Xóchitl Tanya Ramos
Published: 2023
Total Pages: 0
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Recruiting and retaining teachers is of utmost importance for ensuring student achievement, and increasing teacher productivity has been addressed by pay-for-performance programs. The purpose of this program study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program in Urban Independent School District (UISD) in Texas, as defined by the program’s attainment of its three stated outcomes: (a) reward teachers for effectively increasing student performance using valid and reliable measures; (b) recruit people to the teaching profession; and (c) retain high-performing teachers at high need campuses. The research design was a mixed methods convergent parallel approach and allowed for qualitative and quantitative data to be collected concurrently. The context, input, process, and products (CIPP) program evaluation model was applied to the TIA program. The TIA program’s effectiveness was measured using quantitative methods to compare student achievement data between teachers who were TIA designated and non-designated. The qualitative methods were applied through document analysis of reports available in the public domain and focus group interviews on measuring the UISD principals’ and teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about the TIA program. The quantitative findings showed the TIA designated teachers as demonstrating statistically significantly higher student achievement with a large effect size over the non-designated teachers. However, no relationship could be identified between the implementation of the TIA program and teacher retention at UISD. The focus group data yielded three overarching themes: (a) communication, (b) fairness, and (c) emotional response. Several subthemes emerged between the teacher focus groups and the principal focus groups for the first two overarching themes. Communication contained the subthemes of (a) understanding of the program, (b) recognition of designated teachers, (c) teacher support, and (d) confusion. Fairness contained the subthemes of (a) alignment, (b) testing, and (c) T-TESS evaluation inconsistencies. The theme of emotional response emerged from the participants’ perceptions of fairness and lack of communication. Both policymakers and educational leaders of other districts can benefit from the findings regarding UISD’s TIA program evaluation by implementing the recommendations seen in Chapter 5 that could increase TIA program effectiveness