Posted on October 14, 2016

Why Conduct School Surveys for Teachers and Staff?

Surveying students on school climate, drug use and exposure, bullying incidence, mental health issues, and more is a practice becoming more commonplace in schools and in education-related decision-making processes. However, a school is composed of more than just students. Teachers and staff are part of the educational environment, too, and their opinions matter. Here are a few of the major reasons why school systems should be conducting teacher, faculty, and staff surveys:

Higher Teacher Retention Rates

Teacher retention has been a huge subject in the news as of late, and for good reason. School districts all over America are facing teacher shortages, and “enrollment in teacher preparation programs has fallen some 35 percent over the past five years.”^[1] By conducting surveys of teachers and other staff members, schools can evaluate teacher satisfaction and determine where they can improve. By conducting teacher surveys, schools give teachers a voice, which is a major positive factor in influencing teachers to stay with a school. In fact, one of the biggest reasons that teachers leave a school system – or even the profession as a whole – is the fact that “they have no say in decisions that will ultimately affect their teaching.”^[2] Unfortunately, fewer than half of teachers feel that their voices are heard and less than a fifth believe that their opinions are taken into consideration when administrators make decisions.^[3]

Furthermore, with surveys, administrators can determine how to improve in the areas that most frequently affect teacher retention, including:

Collaboration

Teachers not only want to work with the administration to make decisions, they also want to work with peers to learn from their teaching methods and to improve the education of their students. By evaluating the opportunities for collaboration, you can determine if your school needs to take steps towards facilitating additional opportunities for teachers to work together and learn from each other.

Preparedness

Some teachers, especially new ones, feel ill-prepared for different aspects of teaching.^[4] By conducting school surveys for teachers, you can determine the perceived readiness of your faculty and learn what programs should be implemented to prepare them for the challenges ahead. As a result, you can reduce the likelihood of frustration and burnout. After all, teachers who are well-prepared are 50% less likely to leave a school as those who do not feel this way.^[5]

Overall Climate

How teachers and staff feel about a school overall can make a huge difference in whether or not they stay at that school or in the profession as a whole. “Since poor [student] discipline is one of the chief causes of low teacher morale, character education may be one of the solutions that schools need to improve morale.”^[6] By evaluating teacher perceptions about the school through teacher surveys, administrators can create initiatives to improve the overall way the school operates and create an environment conducive to both teaching and learning.

Professional Learning and Growth

Teachers get a great deal of satisfaction from learning as well as teaching.^[7] They want to teach their students more and improve their methods. “[Teachers] want to be in a collegial environment. They want to be clear that they’re supported in their efforts. That there’s moral support and the opportunity to continue to learn and be more effective, which is how teachers get their satisfaction – by meeting the needs of students in ways that allow them to see that they’re learning.”^[8] By determining what sorts of professional learning and growth offerings your teachers and staff are looking for through surveys, you can greatly increase the likelihood of them staying by facilitating such opportunities.

Relationships with School Leadership

As previously mentioned, teachers and staff want a say in policies that directly affect their teaching. Like in any work environment, lack of respect for or collaboration with leadership creates a breakdown among employees, which is usually followed by low retention rates.^[9] The same applies in a school environment. Establishing a knowledge base of how teachers feel about administrators is another benefit of teacher surveys, offering information on how to improve interactions with teachers to increase satisfaction.

Better Education for Your Students

The reality is, better teachers and happier teachers equal better student learning, more often than not. According to a number of relevant research findings in the field, “[t]he two strongest in-school influences on student learning are teaching and school leadership, the latter to a lesser extent.”^[10] When teacher satisfaction rates are low, teacher attrition rates are high. With fewer teachers available, students can end up in “larger class sizes, [with] fewer opportunities, and a decreased chance of being taught by a quality teacher.”^[11] Teacher surveys give schools opportunities to make informed decisions on where and how to improve teacher satisfaction, and “a teacher’s experience exerts a positive impact on student achievement.”^[12]

In addition, teacher surveys also offer teacher perspectives on school climate, student-teacher relationships, and how students are learning. If teachers are not well-versed in forging positive student-teacher relationships or feel that students or even other teachers are creating a more hostile environment for both teaching and learning, there is likely to be a breakdown in confidence in teaching at the school. Schools that conduct teacher surveys can determine how to remedy the situation through programs designed to educate teachers and help students create a more productive learning environment. To better understand the impact of positive student-teacher relationships on student learning, check out our article on the “4 Benefits of Positive Student-Teacher Relationships.”

Creating a Better School with Teacher Surveys

With the information gathered from both student learning environment surveys and teaching environment surveys, you can create a better school for everyone. Pride Surveys offers comprehensive teaching environment surveys that will evaluate career intentions, school leadership, feelings of involvement in shared decision-making, school climate, students and learning, and the teaching experience in your school. If you have any questions about how our surveys can help improve your school, contact us at (877) 957-6870 or email us here. Ready to get started? Order here!

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[1]Westervelt, Eric. “Frustration. Burnout. Attrition. It’s Time to Address the National Teacher Shortage.” NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/15/493808213/frustration-burnout-attrition-its-time-to-address-the-national-teacher-shortage?utm_content=buffer7a931&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer on September 16, 2016.

[2]Norwood, Candice and Owen Phillips. “With Fewer New Teachers, Why Do Some Stick Around.” NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/21/393344523/with-fewer-new-teachers-why-do-some-stick-around on September 16, 2016.

[3]Blank, Martin J. “Teacher Voice Matters.” The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-j-blank/teacher-voice-matters_b_11834042.html?utm_content=bufferbd698&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer on September 16, 2016

[4]“Teacher Quality: A Report on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers.” National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/1999080/index.asp?sectionid=6 on September 16, 2016

[5]Westervelt, Eric. “Frustration. Burnout. Attrition. It’s Time to Address the National Teacher Shortage.” NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/15/493808213/frustration-burnout-attrition-its-time-to-address-the-national-teacher-shortage?utm_content=buffer7a931&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer on September 16, 2016

[6]Perumal, Magendri. “Key Strategies to Raise Teacher Morale and Improve School Climate.” University of Maryland. Retrieved from http://www.education.umd.edu/international/CurrentInitiatives/Fullbright/2011%20DFT%20Project%20Samples/Summative%20Reports/Magendri%20Perumal%20Summative%20Report.pdf on September 16, 2016.

[7]Ibid.

[8]Ibid.

[9]Top 10 Reasons Why Good People Quit.” Direct Recruiters, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.directrecruiters.com/candidate-article/top-10-reasons-why-good-people-quit/ on September 26, 2016.

[10]Hightower, Amy M. et al. “Improving Student Learning By Supporting Quality Teaching: Key Issues, Effective Strategies.” EdWeek. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/media/eperc_qualityteaching_12.11.pdf on September 16, 2016.

[11]Westervelt, Eric. “Frustration. Burnout. Attrition. It’s Time to Address the National Teacher Shortage.” NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/15/493808213/frustration-burnout-attrition-its-time-to-address-the-national-teacher-shortage?utm_content=buffer7a931&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer on September 16, 2016.

[12]Ibid.