The District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program has improved student achievement and deterred teacher turnover in participating Texas schools, according to the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) at Vanderbilt University. NCPI issued its final evaluation of the program 
in December 2010.
The state-funded program provides grants to Texas school districts with locally designed incentive pay plans. “Our findings suggest that, more often than not, participants in the DATE program had a positive experience, student achievement gains and teacher turnover moved in a generally desirable direction and teachers had favorable attitudes towards DATE,” said Jessica Lewis, NCPI research associate and co-author of the report.
In the program’s first two years, students in DATE schools posted greater student achievement gains than those in non-DATE schools. The report also noted a decrease in the difference between student Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) passing rates in DATE and non-DATE schools, indicating that students in DATE schools are catching up.
Overall, DATE districts saw bigger declines in teacher turnover than other Texas districts during the program’s first year. “Teachers who received a DATE award were much less likely to turn over than those that did not, and the size of the award received by a teacher was less important than the fact that the teacher received any award at all,” said Lori Taylor, associate professor at Texas A&M University and co-author of the report. The turnover rate surged among teachers who didn’t receive an award.
Finally, teachers in DATE schools had positive views of the incentive pay plans in which they participated. They believed that the plans were fair, the goals were worthwhile, and that the correct teachers received awards.
None of the program’s positive outcomes are likely to matter in the state’s current budget climate. In House Bill 1, legislators have called for cutting all discretionary grant programs, DATE among them. Senate Bill 1 leaves some discretionary grant funding but offers no guarantees that the DATE program will be among the survivors. The budget for public education is likely to change before it is adopted, but the depth of the cuts proposed combined with a pledge on the part of the state’s top elected officials to avoid raising taxes or tapping into the state’s Rainy Day Fund leaves little room for optimism that the state will continue the program.
