Texas Educator Excellence Award Programs

1. Texas Educator Excellence Award Programs Texas Education Service Centers Fall 2007 Rita Ghazal, Program Manager Jerel Booker, Program Manager Priscilla Aquino, Program Specialist Office of Education Initiatives

2. Educator Excellence Award Programs • Governor’s Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG), Executive Order, RP51 • Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG), Chapter 21, Subchapter N, § 21.651 • District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE), Chapter 21, Subchapter O, § 21.701

3. Educator Excellence Award Programs: Purpose All educator award programs are designed to: • provide a financial award system to educators who impact student achievement. • provide broad guidelines for local control.

4. Educator Excellence Award Programs: Purpose Continued • allow teachers to have significant input in program planning for incentives. • recognize and award educational practices that contribute to student success.

5. District Awards for Teacher ExcellenceCreated by House Bill 1, Article IV79th Legislature, 3rd Special Session, 2006

6. DATE Program Purpose To provide funding to support the establishment of district-wide goals and the implementation of a financial award system designed to: • award teachers for positively impacting student achievement;

7. DATE Program PurposeContinued • target the district’s most in-need campuses to improve teacher quality; and • create capacity and sustainability for improved instruction within the district.

8. An Understanding of DATE • All districts are eligible to apply. • Districts with TEEG campuses can also apply for DATE. • This is a DISTRICT award. DISTRICTS make the decisions, not the TEA. • The TEA will provide a few requirements, guidance and technical assistance in order for districts to create effective and successful plans.

9. DATE Program Rules and Requirements Districts must: • submit a notice of intent to apply; • participate in the required technical assistance activities as established by the Commissioner and published in the RFA; • participate for at least two consecutive grant cycles, including budgeting for matching funds; • complete target activities as described by the established timelines set forth in the program requirements in the RFA;

10. DATE Program Rules and Requirements Continued Districts must: • develop a district award plan with goals to improve student academic improvement and/or growth; • create an awards system consistent with district goals that address Target Campuses; • establish performance measures consistent with district goals; and • provide matching funds of no less than 15% in year one, 25% in year two, and 35% in year three (cash or in kind). 

11. DATE Funding District grant award amounts will be based on each district’s average daily attendance (ADA) for the 2007-2008 school year calculated among the total number of districts opting into the grant program.   

12. District Award Plan • Districts will utilize their district-level planning and decision-making committee to develop a district award plan. • Award plans can be implemented for the entire district or specified Target Campuses selected by the district.

13. District Award Plan Continued A district award plan should: • reward eligible teachers who positively impact student academic improvement and/or growth, and • describe how all program funds will be distributed under Part I and Part II.

14. District Award PlanContinued • teacher and campus eligibility requirements and they should be consistent for no less than two years (i.e. the same types of teachers and campuses should be targeted); • meaningful, objective, goals and performance measures, consistent with the district improvement strategic plan, to award classroom teachers; and District award plans should identify:

15. District Award Plan Continued • performance measures for the success of the grant in their application. Districts will have two school years from the start of the first implementation year to meet selected performance targets. For each year thereafter, the participating district must meet increased performance targets. District award plans should identify:

16. District Award Plan Continued District award plan performance measures: • must incorporate improvement at the district and Target Campus level and the measure must relate to the criteria used to select the campuses as a Target Campus. • must relate (at least two) directly to student academic achievement or improvement. Other measures may relate to improved teacher attrition, migration, quality and other academic and non-academic indicators.

17. District Award Plan Continued • Part I and Part II contingency plans designed to redistribute any remaining un-awarded Part I and/or Part II program funds; and • plans for sustaining appropriate levels of fundingafter all grant funding has ended. District award plans should identify:

18. District Award Plan Continued • have their award plans approved by the school district superintendent and local school board prior to submitting it to the TEA; • conduct stakeholder meetings; and • make their award plan accessible to the public no later than the start of the 2008-2009 school year. Districts must:

19. District Award Plan Continued • If districts choose not to implement their award plans district-wide and choose to select certain campuses to participate, more than half of the selected campuses must be Target Campuses. • Districts may set criteria for establishing and identifying Target Campuses that are consistent with district goals and rules set by the commissioner.

20. DATE Target Campuses In identifying Target Campuses, districts must target campuses that meet at least two of the following criteria. The campus: • receives an academically unacceptable rating (2007 accountability ratings); or • performs lower than the district’s average proficiency on TAKS (by subject, grade, and/or campus to be determined by the district); or

21. DATE Target Campuses Continued • receives comparable improvement (CI) ratings in the bottom quartile relative to other campus types in the district; or • experiences above average dropout/non-completion rates relative to other campus types in the district; or

22. DATE Target Campuses Continued • ranks within the top quartile of campuses enrolling high percentages of economically disadvantaged students; and • in addition to adopting at least two of the measures above, districts may use other academic or non-academic indicators, such as experiencing high rates of teacher migration and attrition, free and reduced lunch student populations, etc.

23. DATE General Program Requirements Continued • If the district award plan is not implemented district-wide, participation of selected campuses in DATE must be approved by a majority of classroom teachers assigned to the selected campus through a simple majority vote.

24. DATE General Program Requirements Continued • At least 60 percent of the grant allocation must be used for Part I activities and up to 40 percent of the grant can be used for Part II activities

25. Part I Funds Part I Funds: • must make up at least 60 percent of the total district’s grant award. • must be used to incorporate meaningful, objective, goals and performance measures, used to identify which eligible teachers will receive awards. At least 50% of the criteria used must be quantifiable and address one or both of the following: • student academic improvement and/or • student growth.

26. Part I Funds Continued • Annual award amounts to teachers must be equal to or greater than $3,000 unless otherwise determined by the local school board, and minimum awards must be no less than $1,000 per teacher.

27. Part II Funds School districts can use up to 40 percent of the grant funds on other allowable activities, including stipends and awards for: • Recruitment and retention of teachers: • In critical shortage subject areas; • In subject areas with high percentages of out-of-field assignments; • Certified and teaching in their main subject area; and/or • With postgraduate degrees in their teaching area.

28. Part II Funds Continued • Career, mentor, and master teachers; • On-going applied professional growth; • Increasing local data capabilities to support instruction and accountability; • Awards for principals who increase student performance; and • Other campus employees who demonstrate excellence.

29. Phase I: Organization and Goal Setting

30. Phase I: Organization and Goal Setting Continued

31. Phase II: Plan Development

32. Phase III: Finalizing and Approving Plan

33. Phase III: Finalizing and Approving Plan Continued

34. Technical Assistance Goal:To provide districts with a technical assistance program that supports TEEG and DATE during planning years. Technical assistance will include: • prototypes of effective programs; • models for award differentiation; • guidance for creation and use of meaningful data at the individual teacher levels; • assistance on establishing meaningful award amounts; and • strategies and processes for effective communication and stakeholder engagement.

35. Modeling and Program Components Models and Program Components will be shared with grantees to best inform and guide plan development through: • training materials and resources for creation of effective incentive plans; • online learning modules; and • ongoing technical assistance

36. Data Capacity Building Data capacity building will occur to aid districts in using meaningful and objective measures by: • identifying performance-based assessments for use at the local level; • assisting districts in developing measures or systems of value-added improvement; and • assisting districts in creating capacity for effective data systems at the local level that support teacher incentive programs.

37. Outreach Research has shown that full stakeholder involvement is essential to award plan implementation. The outreach component will provide: • Professional development to school leaders and board members in communications and stakeholder engagement strategies.

38. Writing/Setting Performance Measures

39. Performance Measures Performance Measures: • establish specific targets to determine whether or not a goal was successfully achieved. • are instructions about what someone must do. • use verbs and include specific conditions (how well or how many) that describe to what degree the individual will be able to demonstrate mastery of the specified goal.

40. Quality Performance Measures Quality performance measures state desired: • Skills; • Conditions; • Behaviors; • Criteria; and • Clarify expectations—how many, to what degree, under what conditions, etc., the individual is clear about what is expected.

41. Measurable Time bound Specific Meaningful Realistic Assigned Based on the daily responsibilities of the staff position Related to improved student achievement and the success of the campus Quality Performance Measures Continued Are the established performance measures:

42. Measurable Measurable performance measures: • specifically indicate the degree or quantity of the change expected using descriptive words or numbers. • indicate how the change will be determined.

43. Meaningful Meaningful Performance Measures: • motivate change. • value everyone's time. (Creating meaningful measures communicate that your program goals are important and valuable.) • consider if the measure: • "Is meeting an important need at the campus." • “Is going to be valued by the participants."

44. Assigned Assigned performance measures: • target the audience as specifically as possible. • specify a specific group of people or individuals.

45. Realistic Realistic performance measures: • seem achievable. • encourage successful behaviors. • benefit everyone involved. • contribute to success.

46. Time Bound Time bound performance measures: • limit the length of time available to achieve the goal/target. • establish target dates or points in the program where certain specified changes are expected. • provide individuals with an approximation of when they can see improvements.

47. Time Bound Continued Time bound performance measures: • make them more realistic because individuals will know that some knowledge, skills, and behaviors may take time, and some can be picked up quickly. • allow them to be more measurable with a timed component.

48. Writing Performance Measures • Keep statements short and focused on a single outcome. • Ensure that the performance measures are effective and measurable, avoid using verbs that are vague or cannot be objectively assessed. • Part I performance measures should be classroom teacher-focused and target the expected teacher outcome based on student performance.

49. Writing Performance Measures Continued Well written performance measures: • are easy to measure—either the person has or has not accomplished the goal/target. • consider if the specific change is short-term (i.e., bi-monthly) or long-term (i.e., annual).

50. Common Mistakes and Solutions