Teacher Incentive Allotment
What is the Teacher Incentive Allotment?
Recognition and Reward for Excellence in Teaching
The Texas Legislature created the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) as part of House Bill 3 to provide a realistic pathway for top-performing teachers to earn higher salaries and help retain and attract highly effective teachers.
Dawson ISD will submit our initial TIA application in April 2026. DISD will work with stakeholders to develop the local designation system to be approved by the Texas Education Agency. If Dawson ISD’s application is approved, the district will spend the 2026-2027 school year gathering eligible teacher performance and student growth data to submit to Texas Tech University, TEA's partner in this statewide project. By Spring 2028, TEA will notify Dawson ISD of the final designation and allotment to be distributed to designated teachers.
The amount of increased compensation available to each teacher depends on a formula determined at the state level, which also considers the number of economically disadvantaged students. Once created, the DISD spending plan will detail how the dollars will be distributed. You can learn more at tiatexas.org.
TIA FAQs
- Why is Dawson ISD applying for the Teacher Incentive Allotment?
As a school district, we want to reward highly effective teachers who get results. We must ensure our students learn from excellent teachers who do extraordinary things and experience better-than-average growth. Allowing highly effective teachers to earn more without leaving the classroom is essential to DISD's success.
- 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 district's most effective teachers can earn additional compensation and that the District will carve out a growth trajectory for developing teachers who aim for the same goal.
- TIA Eligibility
Per Public Education Information, the teacher must be coded 087 (Teacher) at a minimum. DISD’s TIA plan will develop a plan to determine which teaching assignments will be participated in.
- TIA Teacher Effectiveness Criteria
Based on TIA requirements, the evaluation criteria must include teacher observation and student growth components. While we will create our process for assessing observations and student growth, the state has established guidelines for measuring exceptional effectiveness that we must adhere to.
- Designations and Performance Incentives
We will use multiple criteria to measure teacher effectiveness, such as observations and student growth. For every TIA-eligible teacher, we will track progress against these measures over 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.
- During the school year, TIA-eligible teachers will receive multiple T-TESS observations and follow student assessment administration protocols.
- When a full year of data, e.g., T-TESS observations and student growth scores, has been collected, that information will be used to calculate a composite score for each eligible teacher. Each teacher will be assigned a potential designation based on the composite score if they meet the criteria.
- 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 in exploring implementation options for both.
- TIA Timeline and Process
We are undertaking a multi-year process to secure TIA funding for the district. TIA Texas established a rolling application process whereby districts can apply every year. Dawson ISD will initially be applying in April 2026. The high-level timeline for our application and designations is noted below and could be subject to change:
- System Application due to TEA: April 2026
- System Application Result Final Notification: May or August 2026
- Data-Capture Year for Applicable Teaching Assignments: 2026-2027
- Data Review due to Texas Tech University (data processing fee required for each teacher put forth for designation): Fall 2027
- Final Approval Notification: Spring 2028
- Final Designation and Allotment Notification: May-June 2028
- Initial Payout with Reimbursements for Approved Systems: August 2028