While T-TESS incorporates multiple measures to evaluate teacher practice, districts’ implementation of T-TESS has not meaningfully differentiated teacher performance. Strengthening an evaluation system to provide meaningful differentiation enables important results and rewards the most impactful educators. It allows for:

• Equity in access to effective teachers and school leaders: using evaluation data for strategic staffing decisions to ensure students with the highest need have access to effective educators.
• Differentiated professional development: using evaluation data to provide targeted training and support to educators.
• Differentiated compensation: using evaluation data to inform salary levels, not just tenure, so that effective teachers are rewarded with higher compensation.
• Identification of future campus leaders: using evaluation data to identify and support educators for career pathways that lead to leadership positions and retention of effective teachers.
• Improved teacher recruitment: using evaluation data to inform educator recruitment and support.

One important strategy for supporting student success, particularly for students of color and students in low-income communities, is ensuring that effective educators are teaching in the schools and classrooms most in need. Research shows that students assigned to effective teachers are more likely to attend college, earn higher salaries, live in higher socio-economic status neighborhoods, and save more for retirement.

How can my district use evaluation data to support this strategy?

Evaluation data can be used to make strategic staffing decisions that ensure students with the highest need have access to effective educators. These decisions include which teachers are placed in high-needs schools and which teachers get tenure. Some districts are incentivizing their high-performing educators to teach in high needs schools by offering financial compensation.

An evaluation system that provides meaningful differentiation in performance allows a district to target its professional development to an individual teacher's areas of growth, address trends that emerge for groups of teachers and support educators through coaching and feedback. The ability to provide differentiated support based on evaluation data is especially helpful when it comes to supporting teachers newer to the field; novice teachers are at a critical development stage and targeted support based on evaluation data can aid them in building the skills necessary to be a successful educator.

How can my district use evaluation data to support this strategy?

Evaluation data can be used to identify teachers’ areas of growth for professional development as well as identify those teachers in need of additional supports such as coaching, mentoring and/or targeted professional development sessions. For example, evaluation data can be used to match a teacher with a low rating in a specific area with a teacher who has demonstrated excellence in that same area of focus. Additionally, teachers rated highly effective can be provided more flexibility in their professional development and given opportunities to drive their own growth. This could include a self-directed growth plan or opportunities to develop other teachers. Evaluation data can also be used to inform the feedback cycle so coaches have targeted feedback to inform teachers’ practice.

Nearly every Texas school district compensates teachers based on seniority regardless of classroom effectiveness. Within seniority-based compensation systems, there is no financial incentive for an effective educator to take on a more challenging role within a high-need or low-performing campus. As a result, current systems favor more affluent schools and districts, which perpetuates systemic inequities. By re-considering the approach to compensation, a district can support the district’s values by prioritizing results and rewarding teachers and leaders accordingly. Differentiated compensation enables the district to reward and retain teachers who perform well and raise student achievement results. After implementing a strategic compensation system, over 90% of proficient or above teachers at Dallas ISD were retained, far exceeding the 83% state average for teacher retention.

How can my district use evaluation data to support this strategy?

Evaluation data can be used to inform the level of compensation for teachers. Compensation adjustments can include either additional performance bonuses or stipends or a change to the salary structure. Both methods have benefits and considerations:

• Stipends: Stipends can be perceived as a concrete bonus and recognition for an educator’s accomplishment. The level of stipends can adjust annually in response to budget needs and the number of educators who are eligible. This allows for flexibility, but may lead to a lack of confidence in the longevity of the system.
• Salary Structure: Changes to an educator’s base pay can be perceived as a more permanent commitment to recognizing an educator’s accomplishments. Those educators with a higher salary level now will also have a higher retirement benefit later, so the district must ensure fiscal feasibility in future years. Additionally, this system can lead to some uncertainty because it may be harder for teachers to understand their salary in the upcoming year. Final compensation decisions would be based on data that comes in over the summer and not finalized until after school begins in Mid-August. However, under this structure, an educator would know their salary minimum prior to signing a new contract, and the final compensation decision would only increase their total pay. See the School Finance and School Outcomes presentation by the Texas Schools Project.

Principal turnover is a challenge in many districts and greatest at schools with a higher concentration of poverty. In a 2016 Bain & Co. Leadership survey of 7 urban districts and CMOs, 97% of respondents believe effective principals are critical to school success, but only about 15% of educators and leaders believe the that the most talented people become principals. Identifying future leaders, and supporting educators and leaders on their path toward school leadership, can help ensure that the right individuals are in leadership positions with the right support. Offering career pathways is one way of supporting educators and leaders in becoming effective school leaders. Career pathways provide individuals with a differentiated sequence of career stages with increased compensation and responsibilities at each level.

How can my district use evaluation data to support this strategy?

Evaluation data can be used to identify educators for different career pathways, such as teacher leadership roles, mentoring positions or district advisory roles. This can help ensure educators and school leaders have leadership opportunities to maximize their potential. Additionally, data can be used to identify teachers with a proven track record of student growth to serve as mentor teaches. The data can also be used for strategic placement of novice or student teachers with these educators.