ASPIRE eNewsOctober-December 2012 Edition

ASPIRE eNews for HISD Employees

October-December2012 Issue

This newsletter contains information on the following topics covering ASPIRE Awards, Value-Added Reports and Comparative Growth Reports.

Click on the topic below to learn more:

  • 2011-2012 ASPIRE Award Notices and Inquiry Period
  • 2011-2012 ASPIRE Award Changes and Eligibility Requirements
  • 2010-2011 ASPIRE Award Survey Results
  • Changes to the 2012-2013 ASPIRE Award
  • 2012 EVAAS Value-Added District and Campus Reports Released
  • 2012 EVAAS Teacher Value-Added Reports Released
  • 2012 Value-Added Support Resources
  • 2013 Student Projections Available on SAS® EVAAS® Website
  • Comparative Growth Reports

Important Upcoming ASPIRE Dates

ASPIRE Awards

2011-2012 ASPIRE Award Notices and Inquiry Period

Note that the time line for ASPIRE Award Notices and Inquiries occurs earlier this year than in past years.

Award Estimate: Starting Monday, November 19 at 3:00 p.m., award estimates are available for campus-based employees’ review upon logging in to the ASPIRE portal. To view your own estimate, go to the “Awards” section of “My Resources” and click on “My Awards.” HISD full-time, campus-based employees may be eligible for ASPIRE Awards. Estimates show how award amounts are calculated basedon the following award strands:

  • 1: Campus Progress (Value-Added)
  • 2: Classroom Progress (Teacher or Department Value-Added or Campus Comparative Growth)
  • 3: Campus Achievement (Stanford/Aprenda Math/Reading or AP/IB and Longitudinal Dropout Rate)

If you are not eligible for an award, you are able to view the reason(s) for being deemed ineligible.

Supporting Documents: If you would like to better understand the 2011–2012 ASPIRE Awards, you may click here to download all 2011–2012 ASPIRE Awards charts, diagrams, and documents. You are encouraged to access this information prior to reviewing ASPIRE Award estimates.

Inquiry Period:You have until December 10 to 1) ask questions via e-mail about how your award determination was made, why you received the amount you did, or why you did not receive an award; or 2) submit a formal inquiry through the ASPIRE portal if you believe your determination was made in error. This process is described here.

Questions/Feedback: If upon reviewing this information, you have questions about award estimates, please e-mail

Formal Inquiries: After reviewing all information, if you still believe your award was calculated in error, you may submit a formal inquiry through the ASPIRE portal starting November 19, 2012, at 3:00 p.m.

The ASPIRE team reviews all inquiries and may decide to issue a new award amount. You may be asked for more information, and principals may be consulted. You will be kept informed of the status. The formal inquiry period ends Monday, December 10, at 11:59 p.m.

Post-Inquiry Period: Inquiries resolved before January 7 are processed for the initial payout on January 23. Payments are made as follows:

1)Current HISD employees—by direct deposit on the payout date.

2)Current charter employees—via a check made out to each charter campus, picked up by the day prior to the payout date. The campus subsequently pays each employee.

3)Former HISD employees—by a check mailed to their address on record as of the payout date.

4)Former charter employees—by a check mailed to the address they supply after they submit a valid W-9.

All payment amounts are net of taxes so the amount deposited in your account or on your check will not match the award notice.For individual staff members who have a formal ASPIRE Award Inquiry pending, payment may be delayed until the inquiry has been resolved.Inquiries not resolved in time for initial payout will be disbursed afterwards on a bi-weekly schedule.

Former HISD Employees: As the awards cover the previous school year, former employees are entitled to an award if they met all other program and eligibility requirements. These employees are not able to access the private ASPIRE portal. These individuals will receive their award notice by mail the week following the posting of these notices with a letter explaining their options for submitting a formal inquiry if they choose. A former HISD employee must have their current address on file with Human Resources in order to be assured of receiving a notice and a check, and should call HR Customer Service at 713-556-7383 if an address needs updating.

2011-2012 ASPIRE Award Changes and Eligibility Requirements

At its October 13, 2011, meeting, the Board of Education approved changes to the 2011–2012 ASPIRE Awards, which impacts the ASPIRE Award payout to be made in January2013. These changes were made in order to align more closely with the Effective Teachers Initiative Teacher Appraisal and Development System, to more explicitly recognize and reward high performance in fostering student growth and achievement, and to accommodate the phase-in of TEA’s State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) program.At its February 9, 2012, meeting, the Board of Education approved the School Leader Performance Pay Model, maintaining principals, assistant principals, and deans of instruction in the 2011–2012 ASPIRE Award. These changes are described more fully in the Mar-Apr 2012 ASPIRE E*News.

Charts and diagrams which illustrate how the ASPIRE Award is determined and contain the maximum payments for each strand and category are available in the My Resources section of the ASPIRE portal. To access these, click here.

To view the 2011-2012 Program and Eligibility Document that contains all eligibility requirements for the ASPIRE Award Program, click here. The following requirements should be especially noted.

Attendance:Although this eligibility requirement has not changed from the 2010-2011 award year, it is repeated here as a reminder. General Eligibility Requirement 9 states that employees cannot be absent for more than 10 instructional days(77.50 hours for staff on 7.75 hour day; 80.0 hours for staff on 8 hour day) during the instructional school year. The types of leave which continue to be held harmless and not count as days absent remain the same in 2011-2012 as in 2010-2011. Several of these must have been specially authorized through Human Resources: family medical leave, assault leave, and military leave. Family medical leave is an application process, with required documents that must be filed through your HR Business Partner. Anyone who should have been covered by FML should have contacted his/her HR Business Partner prior to the end of the school year. ASPIRE Award eligibility was based on the final attendance information for the 2011–2012 school year that we received from Human Resources in mid-September. If HR approved and entered FML protection for your absences, your ASPIRE eligibility was adjusted based on the information we received at that point. While you will have an opportunity to submit a formal inquiry if necessary through the ASPIRE portal beginning on November 19, you must have completed all the paperwork and worked directly with your HR service representative to ensure that they had all the documentation necessary to close your file prior to the end of the school year, as rules cannot be overridden concerning filing deadlines.

Low Value-Added: Employees will not be awarded for any strand if they have low-value added results, defined as a cumulative gain index (CGI) of less than or equal to -2.00 in all subjects they teach. While these employees already do not receive an award based on individual student progress (Strand 2), this would also eliminate any award they might receive based on campus progress (Strand 1) or campus achievement (Strand 3). The premise behind this is that these employees are not contributing to growth among their own students, departments, or grades and should not benefit from other ways in which their campus earns an award. This affects teachers in Category A-B (core foundation teachers grades 3-8),as well as Principals and Assistant Principals/Deans.

Good Standing:Employees who were on a Growth Plan or Prescriptive Plan of Assistance (PPA) based on the 2011-2012 spring staff review as determined by multiple measures including observations, walkthroughs, student performance, etc. and whose performance goals were not met by the end of the 2011-2012 school year are not eligible to receive an ASPIRE Award payment.

2010-2011 ASPIRE Award Survey

The 2010–2011ASPIRE Award and Career Pathways and Compensation Survey was launched on Tuesday, February 21, 2012. The purpose of this survey was to gain insight regarding the knowledge and perceptions of HISD teachers and staff after six years of implementation of growth-based performance pay in HISD, their perceptions regarding the overall concept of teacher performance pay, and to provide input for the model.

Of the 18,747 Houston Independent School District (HISD) campus-based employees surveyed, there were 3,411 participants who responded to the survey (18.4 percent) administered in March 2012. Any conclusions drawn from this survey should be made with caution given the low response rate. When comparing survey results from last year, there was an increase in the percent of respondents who were in favor or somewhat in favor of the concept of teacher performance pay from 57.3 percent in March 2011 to 58.6 percent in March 2012. Based on March 2012 results, a higher percentage of respondents strongly disagreed or disagreed that their maximum award amount was commensurate with their professional contribution, 46.6 percent, compared to 27.5 percent who were neutral and 25.8 percent who agreed or strongly agreed.

The full results of the survey can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

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Changes to 2012-2013 ASPIRE Award

At its September 13, 2012, meeting, the Board of Education approved additional changes to the 2012–2013 ASPIRE Awards, which impacts the ASPIRE Award payout to be made in January 2014. In an effort to make the transition to the Career Pathways and Compensation (CPC), which is expected to be implemented in 2013–2014, the 2012–2013 ASPIRE Award model refines further many features of the 2011–2012 ASPIRE Award Model.

The following changes will occur for the 2012–2013 ASPIRE Award:

  • Modify the ASPIRE Award on the following guiding principles: 1) increase rigor in the requirements, 2) cap HISD general fund commitment at $20 million per year for combined set of performance pay programs, 3) maintain or increase existing maximum award amounts for each teacher, 4) align criteria with the teacher appraisal and development system, and 5) keep the program as straightforward and simple as possible.
  • Simplify the program by explicitly labeling the Group and Individual award components, eliminating the “strand” terminology and making the requirements for a maximum award consistent across components by using top quintile.
  • Refine the eligibility requirement for receiving an award, whereby only an employee who is rated effective or highly effective will be eligible. For teachers, effectiveness will be based on the final summative rating for 2012–2013 provided in fall 2013, to include Instructional Practice (IP), Professional Expectations (PE) and Student Performance (SP) components.
  • Provide Group Performance awards for all employee categories to the top quintile of campuses within each school level, measured by the EVAAS Campus Composite Gain Index, and raise the maximum award for teachers from $1,000 to $2,000.
  • Provide Group Performance awards for elementary and middle schools on the share of all students on their campus at or above the 50th national percentile ranking (NPR) on Stanford/Aprenda Math and Reading, acknowledging both high achievement levels and top quintile of growth. (No change from 2011–2012.)
  • Provide Group Performance awards for high schools on campus Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Participation/Performance, acknowledging both high achievement levels and top quintile of growth. Eliminate the award component based on dropout rate.
  • Provide Group Performance awards for teachers of core foundation subjects (reading/English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics, language, science and social studies) in pre-kindergarten through second-grade using a comparative growth model assessing the top quintile of campus progress on Stanford Math and Reading from first- to second-grade.
  • Provide Group Performance awards for teachers of core foundation subjects in third- through twelfth-grade using the EVAAS Campus Cumulative Gain Index assessing the top quintile of campus progress for each subject they teach.
  • Provide Individual Performance awards for elementary, middle and high-school teachers of core foundation subjects (reading/ELA, mathematics, language, science and social studies) whose EVAAS Composite Cumulative Gain Index rates them highly effective (greater than or equal to 2.0) or effective (greater than or equal to 1.0). A teacher needs to teach at least two classes that are assigned a value-added measure and generate an EVAAS score in order to be eligible for an Individual Performance award.
  • Continue to include School Leaders (Principals, Assistant Principals, and Deans of Instruction) in the ASPIRE Award Program for one more year, after which their performance pay will be aligned with the School Leader Appraisal System, whose Student Performance Measures are in development. Provide Group Performance Awards that align with those of teachers and campus based staff. Raise the maximum award for principals from $13,500 to $15,000 and for assistant principals and deans of instruction from $6,750 to $7,500, based on Campus Composite CGI.

If you would like to better understand the 2012–2013 ASPIRE Awards, you may click here to download 2012–2013 ASPIRE Awards diagrams, and documents, including the Program and Eligibility Document.

Questions about any of thetopics provided above can be directed to the ASPIRE Award email account:

Value-Added Reports

2012EVAAS Value-Added District and Campus Reports Released

Online access to 2012 district, campus and student value-added reports was made available through the ASPIRE portal on Wednesday, September 26. To access these reports, log in to the ASPIRE portal under My Resources and visit the VA Reports Section. Click on the SAS EVAAS® Access - Login link.

Campus administrators were encouraged to spend time examining their value-added reports andidentify areas ofstrength and areas of opportunity for their campus.They were also encouraged to utilize the resources of the Teacher Development Specialists (TDS) assigned to work with each, who have access to these reports and have been trained in how to interpret them. Training sessions were held and continue to be scheduled for teachers and high school department chairs on using the new reports to improve student outcomes.

Access to district and campus summary reports was made available to the public on October 12, in conjunction with the annual report on district value-added results at the October Board of Education meeting. These can be reviewed by parents, students and the community through ASPIRE portal here.

2012EVAAS Teacher Value-Added Reports Released

Online access to 2012 EVAAS Teacher value-added Reports was made available to teachers and their principals by the morning of Friday, November 9.

All teachers with a report receive an email directly from “” when these reports are released. It contains directions for accessing the reports directly. An alternative way to access these reports is to log in to the ASPIRE portal under My Resources and visit the VA Reports Section. Click on the SAS EVAAS® Access - Login link.

On the morning of Monday, November 12, EVAAS Teacher Value-Added Reports were made available in PDF format in the VA Reports Section of My Resources.

Core Foundation Teachers in grades 3 through 9 are encouraged to spend time examining these value-added reports to identify areas ofstrength and areas of opportunity. There have also been training sessions scheduled for teachers and webinars established for Campus Leadership teams on Using EVAAS Reports to Impact Student Outcomes. Most of these will occur in November. Check E-Train for the teacher sessions.

2012 Value-Added Support Resources

Within the VA Reports section of My Resources on the ASPIRE portal are various support documents that will assist you in understanding EVAAS. Each of the following may be of interest:

  • An updated Frequently Asked Questions document that provides important information related to interpreting Value-Added campus, teacher, and student reports and using the diagnostic information to inform your practices is available here. This includes commonly asked questions regarding how STAAR-EOC is being modeled.
  • A description from SAS EVAAS on how they handle the transition from TAKS to STAAR beginning in 2011-2012 is available here.

To view other documents that help explain value-added methods, click here.

2013Student Projections Available on SAS® EVAAS®Website

Currently, there is updated enrollment information for students for the 2012-2013 school year, and you can continue to search for students based on where they are currently enrolled.Starting with the November 9 release, there are student projections to 2012-2013 for STAAR, STAAR-EOC and Stanford assessments.

ACT and SAT value-added reporting and student projections will be made available by January 31, 2013. These include College Readiness reports that show the probability of success for currently enrolled 9th, 10th, and 11th graders on the ACT Composite and SAT Composite.

Direct access to the EVAAS website is available by clicking here.

Comparative Growth Reports

2012Comparative Growth Reports Released

Online access to 2012 Teacher Comparative Growth Reports was made available to administrators through the ASPIRE portal on Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Teachers received access to their own reports starting Friday, October 5, 2012.To access these reports, log in to the ASPIRE portal under My Resources and visit the CG Reports Section.

Principals are able to view the individual reports for all teachers on their campus who meet the qualifications to receive a Stanford/Aprenda report. This covers those who teach these subjects and grades: Math, Grades 2-8; Reading, Grades 2-8; Language, Grade 2; Science, Grades 5 and 8; Social Studies, Grade 8. There is a Campus Summary Report which lists all teachers at a campus. TELPAS Comparative Growth Reports are expected to be released before the winter break.