Texas Educator Excellence Grant Program (TEEG) program eliminated
New legislation passed during the 2009 session eliminates the TEEG program, which was available to educators having a positive impact on student achievement in high-performing or improving schools ranked in the top half of schools with the highest percentages of economically disadvantaged students. Funding for the TEEG program was rolled into an existing second incentive pay grant program open to all school districts - the District Awards for Teacher Excellence.

District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE)
Under the DATE program, the district-level committee develops the plan, and a majority of classroom teachers assigned to a campus selected to participate in the plan must approve participation to be included in the local plan. A local awards plan must provide for teachers and principals eligible to receive awards to be notified of the specific criteria and any formulas on which the awards will be based before the beginning of the period on which the awards will be based. The district must submit the plan to TEA for approval, along with evidence of significant teacher involvement in development of the plan.

Of the funds awarded, 60 percent must be used to directly reward teachers and principals who effectively improve student achievement as determined by meaningful, objective measures. The remaining 40 percent must be used to provide teacher induction and mentoring support, including stipends to mentors or teacher coaches, stipends for subject shortage certification, stipends for teachers who are certified in the main subject they teach, stipends for assignment to hard-to-staff schools, awards to other campus employees who demonstrate excellence, funding for implementing components of a Teacher Advancement Program, funding for previously developed incentive programs, or stipends for teachers holding certificates issued by certain nationwide credentialing organizations.

The incentive program must be evaluated by TEA or a third party, including a description of the design and implementation of the program; detailed information regarding the distribution of awards to teachers; comprehensive; quantitative analysis of the impact of the awards; and a summary of approaches used by campuses/districts in distributing remaining funds not reserved for classroom teachers.

Updated:  08/28/09