Teacher Incentive Allotment helping rural schools like Anderson-Shiro recruit teachers

ANDERSON, Texas (KBTX) - Teachers in Anderson-Shiro now have the opportunity to make a near six figure salary. It’s because of House Bill 3 dealing with the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a framework for identifying the most qualified and effective teachers, and paying them accordingly.

The TIA is in its inaugural year and will allow 26 districts to generate nearly $40 million in additional funding.

“It was a no-brainer in terms of our district because we’ve been doing a similar incentive program since 2012 with the USDE and Department of Education grants,” said Scott Beene, superintendent of Anderson-Shiro Consolidated ISD.

The application process wasn’t an easy one, but one Beene says it’s worth it. The district uses a teacher evaluation system, T-TEES, and Student Learning Objectives (SLO) to evaluate the effectiveness of their teachers. Beene says the process to get approved by the TEA is similar to what they’ve been doing of the last eight years for the United States Department of Education grants.

“Ultimately, it’s based off teacher evaluations and student learning objectives for every student, every classroom, every teacher,” said Beene.

Grace Wu, with the TEA, says the legislature had three primary goals when it came to the Teacher Incentive Allotment, one of them being to recruit the best teachers into the profession.

“We think increasing the pay, as well as acknowledging and recognizing teachers efforts and effectiveness, will really help raise the profession,” said Wu, the Director of Strategic Compensation.

Beene says they see an average number of applications, but not a lot of them come from with in the district. He thinks this will help with recruitment.

“Definitely to have an incentive program that could pay you a $20,000 pay out at the end of the year is a bonus,” said Beene.

At Anderson-Shiro every teacher who has had the same group of students for a year is eligible for the application process and to receive the pay out. They are guaranteed the funds for the next five years.

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