Adam Rodriguez is an eighth-grade math teacher at Cotton Academy High School, and he bought his first home a couple of years ago.
When Rodriguez started teaching, he was making less than $50,000, so how could he afford a house on the city’s far West Side?
Rodriguez became a designated “master teacher” under the state’s Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program and now gets allotted between $18,000 to $20,000 — on top of his base salary — every year.
Without the allotment, Rodriguez said he would probably still be renting and living with roommates.
“It’s very life-altering,” said Rodriguez, who works for San Antonio Independent School District. “TIA really changes the trajectories of people’s lives.”
What is TIA and why was it created?
The Teacher Incentive Allotment provides school districts with systems and funding to recruit more competitively, strengthen retention rates and incentivize teachers to work in high-need or rural schools.
Essentially, districts can apply for TIA to increase pay for teachers who prove to be effective educators in their subject areas.
When districts opt into the program, they must undergo an extensive data-collection process that involves calculating a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom based on T-tests, formal observations and STAAR test scores. But the most important measure is overall student growth.
Before TIA was created during the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019, districts could use federal grants to recognize “master teachers” based almost exclusively on student achievement. Only teachers who taught STAAR subjects were eligible for the grant.
Rodriguez, who was recognized as a master teacher at the federal level, said that program was more tedious and extensive than getting certified by the state.
“There were a lot more stipulations,” Rodriguez said, including having to apply to the program on his own, submitting documentation and literature reviews, getting interviewed and recording his lessons for critique. When San Antonio ISD transitioned over to the state program, Rodriguez said it was much easier.
The federal grant for master teachers ended during the 2021-22 school year, but with TIA sliding into its place in 2021, several school districts in San Antonio have been able to increase some of their teachers’ salaries, and administrators are asking state legislators to continue funding and expanding the program.
Teachers who are nationally board certified automatically receive exemplary designations from the state when districts apply for TIA.
Since TIA’s inception, 542 school districts in Texas have unlocked $292 million, 90% of which has to go directly to teacher salaries.
After the data is analyzed, districts and the state identify “top performer” teachers who receive one of three designations, recognized, exemplary or master, and are then awarded thousands of dollars on top of their base salaries every year as long as they continue to meet Texas Education Agency eligibility requirements.
Based on socioeconomic and rural status, allotments for recognized teachers range from $3,000 to $9,000, exemplary teachers may receive between $6,000 to $18,000 and master teachers can get anywhere from $12,000 to $32,000
If a designated teacher is working out of a “high-need” or a rural school, their allotments are increased even more.
TIA funding is based on socioeconomic status of schools
TIA designated teachers at Edgewood Independent School District tend to max out on their allotments because they work at fairly economically disadvantaged areas, said Deputy Superintendent Phillip Chavez.
Chavez said the biggest payouts the district has received for each designation level are $8,500 for recognized, $17,000 for exemplary and $30,030 for master.
“We’re poised quite beautifully in terms of being able to have maximum payouts,” which allows Edgewood ISD to compete more with other school districts in San Antonio, Chavez said.
Even though Edgewood ISD had tried since 2020 to receive state allotments, the inner Westside district didn’t graduate a teacher cohort to TIA designation until 2023, when they submitted all the necessary data measures. Chavez said 37 math and English teachers received allotments for the 2022-23 school cycle.
For the 2023-24 cycle, 40 teachers became TIA designated, including science teachers.
Districts are only supposed to consider their top third performing teachers, which means 501 teachers at Edgewood ISD may be eligible for TIA money. But districts also choose which subject matters they want to focus on when gathering data.
Some will only look at teachers who teach STAAR subjects like English or math at the middle and high school levels while others expand their criteria to include different subjects and lower grade levels.
Edgewood ISD expanded their designation plan to career and technical education (CTE), fine arts, special education and social studies teachers for the 2024-25 cycle. 184 of the district’s teachers are currently being observed and having their “effectiveness” measured for an allotment consideration, Chavez said.
Myriam Gonzalez, a dual language pre-K teacher at San Antonio ISD’s Sarah King Elementary School, receives an extra $13,000 a year for being a TIA designated “exemplary” teacher.
Gonzalez was considered for an allotment after her school district expanded the TIA designation program to include teachers in pre-K, kindergarten, first grade and second grade classrooms for the 2023-24 school year.
“We forget that pre-K through second grade are the foundational years, and without a good foundation, we see such a great struggle in the upper grades,” Gonzalez said.
San Antonio ISD’s designation status has been approved since the spring of 2021, and this year, the district added 197 teachers to its TIA approved cohorts. Through a Facebook announcement, the district said it now has 730 designated teachers.
North East Independent School District announced their full TIA designation status during a February school board meeting, one in which they also announced the closure of three schools. The district will receive nearly $3 million for 308 language arts, math, science and special education teachers.
Chyla Whitton, the district’s executive director of human services, said the district submitted captured data for the 2023-24 school year and received notice of their approval at the start of 2025. North East ISD is not considered a rural district, and based on the economic need of its schools, the highest allotment a master teacher will receive is $26,703
Harlandale Independent School District also announced the state’s approval of the district’s TIA designations last month. With the latest addition of 73 designated teachers, Harlandale ISD’s number of TIA-approved teachers is more than 200 now.
To know which San Antonio-area school districts, private schools and charter systems have fully approved local designations or are in the process of qualifying for a designation, visit the TIA funding map.
How does TIA affect students?
Getting a significant pay bump didn’t just help Rodriguez purchase a home, he said it also helped him make the classroom more enriching for his eighth-graders. He buys chips as incentives for students who reach certain academic or attendance goals and brings in new chargers for kids to juice up their cellphones and tablets.
“There’s less second thought of ‘Oh, can I buy that for them?’” Rodriguez said. “We can say, ‘You know what? I’m purchasing pizzas for the entire grade level for Christmas.’”
Rodriguez said he and his other TIA designated colleagues don’t have to worry about being able to afford holiday parties or end-of-the-year celebrations for the kids anymore because of the supplemented income.
Gonzalez, whose classes are currently learning about the life cycles of chickens and butterflies, shares this sentiment.
“I’m what you might call a Pinterest teacher,” Gonzalez said. “I need to be happy in my classroom in order for my kids to be happy in the classroom. So I’m always bringing in decorations and changing out things.”
How does it help school districts with teacher shortages?
Chavez said the TIA program serves Edgewood ISD as a recruitment and retention tool.
Last year, the district had a 98% retention rate. Turnover rates, which spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, also decreased from 26% to 19% last year, Chavez said.
An annual report from the TEA found that TIA designated teachers were retained 8.1% more than non-designated teachers, and 26% of participating districts are considered “high-needs.” The report included a study that found that 62% of teachers agree or strongly agree that pay should be tied to performance.
Last week, the state’s Senate Committee on Education K-16 chair Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) filed Senate Bill 26, a bill which would provide $4.3 billion in funding for different teacher pay programs and the expansion of TIA. The bill would increase the dollar amounts for each TIA designation and would create a fourth, lower designation of “acknowledged.”
But increasing TIA funding for the most “effective” teachers doesn’t fully address the lack of teacher pay and abundance of teacher shortages, public education experts say.
When applying for TIA designations, only teachers from certain subjects and grade levels are eligible for allotments, depending on the way their district chooses to structure their designation plan.
JoLisa Hoover, a teacher specialist with Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonpartisan education think tank, says there’s a better way to help fund public schools.
Hoover said the best way to increase teacher salaries is for the state to raise basic student allotments, which are currently at $6,160. Basic student allotments have not been increased since 2019.
Texas legislators this session are considering increasing the allotment by $220, but Hoover said that isn’t enough. Raise Your Hand Texas recommends basic student allotments be increased by $1,000.
Teachers at Edgewood ISD have not received district-wide raises in two years, district officials said. And, instead of a raise last year, North East ISD’s board approved a one-time 1.5% retention bonus to full time teachers and librarians in November.
Both districts face sizable budget deficits: Edgewood ISD’s deficit is $17 million and North East ISD faces a deficit of $38 million.
“Right now a lot of teachers are leaving for industries that pay better,” including real estate, retail and education technology, Hoover said.
The money from TIA is no joke, Gonzalez said, and without it she probably would have pursued a different career path.
“It does play a huge role in me wanting to stay in the classroom,” Gonzalez said.
A 2024 Charles Butt Foundation Teacher Poll found that 77% of teachers in Texas said they aren’t paid a living wage, and 78% seriously considered leaving the profession in 2024.
Nationally, the Economic Policy Institute found that on average, teachers took a 26.4% pay cut compared to other college-educated workers in 2022.
When teachers leave the classroom for better-paying jobs, Hoover said, districts rely on uncertified teachers and teachers without bachelor degrees, which can lead to poor student outcomes and put a strain on their certified colleagues.
Out of the 4,336 teachers who were hired in the San Antonio area for the 2023-24 school year, 1,272 of them were uncertified.
While increasing teacher pay state-wide is the best solution to shortages of certified teachers, Hoover said there are also other other solutions including state-funded scholarships for teachers to get their certifications and mentorship programs.
“TIA alone is not the solution,” Hoover said. “If you want to invest in student achievement, you have to invest in teachers.”
Jeanette Ball, the superintendent for Southwest Independent School District, testified before the Senate education committee Feb. 20 to share how TIA has helped school districts recruit and retain qualified teachers.
“[TIA] isn’t just a bonus that we’re doing for our teachers. It’s something to strengthen the teacher capacity within the district,” Ball told the committee. “TIA has helped us to monitor instruction, to improve what’s going on in the classrooms each and every day, because we’re constantly in there, aligning our walkthroughs, looking at the data.”
Southwest ISD does not currently have a fully approved designation status but is in the process of getting fully approved. Ball said that 20% of students at Southwest ISD are special education students and 18% are bilingual.
“Our students need to have quality teachers,” Ball said.
SB 26 passed through the education committee with a unanimous vote in February, but has not been voted on in the Senate yet.
