DESE VISTA Survey Project, 2015-2016

Welcome to the 2015-2016 Views of Instruction, State Standards, Teaching, and Assessment (VISTA) Survey Project page.

Introduction

The annual VISTA survey project was launched in 2015-2016. Educators were asked to share their views on the implementation of five statewide initiatives:

• The Massachusetts curriculum frameworks,
• Educator growth and development,
• The role of educator evaluation in educator growth and development,
• Personalized learning tools, and
• Digital learning tools.

The 2015-2016 VISTA surveys were administered to all superintendents and principals, and to teachers in a small number of districts. Almost 40% of principals and 20% of superintendents responded to their surveys. Response rates for the districts with teacher surveys varied between 1% and 97% (teacher surveys and findings will not be shown due to insufficient teacher participation). Westat provided survey design, data collection, analyses and data reporting for the 2015-2016 VISTA survey projects.

2015-2016 VISTA Survey Findings

Executive Summary and Descriptive Reports

Executive Summary

A two-page summary of high level findings:

• 2016 Executive summary

Descriptive Reports

State-wide representative descriptive data:

• Superintendent 2016 data

• Principal 2016 data

The VOICE One-Page Summaries

Curriculum and Instruction

Issues 1 – 6

• Issue 1: Views of curriculum frameworks

• Issue 2: Alignment of resources

• Issue 3: District resources

• Issue 4: Implementation Strategies

• Issue 5: Barrier to Implementation

• Issue 6: DESE resources

Educator Growth and Development

Issues 7 – 10

• Issue 7: Teacher collaboration

• Issue 8: Decision factors

• Issue 9: Impact of professional development

• Issue 10: Evaluation of professional development

Educator Evaluation

Issues 11 – 17

• Issue 11: Purposes of evaluation system

• Issue 12: Effectiveness of evaluation system

• Issue 13: Views on core outcomes

• Issue 14: Teacher observations data

• Issue 15: Common assessments

• Issue 16: Student feedback

• Issue 17: Old vs. new evaluation system

Personalized Learning

Issues 18 – 19

• Issue 18: Individualized learning plans

• Issue 19: Career education development

Digital Learning

Issues 20 – 21

• Issue 20: Digital tools — schools

• Issue 21: Digital tools — teachers

DESE Support

Issue 22

• Issue 22: Views of DESE

The surveys that were administered in 2016 can be viewed by clicking the links in the table below.

Superintendent (or Designee)

Content:
5 statewide initiatives (curriculum frameworks, educator growth and development, role of educator evaluation in educator growth and development, personalized learning and digital learning tools

Time:
40 – 50 minutes

Sample:
All Superintendents in the state

• VISTA-D

Principal

Content:
5 statewide initiatives (curriculum frameworks, educator growth and development, role of educator evaluation in educator growth and development, personalized learning and digital learning tools

Time:
35 – 40 minutes

Sample:
All Principals in the state

• VISTA-Principal Elementary School

• VISTA-Principal Middle/High School

Last Updated: May 19, 2017