Stakeholder Surveys

What are the Stakeholder Surveys?

DESE's Stakeholder 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 now gone through the 2014 Educator Preparation Review and Approval process, we have updated the Guidelines to further deepen and evolve these expectations and procedures in the coming years (see Updates to the Program Approval Guidelines ).

The Stakeholder Surveys were updated in 2023 to parallel the changes to the Guidelines and incorporate 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. Current and future administrations of the surveys will include minimal updates to the 2023 Stakeholder Surveys to allow providers and DESE to report on trends over time. The most recent surveys are linked below for your reference.

Who are the Stakeholders?

Each year, we issue surveys to the following stakeholder groups:

• Teacher Candidates who completed their program in the most recent school year. These surveys will be sent to all candidates who completed an initial teacher licensure program between September and August of the current school year and were endorsed for licensure in ELAR.

• Teacher Completers who completed their program in the prior school year and were employed in a Massachusetts public school in the most recent school year.

• 3-Year Teacher Completers who completed their program and were then employed in a Massachusetts public school for three school years.

• Administrator Candidates who completed their program in the most recent school year. These surveys will be sent to all candidates who completed an initial administrator licensure program between September and August of the current school year and were endorsed for licensure in ELAR.

• Administrator Completers who completed their program in the prior school year and were employed in a Massachusetts public school in the most recent school year.

• Supervising Practitioners who oversaw a candidate in practicum in the most recent school year. These surveys will be sent to all supervising practitioners who supervised and administered the Candidate Assessment for Performance (CAP) in the current school year. This information comes from CAP and is pulled in May and again over the summer.

• Hiring Principals who hired a teacher completer in the most recent school year.

How are the Stakeholder Surveys used in DESE's Formal Review?

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. As such, all Stakeholder Survey data that meets minimum thresholds is publicly available. We encourage sponsoring organizations to take advantage of this valuable resource and use the results of Stakeholder Surveys for their own continuous improvement efforts.

Stakeholder Survey items are directly aligned to the 2023 Program Approval Criteria and mirror the Formal Review surveys for candidates, completers, and supervising practitioners. All Stakeholder Survey results for the three years preceding Formal Review are a required evidence source in program approval; Stakeholder Survey results may also be used as evidence in Interim Reviews as deemed appropriate by DESE. These responses will be aggregated with additional survey data collected during the Initial Inquiry and will serve as a critical component to inform the Follow-Up Inquiry and Determination phases of Formal Review.

Note: As the surveys are a required evidence source in the Formal Review, sponsoring organizations may not provide guidance to any stakeholders participating in the survey (other than an overview of the surveys' purpose and information on accessing the surveys). Any perception that a sponsoring organization has unduly influenced participants may result in action by DESE, including but not limited to (1) the exclusion of survey data or (2) finding(s) in the Continuous Improvement and/or Organization domain during Formal and/or Interim Review.

What is the timeline?

Each year, we will be issuing the candidate, completer, supervising practitioner, and hiring principal survey in late spring. We will then administer additional rounds of candidate surveys (for candidates endorsed after May) and supervising practitioners (associated with candidates endorsed after May) over the summer. The administration window will close in August.

DESE reaches out to stakeholders once a week (and then twice a week as the deadline approaches) to remind stakeholders to fill out the survey. Each survey link is tied to an individual email address and cannot be shared.

Sponsoring organizations will receive their data in the following fall through the EP704 Educator Prep Survey Report in EDWIN. A limited number of survey questions are also reported on DESE's public profiles: Educator Preparation Stakeholders Survey.

Full Stakeholder Surveys

Archival Surveys and Analyses

• 2015-16 Statewide Summary of Results, Analysis, and Trends

• 2016-17 Statewide Summary of Results, Analysis, and Trends

• 2017 Educator Preparation Surveys Technical Report

• 2018 Educator Preparation Surveys Technical Report (Addendum to 2017 Report)

• Stakeholder Surveys: Development & Validation, through 2022

• Administrator Candidate Survey, through 2022

• Administrator Completer Survey, through 2022

• Hiring Principal Survey, through 2022

• Supervising Practitioner Survey, through 2022

• Teacher Candidate Survey, through 2022

• Teacher Completer Survey, through 2022

Questions?

Please email EducatorPreparation@mass.gov

Last Updated: August 22, 2024