Survey is snapshot of teacher opinions about local schools

By Cindy Skalsky
Herald/Review
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 05:13:31 am MST

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SIERRA VISTA — Statewide, 53 percent of teachers say they want to continue working at their current school as long as they are able.

At Buena High School, it’s 39 percent.

Over at Bella Vista Elementary, it’s 61 percent.

Across Arizona, 29 percent of teachers “strongly agree” with the statement, “Overall, my school is a good place to work and learn.”

Eleven percent of Buena respondents said the same.

At Palominas Elementary, 69 percent strongly agreed.

On Tuesday, the Arizona Education Association released the results of its first-ever Teacher Working Conditions survey — an effort supported by the governor’s office, the Arizona School Administrators Association, the Center for Teaching Quality and other educational groups.

More than half the state’s educators responded to the anonymous, online survey last March, answering 63 questions in five “domains,” key elements of what makes a teacher’s working conditions friendly, or not so — time, facilities and resources, empowerment, leadership, and professional development.

“In every survey we’ve done across the nation, we’ve found that working conditions are critical to student learning,” said Eric Hirsch, the working conditions survey administrator. “Having sufficient time and influence over classroom and school decisions are essential.”

Another 18 “core” questions explored questions regarding teachers’ personal motivation and career intentions.

For example, “The community environment where I live,” was rated extremely important by 22 percent of teachers around the state, by 31 percent of teachers at Bisbee High, 40 percent at Palominas Elementary and only 8 percent of Buena teachers.

Another core question asked, “Which aspect of your work environment most affects your willingness to keep teaching at your school?” The five choices (pick one) were the five domains mentioned above, and statewide, the function of leadership was the top single answer with 40 percent.

Bisbee High teachers gave “time” and “teacher empowerment” each 31 percent, while leadership captured only 13 percent of respondents there.

Not all schools — each was given a code — participated in the survey, and only schools with reporting rates from certified staff above 50 percent have been made available with full results online.

For the Sierra Vista school district, teacher responses from three elementary schools are posted — Bella Vista, Town & Country and Village Meadows — and from Buena High, where 50.68 percent of the school’s eligible faculty completed the survey, compared to 44.27 percent districtwide. Each question shows the “average” answer for the state.

A snapshot for each school precedes the full report, and shows the domain results for that school compared with the state average.

The survey itself takes one inside the daily work life of a teacher. Questions under the “time” domain ask if efforts are made to minimize the amount of routine administrative paperwork that is required and how many hours are spent on school-related activities outside the regular school work day.

The “facilities and resources” section inquires if teachers have sufficient access to office equipment and supplies, and if they have sufficient training and support to utilize available instructional technology.

There were 17 questions regarding empowerment that involved matters of professionalism, group decision-making processes, parental and community support, selection of instructional materials and setting practices for grading and student assessment.

Leadership questions asked comfort levels at raising issues and concerns important to teachers, whether clear expectations are communicated to students and parents, if student conduct rules are consistently enforced, and if feedback is received that can help them improve teaching.

Teachers had their say on “professional development” opportunities at their school — its effectiveness, in what areas it’s needed and whether it is data-driven.

Domain summaries are quantified on a one-to-five scale based on the total of all questions in that portion of the survey. One is the lowest and five is the highest possible average. The full school-by-school breakdowns are on the Arizona Teacher Working Condition survey Web site at www.aztwc.org.

Results will be used at the state level by the Governor’s Committee on Teacher Quality to support teachers in their primary task of educating students, and to put educator experiences and perceptions into the recruitment and retention of quality teachers.

The AEA also hopes the data will be used at the local level for school improvement planning, faculty conversations and consideration of district policies and programs.

**Teacher working conditions survey snapshot**
Domain area	State average	Bella Vista	Bisbee High	Buena High	Fort Huachuca	Palominas	Town & Country	Village Meadows
Time	*2.74*	3.18	2.77	2.65	3.48	2.96	2.98	2.81
Facilities and Resources	*3.50*	3.67	3.38	3.13	3.98	3.89	3.50	3.25
Empowerment	*2.69*	3.16	2.80	2.48	3.16	2.77	3.16	2.66
Leadership	*3.39*	3.53	2.81	2.60	3.72	3.86	3.90	3.12
Professional Development	*3.30*	3.67	3.15	3.02	3.54	3.09	3.48	3.40

Reporter Cindy Skalsky can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at cindy.skalsky@svherald.com.

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Concerned citizen wrote on Jun 7, 2007 4:59 PM:

" The results of this opinion poll conducted by the State Dept. of Education are certainly not conclusive,but suggestive.Particularly disturbing is the data from Buena High School.This warrants further investigation from the District Administation and School Board! "

a concerned taxpayer wrote on Jun 6, 2007 5:09 PM:

" It was made clear that only schools with 50 percent or more respondants to the survey would be counted. I doubt that there is a lie in these stats. Even if it there were, objective people with the best interest of education would take a good look at the outcome and apply it's results in a positive manner. "

A concerned educator wrote on May 31, 2007 1:57 PM:

" There's a book entitled, "How to Lie with Statistics." When analyzing the data about Buena, you need to know how many total teachers were surveyed. The same is true at all the schools. Of the large number of Buena teachers, if only 10 completed the survey, that's only a hand full of dissenters. It is difficult to extrapolate that the majority of Buena teachers share these feelings. The same is true of the other schools. Buena has excellent teachers and programs. There's a few dissident teachers who seem never satisfied. "