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The fourth cohort of the Teacher Incentive Fund federal grant competition ("TIF4") included special consideration for projects that would identify, develop, and utilize master teachers as leaders of STEM education. In September 2012, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) was awarded a TIF4 grant for $15.9 million to implement a human capital approach to improving STEM education. The TIF4 project schools were among the HISD schools serving grades K-8 with the highest student economic disadvantage and the most risk factors for chronic absenteeism. A human capital approach to strengthening STEM education addressed the TIF4 project schools' need for high-quality supports for student learning, and the systemic challenges to teacher retention, development, and recruitment in hard-to-staff subjects. This report overviews the performance-based compensation strategies implemented through the TIF4 grant, and situates the TIF4 schools in the context of HISD's historic challenges for new teacher retention, effective teacher retention, and the retention of math and science teachers. [For the first two reports in this series, see ED603678 and ED603680.]

Since established by an Appropriations Act in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) competitive grant program in the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has supported human capital strategies "to ensure that students attending high-poverty schools have better access to effective teachers and principals, especially in hard-to-staff subject areas" such as science and math. Responding to the national agenda to improve STEM education, in 2012, the fourth cohort of the Teacher Incentive Fund federal grant competition (TIF4) included special consideration for projects designed to improve STEM education by identifying, developing, and utilizing master teachers as leaders of broader improvements (OESE, 2012a). A human capital approach to strengthening STEM education addressed the TIF4 project schools' need for high-quality supports for student learning, and the systemic challenges to teacher retention, development, and recruitment in hard-to-staff subjects. The previous report in this series provided a descriptive overview of activities and interventions unique to the TIF4 project schools, setting the context for a meaningful discussion of programmatic impact. This analysis addresses student outcomes for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Mathematics (grades three through eight) and STAAR Science (grades five and eight), during the grant period of 2012-2013 to 2016-2017. On the whole, this report suggests that the complex programmatic aspects of the TIF4 program produced substantive and reproducible results for student achievement through human capital strategies. [For the first and third reports in this series, see ED603678 and ED603681, respectively.]

Since established by an Appropriations Act in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) competitive grant program in the U.S. Department of Education has supported human capital strategies "to ensure that students attending high-poverty schools have better access to effective teachers and principals, especially in hard-to-staff subject areas" such as science and math. Responding to the national agenda to improve STEM education, in 2012, the fourth cohort of the Teacher Incentive Fund federal grant competition (TIF4) included special consideration for projects designed to improve STEM education by identifying, developing, and utilizing master teachers as leaders of broader improvements (OESE, 2012a). Houston Independent School District's (HISD) approach to STEM education -- described in this report -- is an innovative policy response to the national challenges of preparing students for 21st century global citizenship. In HISD, the TIF4 grant supported program activities that reached students, teachers, and school-wide systems. This descriptive overview of activities and interventions unique to the TIF4 project schools sets the context for a meaningful discussion of programmatic impact. Additional reports in this series will investigate specific outcomes of interest, including: how student outcomes for science and math at project schools compare to outcomes at similar schools not participating in TIF4, teachers' readiness (self-efficacy) for STEM instruction, and human capital outcomes for science and math teachers at project schools. [For the other two reports in this series, see ED603680 and ED603681.]