Strategic principal compensation in the works at La Joya ISD

La Joya ISD plans to implement a pay structure for principals based on student achievement.

With Texas creating the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) to help with retention and increase compensation, La Joya ISD wanted to offer a similar incentive to campus leaders. For the past year, La Joya ISD administration has been drafting the roadmap for the Principal Excellence Initiative — a system designed to strategically compensate campus principals to promote leadership effectiveness and improve student growth. Only 12 school districts in Texas have strategic compensation models at various stages, and La Joya ISD is the first in the Rio Grande Valley to start building its own.

“We want [TIA] for all teacher categories, all assignments across our district,” Chief of Human Capital and Talent Development Jaime Miller said. “But we also know, as a district that understands the impact of leaders, that we need to recognize the impact that our leaders are having on campuses also, and that we want to ensure that we have high-quality leaders on every single campus.”

Since Superintendent Dr. Marcey Sorensen joined La Joya ISD in 2024, the superintendent’s cabinet and board of managers overhauled district staff, including job restructures, reductions, raises and the installation of new campus leadership. But all the adjustments have been grounded in the district’s vision — “educational excellence is the right of every student.” Miller explained that the Principal Excellence Initiative is another step toward that vision. 

“We know that teachers and leaders receive a slower rate of raises than other professions,” she said. “Almost every district in Texas has these small steps where every year — it’s based on years — you get small steps moving up…So we have people leaving the profession or not going into education because they’re not getting the compensation on a timeline that benefits them by the age that they need it. And we want to ensure that our teachers and our leaders have opportunities for that.” 

Miller cited Dallas ISD as an example of a school district that saw improvement in student achievement after reforming their principal and teacher compensation system to reflect student achievement in 2013 and 2015. Within four years of adopting a new system, student performance on standardized tests improved by 16% in math and 6% in reading, with the growth in both areas deviating from the standard. 

Additionally, La Joya ISD wants to implement the Principal Excellence Initiative to correct the pay disparities among campus leaders. Chief of Academics and School Leadership Derek Little explained that variance in pay is “well over $100,000” in some cases. Some principals with lower student achievement earn the same as those with more student achievement or two principals with the same level of achievement earn vastly different salaries. Correlating compensation to student growth or progress creates fairness. 

The Principal Excellence Initiative would also provide elementary principals the opportunity to earn the same or more than principals at secondary campuses. Little commented on the Texas “oddity” where elementary principles automatically earn less money than middle and high school principals. Strategic compensation would eliminate that longstanding practice and provide any campus leader an opportunity to earn over $100,000 a year.   

But the actual evaluation system that determines campus leader compensation is still a work in progress. The district gained feedback from the principal advisory council and all campus principals during the drafting process, but administration has not finalized anything. They plan to use the 2025-26 school year to collect data and proceed with the pay structure adjustment after gathering enough information. 

“At the end of the day, we will be super clear and explicit with our principals on what’s in this system, what they have to do to be successful in it and take the opportunity to really recognize and celebrate the great work that so many of our campus leaders are doing every day in the district,” the chief of academics and school leadership said.