Houston ISD on Thursday launched its compensation plan for the 2025-26 college yr, which is able to use elevated state funding to spice up trainer pay. Raises can be decided by performance-based incentives as an alternative of expertise, sparking backlash from the district’s largest lecturers’ union.
The pay will increase for HISD lecturers are potential because of the passage of Home Invoice 2 throughout the current Texas legislative session, by which lawmakers offered about $8.5 billion in state funding for public training and raised the fundamental per-student allotment for faculties throughout the state.
Whereas this extra state funding has allowed different massive college districts within the Houston area — resembling Katy ISD, Fort Bend ISD and Cy-Honest ISD — to extend their lecturers’ salaries based mostly on expertise, HISD is doling out raises based mostly on lecturers’ efficiency evaluations.
Efficiency-based pay for lecturers has been a divisive situation. Houston Federation of Lecturers President Jackie Anderson, whose union represents 1000’s of lecturers within the district, advised Houston Public Media Friday that the federation can be exploring authorized choices.
“We’re deeply disenchanted by the choice of the HISD superintendent and board of managers to do as they need with the cash allotted by the state for lecturers,” she mentioned. “We can be searching for authorized counsel to assist decide the legality on the choice of the district.”
The performance-based pay can be decided utilizing HISD’s present analysis system for lecturers. Beginning subsequent yr, HISD will use the domestically created Instructor Excellence System, with a plan to tie these evaluations to a pay-for-performance compensation mannequin starting with the 2026-27 college yr.
Pay will increase for NES faculties
The New Schooling System (NES) is an educational reform mannequin applied by state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles at roughly half of the district’s faculties, most of that are traditionally underperforming. Increased-performing campuses that aren’t a part of NES have extra educational autonomy and decrease trainer pay on common.
In response to the compensation plan for 2025-26, the brand new beginning wage for NES lecturers with 0-2 years of expertise ranges from $64,000 for elective elementary college lecturers to $90,000 for English I pre-AP lecturers. Lecturers with 3-4 years of expertise will obtain a further $4,000, whereas these with 5 or extra years of expertise will obtain a further $6,000 on high of the bottom wage.
These base salaries are roughly the identical as offered by the earlier college yr’s compensation plan for NES campuses.
Non-certified lecturers will obtain $2,500 much less throughout the board, no matter subject material. Nonetheless, in accordance with the compensation plan, as soon as the district verifies a trainer’s certification, they are going to be eligible for a $2,500 enhance.
Lecturers can even be eligible for performance-based benefit will increase based mostly on their Texas Instructor Analysis and Help System (T-TESS) rating from the 2024-25 college yr.
The performance-based benefit wage will increase at NES faculties are as follows:
- Progressing I – $250
- Progressing II – $500
- Proficient I – $750
- Proficient II – $1,000
- Exemplary I – $1,250
Pay will increase for non-NES faculties
In response to the compensation plan, the beginning 10-month wage at non-NES faculties will vary from $63,000 for a trainer at present pursuing their certification to $89,500 for a trainer with 40 years of expertise.
Beneath this pay scale, lecturers with 5 years of expertise would obtain a base wage of $66,000, these with 10 years would obtain $69,000, and people with 20 years would obtain $74,500. An incremental pay enhance is included for each extra yr of expertise from 0-40 years.
These base salaries are roughly the identical as offered by the earlier college yr’s compensation plan for non-NES faculties.
Lecturers at these faculties can even be eligible for performance-based benefit will increase based mostly on their T-TESS rating from the 2024-25 college yr. The benefit will increase for non-NES faculties can be larger than these at NES campuses:
- Progressing I – $500
- Progressing II – $1,000
- Proficient I – $1,500
- Proficient II – $2,000
- Exemplary I – $2,500
