Teachers have given ACPS a positive endorsement in the TELL survey while noting that student discipline and the involvement of teaching staff in decision-making remain areas that need work.
The TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) survey, which is administered every two years and yields important data used by schools to drive improvement, saw overall increases in six of the eight areas relating to school climate, no change in one area and a decrease in one area.
Community involvement and support, facilities and resources, teacher leadership, school leadership, professional development and instructional practices and support all saw gains over the 2016 results. Use of time, the indicator that measures available time to plan, collaborate, provide instruction and eliminate barriers in order to maximize instructional time during the school day, held steady. Managing student conduct decreased by four percentage points from 2016 results, but was still higher than the results in 2014.
Most importantly, this year for the first time, the survey data has been reviewed alongside new national research data that demonstrates a direct link between the survey outcomes and student achievement.
The 2018 study, “School Leadership Counts,” from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the New Teacher Center, which administered the survey, shows that “teacher leadership is strongly related to student achievement,” showing that “teacher leadership and the amount of teacher influence in school decision making are independently and significantly related to student achievement.” Specifically, “the data indicate that teachers’ roles in establishing student discipline procedures and school improvement planning are the most strongly related to student achievement.”
The research highlights key areas where high percentages in the survey results can be directly correlated to student achievement. The areas of school leadership elements with the strongest relationship to achievement are holding teachers to high standards, providing an effective school improvement team and fostering a shared vision for the school. These all require a collaborative school environment with a “bottom-up” approach.
The survey found that 88 percent of teachers surveyed stay because they believe their school is a good place to learn and work. Teachers continue to feel that their leadership team provides effective leadership and that there is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in their school. School leadership is ranked at the top for what keeps teachers at their school.
- The survey showed that community support and involvement is the highest rated measure again in 2018, as it was in 2016.
- Within facilities and resources, there were significant gains with more educators (up 14 percent) reporting having access to the resources they need, such as office equipment and supplies. Access to instructional technology, such as computers, printers, software and internet access was up eight percent.
- Within the area of instructional practices and support, professional learning communities were highly rated at 89 percent, an 8 percent gain and the support needed in improving instructional practices had a strong gain of 6 percent.
- ACPS continues to have challenges relating to managing student conduct. Each response related to managing student conduct (“students follow rules of conduct, student conduct policies and procedures are clearly understood by the faculty, faculty work in a school environment that is safe…”) saw a six percentage point drop from 2016.
The survey had a response rate of 60 percent with the total number of respondents at 949. The number of respondents was highest at the elementary level followed by middle school and then high school with the greatest number of responses from teachers with seven or more years of experience.
Read the presentation about the survey results (PDF) from the School Board meeting on June 7. Watch video of the School Board discussion.