ODESSA, Texas — The second time around for the Teacher Incentive Allotment saw ECISD more than double the number of teachers and the amount of money received compared to last year.
258 ECISD teachers earned more than $2.4 million in incentives. This is a significant increase from the 120 teachers and $879,000 received by the district a year ago.
The 258 teachers represent 38 ECISD schools, and their individual awards ranged from $3,351 to $20,328. In ECISD, five teachers earned more than $20,000 and seven earned more than $19,000.
Friday morning, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Scott Muri hosted an ECISD Live broadcast and media event at Wilson & Young Medal of Honor Middle School where eleven teachers, the most of any ECISD middle school, were surprised with their awards.
The Teacher Incentive Allotment was created by the Texas Legislature in 2019, as part of House Bill 3, to provide a realistic pathway for top teachers to earn six-figure salaries and to help attract and retain highly effective teachers at traditionally hard-to-staff schools.
The allotment amount per teacher is based on the level of academic growth their students had, teacher instructional performance, and the percentage of socio-economically disadvantaged students at their school.
There are three levels for which a teacher in Texas can qualify: Recognized, Exemplary and Master.
In ECISD, 105 teachers are Recognized (up from 64 a year ago), 110 are Exemplary (up from 50 a year ago), and 43 are at the Master level (up from 6 a year ago).
One of those teachers is Sara Cox, a math teacher and multi-classroom leader at Wilson & Young MS. “I was surprised I hit Masters and I was just really proud of that,” said Sara. “It’s the culmination of having a really great team when I was in elementary and this year. I have an amazing team and I have an amazing group of kids.”
Not only does a qualifying teacher receive the TIA incentive dollars, they also have the Recognized, Exemplary or Master designation placed on their teaching certificate. The designation remains in place for five years.
Following the press conference, Dr. Muri visited ten more schools and presented the checks to more than 100 teachers.
ECISD began the TIA application process in 2019. The teacher’s data is collected one year, then verified by Texas Tech University and reviewed by the Texas Education Agency. The monetary awards are then dispersed the following year. In this second year of TIA payouts, eligible ECISD teachers are Kindergarten through 8th grade English Language Arts; Math, English I, English II, and Algebra I; PreK-4; and 3rd grade through 8th grade Science. ECISD adds additional subjects to eligibility each year.
Read more about Teacher Incentive Allotment in ECISD at https://www.ectorcountyisd.org/domain/1039 and more from the state at https://tiatexas.org/. The complete list of TIA recipients can be found at www.ectorcountyisd.org.