability of required pre-test data.
• As the district works to expand eligibility, additional assessments will be phased in to ensure all HISD teachers are ultimately eligible to earn designation.

To reinforce HISD’s interest in supporting a culture of collaboration among staff on a campus, the district has opted to pursue a shared compensation model that rewards both designated and non-designated teachers and teaching assistants for contributing to their colleagues’ success. HISD will disburse TIA funds as follows:

• 70% will go to the designated teacher.
• 20% will be shared among all non-designated teachers and teaching assistants at the campus.
• 10% will be used by the district to cover administrative costs associated with TIA implementation, as aligned with TEA statute, and to cover some of employees’ TRS costs.

Thank you for all of your work and engagement. Please reach out to TIA@houstonisd.org with any questions or concerns.