Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment Program Expands, Emphasizing Local Control in Teacher Pay
Texas's Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program has significantly expanded for the 2026-27 school year, now including four levels of designations for teachers based on performance. This program, modeled after Dallas ISD’s Teacher Excellence Initiative, aims to provide a pathway for effective teachers to earn higher salaries without leaving the classroom. While the state sets statewide performance standards, districts maintain flexibility in designing their local teacher evaluation systems. These systems must include a teacher observation measure (either the state's T-TESS framework or a locally developed rubric) and a student growth measure. Districts can also incorporate optional components like student surveys. The state ensures the validity of these locally designed systems through an independent multi-measure validation process conducted by Texas Tech University. For the 2025-26 school year, over $750 million in allotment funds were awarded to TIA-designated districts, with over 1,000 districts expec...
