Stakeholder Surveys

As outlined in 603 CMR 7.03 (5), the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is required to administer and publicly report survey data about the quality of educator preparation in the state. This requirement is intended to grant access to perceptions of teacher readiness in the Commonwealth to both preparation providers and the general public.

Development

These surveys began in 2014-2015 as part of a transformative overhaul of the expectations for education preparation programs in the Commonwealth. As all preparation providers have gone through the Educator Preparation Review and Approval process, DESE is updating the guidelines to further deepen and evolve these expectations and procedures in the coming years (see Updates to the Program Approval Guidelines ). To parallel the changes to the Guidelines, these surveys have also been updated, incorporating feedback from public comment, family and student roundtables, and ongoing collaboration with the Principal and Teacher Advisory Cabinet, Educational Personnel Advisory Council, and Ed Prep Advisory Group.

While incorporating important changes to the Guidelines, the core of the surveys use previous and existing work by DESE to keep standards and expectations consistent. Survey items are aligned with the review criteria found in the draft Guidelines for Educator Preparation Approval and are based on the MA Educator Evaluation Framework and the Professional Standards for Teachers (PSTs). Any changes to these guides that cause subsequent changes to survey items will be reported on this page. The surveys maintain some items from the previous surveys to allow for data reporting across years, and stakeholder groups have similar items to allow for triangulation.

The updated surveys are linked in the table below, and the original surveys can be found in the last section on this page called "Archival Surveys and Analyses".

Because data from these surveys are used for public transparency, as one source of evidence in DESE's educator preparation program reviews, and for preparation programs' continuous improvement efforts, DESE is investing in the long-term development of statistically valid and reliable instruments. This page will include a report on the updated survey's development and validation processes once stakeholder data have been collected.

Full Stakeholder Surveys

Survey Subject	Issued To	Template
Administrator Candidates	Administrator candidates at the point of preparation program completion	Coming Soon
Administrator Completers	Administrators employed in a Massachusetts public school after program completion	Coming Soon
Hiring Principals	Principals who hired a teacher candidate	Hiring Principal Survey
Supervising Practitioners	Teachers who served as a supervisor to teacher candidate	Supervising Practitioner Survey
Teacher Candidates	Teacher candidates at the point of preparation program completion	Teacher Candidate Survey
Teacher Completers	Educators employed in a Massachusetts public school one year after program completion	Teacher Completer Survey

Archival Surveys and Analyses

Questions?

Please email EducatorPreparation@mass.gov

Last Updated: May 17, 2023