2015 TELL MNPS Survey
Research Brief
Preliminary Findings
(Spring, 2015)
To do their best work with students, teachers need supportive school environments that
maximize their opportunity to be effective. In a continuing effort to assess school teaching and
learning conditions, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) partnered with the New
Teacher Center (NTC) in their annual administration of the MNPS Teaching, Empowering,
Leading, and Learning Survey (TELL MNPS) Survey.
About the Survey
The TELL MNPS Survey is a statistically valid and reliable instrument that assesses eight
research-based teaching and learning conditions standards.1 The following eight teaching and
learning condition constructs are empirically linked to student achievement and teacher
retention: Time, Facilities and Resources, Community Support and Involvement, Managing
Student Conduct, Teacher Leadership, School Leadership, Professional Development, and
Instructional Practices and Support.2 See Table 1 for descriptions of each construct. Response
options for the survey’s core, positively oriented questions use a Likert scale and range from
strongly disagree to strongly agree. This brief summarizes results using a rate of agreement that
combines the strongly agree and agree categories.
Table 1:
2015 TELL MNPS Survey Areas
Time: Available time to plan, collaborate, provide instruction, and eliminate barriers to
maximize instructional time during the school day
Facilities and Resources: Availability of instructional, technology, office, communication, and
school resources to teachers
Community Support and Involvement: Community and parent/guardian communication and
influence in the school
Managing Student Conduct: Policies and practices to address student conduct issues and
ensure a safe school environment
Teacher Leadership: Teacher involvement in decisions that impact classroom and school
practices
1
Swanlund, A. (2012). Identifying working conditions that enhance teacher effectiveness: The psychometric
evaluation of the Teacher Working Conditions Survey. Chicago, IL: American Institutes for Research.
2
See endnotes for research.
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School Leadership: The ability of school leadership to create trusting, supportive environments
and address teacher concerns
Professional Development: Availability and quality of learning opportunities for educators to
enhance their teaching
Instructional Practices and Support: Data and support available to teachers to improve
instruction and student learning
Response Rate
The NTC administered the anonymous, full-population survey to all school-based licensed
educators in February 2015. Over 5,000 educators (81 percent) in the district responded (Table
2). This is a similar response rate from the 79 percent responding the previous year. As Table 2
demonstrates, 88 percent of elementary school educators participated in the survey, 74 percent of
middle school educators responded, and 74 percent of high school educators responded.
Additionally, all educators assigned to schools such as alternative education settings (designated
as “Special” in Table 2) responded.
Table 2:
2015 Survey Response Rate by School Type
Percent
School Type
Headcount Responded
Responded
Elementary
3,250
2,870
88.3
Middle
1,577
1,161
73.6
High
1,567
1,157
73.8
Special
5
5
100.0
Total
6,399
5,193
81.2
Approximately 96 percent of surveyed schools (152 of 158) met or exceeded the 50 percent
response rate threshold required to receive an individual school-level data report. All results may
be viewed online at www.tellmnps.org.
Preliminary Findings
The rates of agreement by item and survey area were reviewed, and results were compared
between 2015 and 2014. Preliminary findings identify items across constructs with relatively
high or low levels of agreement. Items and rates of agreement are reported below within select
survey areas.
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Overall, MNPS educators’ are slightly more positive about their teaching and learning
conditions. In an overall composite measure of teaching conditions, the district average
agreement rate in 2015 increased 1.4 percentage points from the previous year to 82.7 percent.
At the construct composite level, more educators agree in 2015 that they have the conditions
necessary to produce their best work in every area assessed by the TELL survey than they did in
2014 (See Table 3).

The School Leadership construct, on average, exhibited the greatest growth of all
constructs from 2014 to 85 percent agreement.

Instructional Practices and Support is the most positively viewed construct in MNPS at
87 percent agreement.

Despite a one percentage point gain from 2014, Time remains the least positively viewed
constuct area measured by the TELL survey at 72 percent agreement.
Table 3:
Construct Average Agreement
Agreement
Construct Composite Area
2015
2014
School Leadership
84.8
82.5
Teacher Leadership
82.6
80.7
Community Support & Involvement
84.3
82.5
Facilities & Resources
86.3
84.6
Time
72.4
71.1
Professional Development
81.9
80.7
Managing Student Conduct
83.0
82.2
Instructional Practices & Support
86.7
86.3
Difference
2.3
2.0
1.8
1.7
1.3
1.2
0.7
0.4
Note: The displayed calculated difference may vary by .1 due to rounding.
School Leadership conditions are improving. More MNPS educators agree in 2015 that
teaching conditions critical to internal trust and decision making are in place at their schools than
one year ago (See Table 4).

More than four out of five respondents (85 percent) report that the school improvement
team provides effective leadership at their school compared to 82 percent in 2014.

Seven out of 10 participants (70 percent) now agree that teachers have an appropriate
level of influence on decision making in their schools, a three percentage point gain from
2014.
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
Three quarters of educators agree that teachers feel comfortable raising issues and
concerns that are important to them, up from 72 percent one year ago.

More than three quarters of educators (77 percent) report that there is an atmosphere of
trust and mutual respect, an increase of 3 percentage points from 2014 (74 percent).
Table 4:
Conditions Related to Internal Trust and Decision Making
2015
2014
Select School Leadership Questions
Difference
Agreement Agreement
The school improvement team provides effective leadership at
this school.
Teachers have an appropriate level of influence on decision
making in this school.
Teachers feel comfortable raising issues and concerns that are
important to them.
There is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect.
85.2
81.6
3.6
70.4
67.1
3.3
74.8
71.6
3.2
77.4
74.7
2.7
Note: The displayed calculated difference may vary by .1 due to rounding.
Educators were also asked a series of questions regarding whether their school leadership makes
a sustained effort to address teacher concerns about each of the construct areas assessed on the
survey. Each of these areas also showed improvement (See Table 5).

Eighty-three percent of educators agree that their school leadership makes a sustained
effort to address teacher concerns in the area of new teacher support compared to 78
percent one year ago. This represents the largest percentage point gain in the area of
school leadership effort (5 percentage points).

At least four out of five respondents (80 percent) agree that sustained efforts to address
teacher concerns are occurring in every area measured.

Educators are most in agreement about the sustained efforts made in the area of
community support and involvement (90 percent).
Table 5
School Leadership Makes a Sustained Effort to Address Teacher Concerns
2015
2014
Area of Sustained Effort
Difference
Agreement Agreement
New teacher support
82.6
78.2
4.5
Leadership issues
81.8
78.2
3.6
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Facilities and resources
Teacher leadership
Community support and involvement
The use of time in my school
Managing student conduct
Professional development
Instructional practices and support
89.3
86.5
89.5
79.9
82.3
86.2
88.8
86.5
83.9
87.0
77.5
79.9
84.5
87.8
2.8
2.6
2.5
2.4
2.4
1.7
1.1
Note: The displayed calculated difference may vary by .1 due to rounding.
Time Remains Challenging For Many Educators Across the District
Despite small gains across the district on conditions related to the amount of time educators have
to do their best work, the area of Time remains the least positively viewed construct area
assessed on the survey.

Fewer than seven out of 10 participants (68 percent) agree that the non-instructional time
provided for teachers in their school is sufficient.

About the same proportion (68 percent) agrees that teachers have sufficient instructional
time to meet the needs of all students.

Seven out of 10 educators (70 percent) report that class sizes are reasonable such that
teachers have time available to meet the needs of all students.
Table 6
Survey Questions About Time
2015
Survey Question
Agreement
Efforts are made to minimize the amount of routine
71.6
administrative paperwork teachers are required to do.
The non-instructional time provided for teachers in my
67.7
school is sufficient.
Class sizes are reasonable such that teachers have the
70.3
time available to meet the needs of all students.
Teachers are allowed to focus on educating students with
72.5
minimal interruptions.
Teachers are protected from duties that interfere with
77.2
their essential role of educating students.
Teachers have time available to collaborate with
79.4
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2014
Difference
Agreement
68.9
2.7
65.8
1.9
68.5
1.8
71.1
1.4
76.2
1.0
78.6
.8
colleagues.
Teachers have sufficient instructional time to meet the
needs of all students.
68.2
68.5
-.3
Note: The displayed calculated difference may vary by .1 due to rounding.
Nearly all educators report use of assessments, and alignment of their curriculum with
Common Core, but many do not have timely access to assessment data. More than nine out
of 10 educators agree that teachers use assessment data to inform their instruction (95 percent)
and that the curriculum taught in their school is aligned with Common Core Standards (93
percent). While these agreement rates are some of the most positively viewed on the survey, far
fewer agree that they are getting access to assessment results quickly enough to impact their
instructional practices (See Table 5).
•
Fewer than two thirds of respondents (62 percent) now agree that state assessment data
are available in time to impact instructional practices. This is a 6 percentage point decline
from the previous year (68 percent).
•
About four out of five respondents (82 percent) report that local assessment data are
available in time to impact instructional practices compared to 87 percent in 2014.
•
These are the greatest declines observed from 2014 to 2015 in MNPS.
Table 5:
Assess to Assessment Results in a Timely Manner
2015
2014
Select Data Assessment Questions
Difference
Agreement Agreement
State assessment data are available in time to impact
instructional practices.
Local assessment data are available in time to impact
instructional practices.
62.1
67.9
-5.7
82.2
87.2
-5.0
Note: The displayed calculated difference may vary by .1 due to rounding.
Summary
This administration of the TELL MNPS survey captured the voices of more than five thousand
metro Nashville educators, providing a unique and comprehensive perspective for guiding school
improvement planning. Preliminary analyses suggest that educators are slightly more positive
about their teaching and learning conditions than one year ago. In particular, school leadership
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and their efforts to address teacher concerns are more positively perceived. Small gains are
reported in the amount, and use, of time available to educators, leaving room for continued
improvement. While the use of assessment data to inform instruction is widely practiced and
improving, more timely access to that data will further support educators in effectively
differentiating their instruction.
Going forward, NTC will continue to partner with MNPS to help support disseminating survey
results and their importance as one of multiple measures in school improvement planning.
All resources and reporting will be available electronically at www.tellmnps.org.
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Endnotes
Borman, G., & Dowling, N. (2008). Teacher attrition and retention: A meta-analytic
and narrative review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 78(3), 367–409.
Buckley, J., Schneider, M., & Shang, Y. (2004). The effects of school facility quality on teacher
retention in urban school districts. Chestnut Hill, MA: National Clearinghouse for
Educational Facilities.
Johnson, S., Kraft, M., & Papay, J. (2012). How context matters in high-need schools: The
effects of teachers’ working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their
students’ achievement. Teachers College Record, 114(10), 1–39.
Kraft, M. A., & Papay, J. P. (2014). Can professional environments in schools promote teacher
development? Explaining heterogeneity in returns to teaching experience. Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis (36)4, 476–500.
Ladd, H. (2009). Teachers’ perceptions of their working conditions: How predictive of policy
relevant outcomes? CALDER Working Paper 33. Washington, D.C.: National Center for
Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education.
Loeb, S., Darling-Hammond, L., & Luczak, J. (2005). How teaching conditions predict teacher
turnover in California schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 80(3), 44–70.
Pogodzinski, B., Youngs, P., Frank, K., & Belman, D. (2012). Administrative climate and
novices’ intent to remain teaching. The Elementary School Journal, 113(2), 252–275.
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