District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) - Irving ISD

Greeting from the DATE Committee!

Throughout the year, you will regularly receive email updates on the DATE plan, upcoming deadlines, FAQs, stakeholder meeting dates, etc. This is all part of the process of keeping you informed about the DATE plan.

By now, those of you who qualified for an award last year should have received your first payout. Thank you for helping us to make the process go smoothly! The remaining contingency funds will be paid by February 28, 2010.

We are excited to begin working with you on DATE Year 2. Soon you will be trained on your campus and updated on the changes to DATE2. This will also be an opportunity for new teachers to become familiar with the plan. Your campus DATE Committee representative will schedule this meeting and provide you with all the necessary information.

Until that meeting, we invite you to go ahead and begin your mentoring and/or lesson plan documentation. The required number of mentoring units has increased from 9 to 20 this year. You have until May 21 to complete your mentoring. The online DATE database will still be available for you to input your documentation, but until it is online, you may record your mentoring yourself. Be sure to record the student’s name, the date, and the time. The Mentoring and Lesson Plan documentation “Worksheets” are attached.

Remember, soon you will be provided with an on-campus training to update you on the changes to DATE or to introduce you to the plan if you are new to the district. Until then, if you have any questions you may email DATE@irvingisd.net or contact your DATE campus representative (a list of contacts is attached).

Required Cover Sheet for DATE grant Cycle 1 Year 1
(August 24, 2009)

Teachers and staff whose campuses have qualified for either Part 1 based on TAKS Economically Disadvantaged department scores or Part 2 as either a Recognized or Exemplary campus will have their finalized documentation submitted to the DATE Committee on September 1, 2009. Prior to documentation submission, teachers and staff have been asked to complete the cover sheet and final signatures with their building principals. Staff members who changed campuses, left the district or retired will need to make arrangements to complete documentation before September 1 with the current principal of their 2008-09 campus of employment.

The cover sheet will verify job position during the 2008-09 school year and determine whether applicants qualify for either Part 1 or Part 2 funds. The campuses that qualify for Part 2 funds as either Recognized or Exemplary status include: Barton, Brown, Britain, Good, J. Haley, T. Haley, Keyes, Farine, Schulze, Hanes, Townley, Davis, Gilbert, Townsell, Stipes, Clifton, Pierce, Kinkeade, Lamar M.S., and the Jack E. Singley Academy. The DATE Committee will review all applications on September 2. Part 1 participants will receive an initial award of $1,442 and Part 2 participants will receive $444 in either the September or October. Contingency funds will be released by February of 2010.

DATE Grant Cycle 1 Year 2
(August 21, 2009)

The application for DATE Grant Cycle 1 Year 2 has had some modifications compared to the first year grant with an increased funding of $2.3 million.

Part 1 will remain for core full-time teachers as required by TEA as a condition of the grant and no changes were made to Elementary or High School Criteria. However, Middle School changes included separating Reading and Writing scores as well as an increase in passing rates to 90% and 93% respectively for the Economically Advantaged subpopulation. Likewise expected Middle School Math passing rates were raised to 75% while Social Studies will be increased to 93%.

Proposed Administrative changes will ensure all campuses have representation on the DATE committee and Principals would be eligible for participation in the grant. The most significant change for documentation is an increase in unpaid Mentoring hours to 20 total contact units with no more than one contact unit counted per day or three contact units counting per week. One contact unit will continue to equal 30 minutes of mentoring. Concerns and comments regarding the plan can be made through the website DATE@irvingisd.net in the DATE 2009-2010 Plan Question subject line.

Stakeholder PowerPoint
(August 18, 2009)

Attached is the PowerPoint used during the Stakeholder Meeting held on August 17th in the Irving ISD Administration Building. This PowerPoint provides information about Year 1 and Year 2 of the DATE awards for teachers.