FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth school district has opted into an incentive program that could boost teachers’ pay based on student performance.
The program, which was introduced in 2019’s House Bill 3 as a part of a massive overhaul of the public school finance system, is set to roll out in 2023. Incentives are based on classroom observations and student growth in their performance on a standardized test.
Districts can choose which exam, including the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, to determine its eligibility guidelines. The Fort Worth school district plans to use tests by Northwest Evaluation Association, administered three times a year, instead of the annual STAAR tests.
Besides testing and classroom observations, the teacher incentive allotment (TIA) — funded entirely by the state — also considers whether an educator works at a campus serving economically disadvantaged students or a more rural school. Depending on those factors, a teacher could receive even more money.
The TIA is designed to help FWISD and other school systems in Texas recruit, retain and reward highly effective teachers, the district’s website says.
“We are truly excited to share details of this plan, which will result in monetary recognition for teachers who are making an impact on student achievement,” Superintendent Kent P. Scribner said in a statement. “It is long overdue that we reward excellence in the profession of education. This will be a phased-in process but the importance of this beginning step cannot be overstated.”
Under the program, teachers will earn one of three designations from the Texas Education Agency, and that title will stay with them even if a teacher changes districts.
The highest classification — and the one that would earn the highest amount of incentive dollars — is master. Teachers with that label could earn an additional $12,000-$32,000. An “exemplary" teacher would be eligible for an additional $6,000-$18,000, and a “recognized” teacher could see between $3,000 and $9,000.
The average base pay for a Fort Worth ISD teacher is $62,422, excluding bonuses, such as those offered to teachers who hold additional degrees.
Fort Worth ISD will spend the next five years rolling out the incentive program to teachers. During the upcoming 2021-22 school year, the district is set to collect data to determine which teachers will receive a designation. That information will then be sent to Texas Tech University to be validated.
After that, the university will give the district a list of teachers who met the designation criteria.
The first eligible batch will be third- to eighth-grade math and reading teachers. That group could have their designations by the spring 2023 and earn their first payout when the 2023-24 school year begins in August of that year. More groups of teachers will be added annually.