What is the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey?
Who will take the survey?
Who is authorizes the survey?
Who administers the survey?
Why is this survey important?
How long does it take to complete the survey?
How is my anonymity protected?
How do I get an access code to take the survey?
What if I lose my code or have problems taking the survey?
Are there prize drawings for completing the survey?
How can my school enter the weekly and grand prize drawings?
When and how can we see the results for my school?
How will the TEACHER responses be reported?
How will the PRINCIPAL responses be reported?
How will the results be used?
Where else has this been administered?
How have the results been used elsewhere?
Still have questions?
What is the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey?
The NC TWC Survey is an online, anonymous survey of all public school educators in North Carolina of their perception of their school environment. The survey will be available for educators to complete from March 15 through April 16, 2010.
The North Carolina Survey is a unique opportunity to gather information about school conditions from those whose views matter most-practicing educators. The purpose of the survey is to support sound educational policies and practices based on the views of teachers, principals and other certificated educators in North Carolina's public schools. The respondents will be asked for their perceptions on a variety of issues related to student achievement and teacher retention, including time, facilities and resources, community support and involvement, managing student conduct, teacher leadership, school leadership, professional development, instructional practices and support, and new teacher and principal support.
The results of this survey will provide local school and district educators and state policymakers with guidance on what is working well, and what could be working better, in North Carolina schools.
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Who will take the survey?
All public school-based licensed educators should take the survey. The survey has two sets of questions: Teacher Questions and Principal Questions.
Teacher Questions will be answered by teachers and other educators, including:
- All PreK-12 classroom teachers, vocational-technical teachers, and special area teachers.
- All licensed personnel, including guidance counselors, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, school nurses, special education educators, and assistant principals.
- A limited number of questions specifically related to new teacher and principal support and mentoring will be addressed to our newer colleagues.
Principal Questions: Each principal will answer questions related to teacher working conditions in his/her schools and questions related to his/her working condtions in the district. These questions are designed to gauge principal perception of district support to create positive school conditions. Data related to district questions will only be reported at the state level in order to protect the anonymity of principals.
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Who authorizes the survey?
With funding from the North Carolina General Assembly, The North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey is conducted under the leadership of Governor Bev Perdue, the North Carolina State Board of Education, and the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Advisory Committee. All of whom believe that it is critically important to listen to educators' views when shaping school improvement strategies.
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Who administers the survey?
The North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission (NCPTSC) administers the survey. They partner with the New Teacher Center and LEARN NC on survey implementation.
The New Teacher Center (NTC) is a national organization dedicated to supporting the development of a high-quality teaching force. NTC has conducted similar surveys in other states and provides induction and professional development for teachers and principals across the country. Over the past two years NTC has collected more than 300,000 surveys in 10 states, providing critical information to the faculty in more than 8,000 schools about issues such as planning time, facilities and resources, professional development, school and teacher leadership and other aspects of the school environment that can influence teacher effectiveness.
LEARN NC, a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education, has been dedicated to supporting teachers, building community, and improving K-12 education in North Carolina since 1997. They have been involved with the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey since 2004, specifically in the collection and use of survey data, survey framework, and the Help Desk application. LEARN NC’s invaluable technical assistance has ensured that North Carolina educators have been able to take the survey in a fast, convenient, and anonymous manner. After the completion of the survey, they provide the data to the NCPTSC and the NTC.
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Why is this survey important?
It is important for all licensed educators in the state to respond to the survey because research from previous surveys indicates that working conditions do impact student achievement and teacher retention, and that school leadership is important to the success of teachers and students. For this reason, the data from the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey is a key artifact in the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System, the only aligned evaluation system in the nation.
Data from the results of the survey helps to improve teaching and learning conditions in a school or district in order to be able to recruit and retain the most accomplished teachers in North Carolina classrooms. It also informs educators, parents, and the community about what is happening in their schools.
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How long does it take to complete the survey?
The survey takes approximately 30 minutes. Participants will be asked to share their perceptions on a scale of one to four on a series of issues. Participants may preview the survey online prior to taking it at www.ncteachingconditions.org.
It is important to know that the survey can NOT be saved for completion at a future time once it has been started. Participants should not begin the survey unless they have about 30 minutes to devote to completing it. The survey can be taken anytime from anywhere there is an Internet connection while the survey is open. Remember to click on submit after completing the survey.
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How is my anonymity protected?
Since the first online administration of the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey in 2004, the education stakeholders involved in the planning of the survey have developed a system for guaranteeing the confidentiality of the respondents:
- Educators will receive a computer-generated random and unique six-digit access code to enter at the start of the survey.
- The access code makes it possible for each participant to submit the survey only once.
- The participant's name is not matched to the security code, only the school.
- An educator may trade his or her code with another educator in the same school building, since the codes are only used to identify the school, not the individual.
- The survey may be taken on a computer at school, home, or any other location that has Internet access.
- The database is managed by NTC and cannot be accessed by school administrators or state officials.
- Codes cannot be connected to individual, not even at the LEARN NC or the New Teacher Center – the partners that collect and analyze the data.
- The database does not include any names of individuals.
- Confidentiality has never been breached in North Carolina, or any of the other participating states or districts.
- School and district reports will NOT include any demographic information such as years of experience, role, etc. This ensures that responses cannot indicate who has taken the survey, or what their responses were.
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How do I get an access code to take the survey?
Packets containing code letters will be mailed to every public school in North Carolina. The packets will be addressed to the school’s NCAE Representative, or (if the schools does not have a representative) the Teacher of the Year or other teacher leader within the school for them to distribute. Each educator will receive a letter from Governor Perdue that will have an access code – printed in BOLD RED INK at the bottom of the letter.
If a school does not receive the packet containing their access codes by March 15, the Help Desk may be contacted by phone at 877-628-9208 Monday through Friday 7:30am to 4:30pm or by email helpdesk@ncteachingconditions.org any time.
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What if I lose my code or have problems taking the survey?
March 15 through April 16, the North Carolina Help Desk (877-628-9208) will be available. The Help Desk provides a new access code to those who lost their letters and answers any questions about the survey. You can reach the helpdesk by phone 877-628-9208 Monday through Friday 7:30am to 4:30pm or by email helpdesk@ncteachingconditions.org
any time.
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Are there prize drawings for completing the survey?
Yes. To show their support for the importance of gathering this data, the prizes have been donated by members of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education.
Weekly Prizes
During the four weeks the Survey is administered there will be weekly drawings for schools that reach 100% response rates.
- Each week one school will win a $500 grant to improve teaching conditions
- Each week an educator will win a cash prize of $500
Grand Prizes
Once the Survey administration is closed, there will be two Grand Prize Drawings.
- One school will win a $1,000 grant!
- One educator will win a $1,000 cash prize!
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How can my school enter the weekly and grand prize drawings?
Each school that reaches a 100% response rate on the 2010 Teacher Working Conditions Survey will be entered into the weekly drawings. At each drawing, two schools will be picked. The first school selected will win the grant. The second school drawn will have the opportunity to submit the names of all their licensed educators (including itinerant and part-time) and from those names, one educator will win the cash prize!
Schools not selected will remain in the drawing through the course of the survey, so the sooner your school reaches the 100% response rate, the longer the school stays in the drawings. This allows for more opportunities for the school to be drawn for a grant and/or for a teacher to win a cash prize.
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When and how can we see the results for my school?
As has been done since 2004, all schools that meet the minimum response rate of forty percent will have their answers on this website (www.ncteachingconditions.org). All district and state results will be also be available at that time. For each question on the Survey, the results for the school will be shown as well as the district and state for comparison. Please check this website no later than May 1, 2010 for results.
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How will the TEACHER responses be reported?
Statewide results from the teacher responses will be aggregated and reported to the public by May 1, 2010. These reports will be a compilation of educator responses to all items and presented as bar charts for the school(if at least 40 percent of educators respond), district and state. This is meant to ensure that educators have time to have data-driven discussions about school improvement planning and that a better understanding of the relationship between teaching conditions, teacher retention and student learning can be analyzed prior to the next school year.
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How will the PRINCIPAL responses be reported?
Statewide results from the principal responses will be aggregated and reported to the public by the May 1, 2010. To protect the confidentiality of respondents, no school or district level responses will be available.
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How will the results be used?
At the school and district levels, North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey data can be used to promote discussions about instruction, planning time, professional development, school improvement and related teaching and learning conditions issues.
At the state level, the data will be useful to the Governor, the NC State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction, legislators and other policymakers who are committed to listening to the voices of educators as they develop and implement education reform policies.
For a list of statewide policies that have resulted from the NC TWC Survey since 2002, read the “Intersection of Policy and Practice.”
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Where else has this been administered?
Since 2008, similar surveys have been administered in ten states and one large district including Alabama, Colorado, Fairfax County (VA), Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont and West Virginia. These surveys were administered by the New Teacher Center based on the work done in North Carolina.
In addition to the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey, during the spring of 2010 the NTC is conducting TWC Surveys in selected schools and districts across the nation as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) project.
For more information about any of the above survey results and corresponding analyses and reports, click here.
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How have the results been used in North Carolina?
The results are being used in various ways in the different states and districts, perhaps most extensively in North Carolina. North Carolina was the first state to launch a survey in 2002 under the leadership of former Governor Mike Easley. All of the surveys to date have focused on working conditions and recruitment and retention. From the research related to the findings, we know that teacher working conditions are student learning conditions and that teacher recruitment and retention is so critical to school improvement. Schools and districts have acted on the information locally in different ways depending on the results. For example, the results have been used in support of a bond initiative and for the development of better school improvement teams. At the state level:
- Survey results central to education reform efforts: The results are analyzed and recommendations based on them are made by the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards Commission and the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Advisory Committee.
- Positive working conditions promoted: The state has rewritten principal standards to incorporate teacher recruitment, retention and administration. Additionally, all new principals are required to take professional development funded by the state on creating positive working conditions.
- Investments made in support of good educational practices: Funding was allocated to create a blueprint for School Improvement Teams in integrating survey results into school improvement planning and conducting a state conference to share best practices. Turnaround plans have been analyzed in low-performing high schools to ensure survey data is incorporated in reform strategies.
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Still have questions?
Visit www.ncteachingconditions.org for the most recent information or email faq@ncteachingconditions.org.
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