This school year, Dallas ISD will receive a $28 million funding allocation for its teacher strategic compensation program from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Dallas ISD was named one of only 26 districts statewide to receive approval for participation in Cohort A of the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA), which passed under House Bill 3 (HB3) in June 2019.
HB3 established an optional TIA to achieve six-figure salaries for teachers who prioritize instruction in high-needs areas and rural district campuses. Under the TIA, approved districts may submit highly effective teachers for a state designation of Recognized, Exemplary, or Master, based on their performance and impact of student growth.
Dallas ISD’s Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) system met the criteria and administrators proposed a crosswalk between TEI Effectiveness Levels and TIA Designations with no modifications to the existing TEI processes. As a result, nearly 2,800 Dallas ISD teachers will be designated for state recognition.
Since 2015, the TEI merit-pay system rewards its highest-performing teachers with increased compensation, however, the TIA allotment means more teachers will have a greater opportunity to earn more. For example, the Proficient I compensation level is now $64,000, an 8.5 percent increase over last school year. Now, teachers with as little as three years of service have access to a salary level equivalent of a teacher with 25 or more years of service, in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
TIA funds will serve to strengthen and sustain the district’s existing TEI compensation system by ensuring a market-competitive base salary at all experience and effectiveness levels. Also, the district will leverage the allowance to expand equitable access to highly effective teachers at High-Priority and ACE campuses, where Distinguished (“Designated”) teachers may earn up to an additional $18,000 in stipends annually. As a result of TEI compensation and additional stipends by campus assignment, highly effective teachers in Dallas now have a more defined path to a six-figure salary, without having to leave the classroom.
Teachers who have earned the “Designated” status will receive a notification from Dallas ISD’s Human Capital Management department in the coming weeks.
