Texas Educator Excellence Grant Program
Starting with the 2006-07 school year, TEA began administering a teacher incentive pay grant program that is available to educators in high-performing or improving schools that have been ranked in the top half of schools with the highest percentages of economically disadvantaged students. Under the program, a campus-level decision-making body must develop a campus incentive plan that is designed to reward teachers who have a positive impact on improving student achievement. A district-level decision-making body must approve the campus incentive plan before it is submitted to TEA for approval, along with evidence of significant teacher involvement in development of the plan.

Of the funds awarded, 75 percent must go to teachers who demonstrate success in improving student achievement using objective, quantifiable measures, such as local benchmarking systems, portfolio assessments, end-of-course assessments, and value-added instruments, and who successfully collaborate with other faculty/staff in contributing to overall student achievement. The remaining 25 percent of the funds must be used for incentive payments to campus employees other than teachers who have contributed to improved student achievement, professional development for teachers, signing bonuses for teachers new to the campus who are teaching in subject shortage areas, teacher mentoring and teacher induction programs, common planning time and curriculum development, proven teacher recruitment/retention programs, activities that further the goal of an incentive system to improve student achievement, stipends for teachers who participate in an after-school or Saturday program, who are certified in the main subject area in which they teach, or who hold a post-graduate degree, additional funding for feeder campuses that are not assigned performance ratings (such as kindergarten–grade 2), and/or any other program that directly contributes to improved student achievement.

District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE)
A second incentive pay grant program is open to all campuses and will be fully implemented in the 2008-09 school year. Under this 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. 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 who effectively improve student achievement as determined by meaningful, objective measures. The remaining 40 percent must be used to provide 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, stipends for teachers holding post-graduate degrees, awards to principals who effectively increase student performance, awards to other campus employees who demonstrate excellence, or funding for implementing components of a Teacher Advancement Program.

Both incentive programs are required to be evaluated by TEA or a third party, including a description of the design and implementation of the programs, 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.

Web posted:  08/01/08