State incentives kick in to reward and retain highest-rated teachers
In the 15 years she has taught in her native Galveston ISD, Diana Mitchell distinguished herself as one of the island’s best educators but never saw her salary rise much — until this week.
Mitchell, Galveston’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 2017-18, learned she would receive a lifechanging pay increase of $27,250 under a new initiative aimed at rewarding Texas’ highest-rated educators. The extra money will bring her compensation up to nearly $90,000, helping her family of seven afford a down payment on their “forever home” after living in rentals for the past few years.
“I get chills just thinking about it,” said Mitchell, a fourth-grade bilingual reading teacher at Morgan Elementary Magnet School. “I’m still kind of almost like, ‘Is this real?’”
Thousands of Texas teachers across 26 public school districts — including five in the Houston area — will see some of the biggest raises of their careers this year, as the state begins rolling out a landmark program designed to keep the best educators in the classroom.
Texas education officials announced the districts will receive a combined $39.2 million in extra state funding this year. The vast majority of the money will go to nearly 3,650 teachers who scored the best on district-created and
state-approved evaluation systems.
About 5 percent to 10 percent of teachers in four Houston-area districts — Galveston ISD, Harmony Science Academy, Harmony School of Science-Houston and YES Prep Public Schools — will see pay increases from the initiative. Klein ISD, which is piloting the program at one school this year, will reward four teachers.
“We know that retaining highly effective teachers is what’s best for our community and our students,” said Harmony Public Schools CEO Fatih Ay. “We hate to see them leave the classroom so they can get the salary they deserve.”
The initiative aims to identify the state’s top teachers — often using a combination of administrator evaluations, student growth measures and other metrics — and give them annual bonuses. Each highly-rated teacher generates $3,000 to $32,000 for their district, depending on their rating and income level in the neighborhood surrounding their school, annually for five consecutive years.learning
Under state law, districts must spend at least 90 percent of the funds on teacher pay at the campus where the high-scoring educator works. Many districts are choosing to give 90 to 100 percent of the money generated directly to the highly-rated teacher.
Nearly all of the Houston area’s largest districts have signaled their interest in participating in the Teacher Incentive Allotment, though most would not receive approval and begin paying out bonuses until 2023-24 at the earliest.
State legislators built the payfor-performance increases into their 2019 overhaul of Texas’
“We know that retaining highly effective teachers is what’s best for our community and our students.”
Fatih Ay, Harmony Public Schools CEO
school finance system, which also provided across-the-board teacher raises that generally ranged from 3 percent to 8 percent.
Supporters of the incentive system argue it will increase interest in teaching, modernize education compensation and allow educators to remain in the classroom longer.
Public school districts generally tie salary to years of experience, with relatively meager differences in pay. In the Houston area’s largest districts, new teachers generally earned base salaries of about $55,000 in 2019-20, while educators with 10 years of experience made about $60,000 and those with 20 years of experience notched about $65,000.
“After maybe my third year of teaching, of putting in a lot of time and effort, I definitely felt like I deserved something that reflected the work I was putting in,” said Jannah Morales, who will earn an extra $22,800 headed into her fifth year at Harmony School of Science-Houston , raising her pay to about $75,000. “I’m definitely happy to see hardworking teachers being recognized.”
While the 2019 school finance reform legislation unanimously passed the Texas House and Senate, pay-for-performance systems historically have drawn criticism, often from teachers unions.
Opponents argue that teacher evaluation tools can produce unfair and invalid results, while also encouraging educators to “teach to the test.” Districts participating in the Teacher Incentive Allotment must use “student growth” as part of their evaluation system, which can be measured by state standardized tests, known as STAAR, or other state-approved assessments.
Information released by TEA officials last month offers the first window into how the Teacher Incentive Allotment may work in the coming years.
Most of the participating districts relied on observation-based evaluations, such as district administrators watching teachers in action, and student growth measures to grade their teachers. In Galveston, half of a teacher’s rating was based on scores from TTESS, a commonly-used observational rubric, and half was tied to student improvement on district administered tests.
Many districts will see a small fraction of their teachers honored this year, generally 2 percent to 10 percent. However, about a quarter of the teachers will generate incentive funds in Dallas ISD, where the district has employed an evaluation and incentive pay model for the past six years.
Grace Wu, director of strategic compensation for the Texas Education Agency, said state officials built an internal model using STAAR scores that helps them review whether a district’s evaluation model is overly generous to its teachers.
“The purpose of the data validation piece is to ensure the teachers you put forth aren’t just the best in your district, but also the best in the state,” Wu said.
The long-term outlook on the Teacher Incentive Allotment remains cloudy, giving administrators and teachers pause.
State education leaders speak glowingly about the initiative, but COVID-19 and the downturn in oil prices threaten to bruise the state’s budget in 2021 and beyond. As more districts receive approval, the Teacher Incentive Allotment price tag could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mitchell said she plans to enjoy her pay bump for as long as it lasts, aware of the possibility that it could be temporary.
“I’m going to take it year-byyear,” Mitchell said. “And if it’s there, what a blessing.”