Longview awards over $3M in teacher incentives

LONGVIEW — Longview Independent School District distributed an early Christmas gift of more than $3.17 million in performance-based incentive pay to high-performing teachers and staff on Friday. According to our news partner KETK, the funding was provided through the districts ‘Longview ISD Incentive for Teachers’ (LIFT) program, which rewards measurable performance, campus-wide achievement and specialized credentials earned during the school year.

“This is not a bonus for showing up,” Superintendent Dr. Marla Sheppard said. “These dollars reflect results and growth. They reflect the expectation that excellence in Longview ISD will be recognized in a meaningful way.”

In total, $3,177,509 was awarded through four LIFT models, directly benefitting hundreds of staff members across the school district. The largest share of funding, $2,583,891, was distributed through the Campus Academic Distinction Designation model, which compensates staff at campuses that earned academic distinction honors from the Texas Education Agency, based on student performance compared with similar schools statewide.

An extra $549,890 was awarded to 95 teachers through the LIFT Pay-for-Performance Teacher model, which recognizes student academic growth in core subjects using value-added measures, rather than test scores.