The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

To:

To: Members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

From:

Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D., Commissioner

Date:

June 17, 2014

Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning Survey (TELL Mass)

In January 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education launched the second statewide Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning Survey (TELL Mass). Funded through our federal Race to the Top grant, the TELL Mass survey gathered valuable feedback from educators1 on key teaching and learning conditions including available time, facilities, resources, community engagement and support, managing student conduct, instructional practices, professional development, and school and teacher leadership.

More than 38,000 (48%) educators participated, and 971 out of 1,790 (54.2 percent) 2 schools met or exceeded the 50 percent participation threshold necessary to receive building level data. Survey results are now publicly available on TELL Mass website.

Research consistently shows that positive teaching and learning conditions are critical to meeting high standards and expectations, improving student performance, and recruiting and retaining educators. Results from this voluntary and anonymous survey provide an opportunity for schools and districts to engage in collaborative discussion around data and identify at least one working condition area to focus on improving. Several resource guides were developed and made available online to support the collaborative discussion using TELL Mass data. We also allocated a portion of the federal Race to the Top funds to have an external research group evaluate stakeholder perspective on the usefulness of the TELL Mass data.

At the special meeting of the Board on June 23, 2014, I will present key state-level findings from the TELL Mass survey and qualitative results from our external evaluator.

1Educators included in the survey are school-based individuals working in a licensed position, including teachers, principals, guidance counselors, and school nurses.

2A handful of schools and districts were excluded from this count because of specific waivers granted during the RTTT application process and the piloting of the Student and Staff Survey.