NTC TEACHING AND LEARNING CONDITIONS SURVEY
Implementing the Survey
Collaboration
The Teaching and Learning Surveys collect data on complex and sensitive issues in schools. The NTC therefore only supports survey initiatives when there is strong collaboration across multiple stakeholders that understand and commit to using the data in ways that support school improvement. Some examples of stakeholders include: Governors, State Agency Directors, Teacher Union Affiliates, Principal Associations, District Leaders, State Boards, Non-profit Organizations and Universities. While these education stakeholder groups support various, and at times competing reform agendas, these groups are generally able to come to a common understanding of the importance of supporting effective teaching and learning conditions in schools. All stakeholders must agree that use of the data will be used in a positive manner (never punitive), to support the school, system and state leaders who can influence change.
Survey Questions
Survey questions are broken down into six areas, or domains, within the survey. These domains include: school leadership, professional development, empowerment/decision making, facilities/resources, time, and mentoring/induction. Approximately one-third to half of each survey is based on a consistent set of core questions. NTC leaders work with State and District leaders to add or modify questions that address the specific needs and interests of the state conducting the survey.
Data Collection
In order to complete the survey, each licensed educator receives a personal access code. These codes ensure that teachers only take the survey once and that their responses are linked to the correct school. The personal access codes also ensure that all data is collected and reported anonymously so educators can respond to the survey with no fear of being identified. NTC works with our partner, LearnNC, to create these access codes, host the survey, and develop a unique website portal for each initiative. As surveys are completed, NTC and LearnNC also house, maintain, protect and report results. It should be noted that states have taken different approaches to the level and manner of publicly reporting data results.
To ensure that educators respond to the survey, initiatives include a concerted outreach effort to inform teachers, administrators, parents and community members about the survey, its content and the broader intent of the initiative. This outreach is most often supported by the broad coalition of stakeholders within each statewide or district initiative.
Response Rates
Each participating state sets a minimum response rate per school which is required in order to create a valid school report. The response rate threshold ensures that schools are responding to data that is truly representative of educators in the school. A sufficiently significant state-wide response rate is also important to influence state policymakers and ensure credibility with the general public. Generally, this response rate has been set at 40 percent.
Responding to Data
In addition to their assured anonymity, educators also respond to the teaching and learning conditions survey because they expect that their responses will be carefully considered and acted upon. This survey tool enables teachers to report what they experience in ways that lead to constructive and informative solutions that improve conditions in schools.
The data represent what educators actually experience in their schools and not merely an opportunity to vent a litany of complaints. To help districts and schools move from understanding these teaching and learning conditions toward taking meaningful action for improvements, a variety of tools (see our Related Resources Page) have been designed and tested. Some of the actions taken at the state level can be seen here. These tools help community members, teachers, principals, administrators and policymakers act on the data. NTC believes this commitment to action is crucial because each initiative will ultimately prove to be only as successful as its application for improving schools.
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