What is the SC Administrator Working Conditions Survey?
The SC Administrator Working Conditions Survey (SCAWCS) is a new, statewide survey developed by SC TEACHER to study administrator perspectives every other year.
By measuring the working conditions of school-level leaders, the survey will offer a clearer picture of administrator experiences and school environments, complementing existing data on teacher perspectives, informing state policies, and providing districts with additional actionable data.
Participation in the inaugural survey administration
Districts that participated in the 2026 survey can now access their results via the District Landscape.
District superintendents and personnel administrators should have received an email from SCTresults@mailbox.sc.edu with info on how to view results.
Districts must have survey participation from at least five school administrators to access district-specific results. Those that do not meet this threshold can view state-level data in the District Landscape.
Email SCTresults@mailbox.sc.edu with any questions.
FAQs for survey participation
This survey is a new statewide instrument developed by SC TEACHER to better understand and support the work of South Carolina’s PK–12 school administrators.
Modeled after the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey, the survey seeks to explore the unique demands, resources, and job satisfaction of principals, assistant principals, and other school-level leaders, such as career and technical education (CTE) directors and assistant directors.
The SCAWCS is biennial (conducted in off-years from the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey) and will allow for cross-role comparisons between the two surveys for a more complete view of school working conditions experienced by both teachers and administrators.
PK–12 school administrators in participating districts will be sent a link to participate in the survey. Positions held by administrators include the professional certificate positions of principal [01], assistant principal or co-principal [02], CTE director [13], CTE assistant director [14], and administrative assistant [88].
At the state level, broad takeaways are shared in a statewide report to inform policies and practice toward continuous improvement.
At the district level, lead personnel from participating districts will receive free access to district-specific survey results (with a minimum of five participating administrators from the district). Leadership can use these data to inform strategies for administrator recruitment and retention and draw upon support services from SC TEACHER through free resources and workshops. Emails for district leaders to access survey results via the District Landscape were sent to superintendents and personnel administrators on June 3, 2026.
Only district leaders will receive district-level findings. Individual survey responses remain strictly confidential, and participants will not be identifiable.
The survey should take 15 minutes on average to complete. If you need to pause while completing the survey, your answers will be saved for you to start back where you left off.
The survey is confidential, not anonymous. This is so that SC TEACHER can compute a response rate for each district. Raw data will not be shared, and participants will not be identifiable.
For the 2026 survey, districts were asked to submit administrator emails for survey participation no later than Dec. 12, 2025.
The 2026 survey was administered from Jan. 12 to Feb. 20, 2026.
Districts (with at least five administrators participating) have received information via email on accessing district-specific survey results. Email SCTresults@mailbox.sc.edu with any questions you have for setting up your District Landscape account or viewing data.
The timing of this release gives districts time to use their data in planning for the upcoming school year. Districts that are not eligible for district-specific data can view state-level results.
Explore statewide survey results in the report and overview.
The SCAWCS is conducted by the South Carolina Teacher Education Advancement Consortium for Higher Education Research (SC TEACHER). SC TEACHER conducts, coordinates, and disseminates high-quality research on teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention in South Carolina.
SC TEACHER additionally administers the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey (biennially) and the SC Teacher Exit Survey (annually). The SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey was developed based on areas outlined in Act 185 of 2022 and in collaboration with the Recruitment and Retention Task Force.
