What is TELL Colorado?
Who will take the survey?
Why is this survey important and why should I complete it?
Who is conducting the survey?
Who is administering the survey?
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?
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 TELL Colorado?
The Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Colorado Survey is an online, anonymous survey of all certified public school educators in Colorado’s public schools, designed to garner educators’ perception of their school environments. The survey will be available online for educators to complete between January 31- February 28, 2011.
TELL Colorado 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 certified educators in our public schools. The respondents will be asked for their perceptions on a variety of issues related to student achievement and teacher retention, including the adequacy of facilities and resources, time, empowerment, school leadership, community support, student conduct, professional development, mentoring and induction services, and student learning.
The results of this survey will provide local school and district educators as well as Colorado policymakers with guidance on what is working well, and what could be working better, in our schools.
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Who will take the survey?
All public school-based certified educators in Colorado Public Schools. It is important for all teachers in the district complete the survey and share their opinions.
There are two parts to the survey: Teacher Questions and Principal Questions.
Educator Questions: will be answered by educators, school-based administrators and certificated non-classroom professionals.
- All PreK-12 classroom teachers, including vocational-technical teachers, and special area teachers.
- All certified personnel, including guidance counselors, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and special education educators. School-based administrators including principals and assistant principals will also answer questions about teaching conditions.
- You can view the main survey on this website ahead of time by clicking here.
- A limited number of questions specifically related to new teacher and principal support and mentoring will be addressed to our newer colleagues.
Principal Questions: When a principal accesses the survey with the anonymous access code, and selects that he or she is an administrator, the survey questions will include those that other educators are completing as well as a special set of questions targeted to administrators about district support to create supportive conditions in schools. You can view these questions on this website ahead of time by clicking here.
Data from the principal questions will only be reported at the Colorado level in order to protect the anonymity of principals.
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Why is this survey important and why should I complete it?
This is YOUR chance to TELL policymakers in our Colorado what YOU need to do your jobs well. Education leaders in Colorado want to hear from every teacher and school level leader so they can make the best decisions about facilities and resources, professional development, and time for you during the school day to collaborate with your colleagues and improve instruction. TELL Colorado will provide that data and much more! YOUR voice will help inform the decisions that are made not only at your school, but in your district and across the state. Every teacher and school level leader in Colorado has the opportunity to help shape the future of our schools!
The TELL Colorado survey provides data that helps inform Colorado and district policymakers on strategies to attract and retain quality teachers in our schools. Research from previous state wide 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. Research and selected findings from the survey in many states confirm that teaching and learning conditions have significant impact on:
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Who is conducting the survey?
TELL Colorado is being conducted under the leadership of the Colorado Department of Education and supported by a coalition of education organizations, all of whom believe that it is critically important to listen to educators' views when shaping school improvement strategies.
The coalition partners are:
Additionally, several other organizations have contributed to and endorsed the initiative.
The initiative sponsors are:
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Who is administering the survey?
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. Since 2008, the NTC has collected more than 415,000 surveys in 12 states, providing critical information to the faculty in more than 10,000 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. For more information please click here.
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How long is the survey?
The survey should take less than 30 minutes to complete. Participants will be asked to share their perceptions on a scale of one to four on a series of questions. Participants may preview the survey online prior to taking it at by clicking here.
NOTE: 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.
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How is my anonymity protected?
The New Teacher Center has worked with education stakeholders involved in the planning of the survey and have developed a system for ensuring the confidentiality of the respondents.
Educators will receive a randomized and unique six-digit security code to enter at the start of the survey. The security code makes it possible for each participant to submit the survey only once. The participant's name is not matched to the security code. 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 any coalition members. There is NO way to track a code to an individual, even at NTC. The database does not include any names of individuals.
Confidentiality has never been breached in any of the other participating states or districts. Further, all school and district reports will NOT include any demographic information such as years of experience, role, etc. so there will be no way anyone can know whether you have taken the survey or what your responses were.
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How do I get an access code to take the survey?
By January 31st, envelopes with the code letters will be sent to the Colorado Education Association Representative in each school. Every certified school-based educator will receive a letter from Governor John Hickenlooper and Commissioner Robert Hammond inviting them to use the individual, anonymous access code to complete the survey between January 31- February 28, 2011. Code letters will be distributed at the school level by identified personnel in the school.
Envelopes of the code letters will be sent and addressed to the Association Representative where available or to the school principal. If your school does not receive the access codes by January 31, please contact the help desk M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM by clicking on the
Instant Messenger in the left menu, by calling them toll-free at
888-280-7903 M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM, or by emailing helpdesk@tellcolorado.org anytime.
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What if I lose my code or have problems taking the survey?
The Help Desk will be available 7:30 AM-4:30 PM Monday through Friday while the survey is open to provide a new access code to those who lost their letters and answers any questions about the initiative. Please contact the Help Desk M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM by clicking on the
Instant Messenger in the left menu, by calling them toll-free at
888-280-7903 M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM, or by emailing helpdesk@tellcolorado.org anytime.
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When and how can we see the results for my school?
All schools that meet the minimum response rate of fifty percent and have at least five respondents will have their answers on this website. For each question on the Survey, the results for the school, district, and Colorado will be shown. Please check this website approximately one month after the close of the survey window to access results.
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How will the TEACHER responses be reported?
Results from the teacher responses will be aggregated and reported by The New Teacher Center no later than April. This is meant to ensure that educators have time for 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.
These reports will be a compilation of educator responses to all questions and presented as bar charts for the school (where a minimum of fifty percent response rate and at least five responses at the school), district, and Colorado.
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How will the PRINCIPAL responses be reported?
To protect the confidentiality of respondents, no school or district level responses will be available, only the state aggregate.
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How will the results be used?
At the school and district levels, TELL Colorado data can be used to promote discussions about instruction, planning time, professional development, school improvement and related policy issues.
At the state level, the data will be useful to the Governor, the Colorado Board and Department of education, legislators and other policymakers who are committed to listening to the voices of educators as they develop and implement education reform policies.
The Coalition of Partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that clearly articulates both the purpose of the survey and how the data should and should not be used. Additionally, the 2011 Data Usage and 2011 Data Dos and Don'ts are available.
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Where else has this been administered?
Similar surveys have been administered by the New Teacher Center in nine states and one large district: North Carolina, Kansas, Maine, Alabama, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Fairfax County Public Schools. In addition to Colorado, Maryland and Vermont are conducting teaching conditions surveys in 2009.
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How have the results been used elsewhere?
During the spring of 2011 the New Teacher Center is conducting teaching conditions surveys in three other states: Tennessee, Maryland and Kentucky. Tennessee is administering the survey in 2011 and 2013 as part of its Race to the Top Phase I grant award from the U.S. Department of Education. Maryland will be administering their TELL surveys for a second time this spring. Maryland and Colorado both worked with NTC to conduct their first state wide surveys in the spring 2009.
In the spring of 2010, NTC conducted surveys in selected schools and districts across the nation as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) project. These included district-wide surveys in Charlotte, Denver and Memphis, and selected MET schools in New York City, Tampa and Dallas.
NTC conducted the fifth state wide survey in North Carolina in spring 2010 and just completed the second iteration of the survey in Fairfax, Virginia in February 2010.
Since 2008, similar surveys have been administered by the New Teacher Center state wide in ten states and one large district: Alabama, Colorado, Fairfax County (VA), Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.
For more information about any of the above survey results and corresponding analyses and reports, please visit the NTC website by clicking here.
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Still have questions?
Please contact the Help Desk M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM by clicking on the
Instant Messenger in the left menu, by calling them toll-free at
888-280-7903 M-F 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM, or by emailing helpdesk@tellcolorado.org anytime. Check this website often for updates.
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