Survey FAQs
A key factor in promoting teacher recruitment, retention, and effectiveness is for teachers to have a professional and supportive work environment. In this survey, teachers are asked to provide their individual perspectives on their current working conditions, the resources and challenges related to their work, and the impact of these areas on teachers’ engagement and satisfaction.
The survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete. It is very similar in length and format to the annual school climate survey. However, there are two big differences between the two surveys. The climate survey asks for teacher perceptions of the school environment as a whole, while the TWC Survey wants to understand teachers’ individual perceptions of working conditions. Selected climate information is included as part of accountability measures, and TWC information is not a part of school accountability.
The TWC Survey is administered online and can be completed on a computer, tablet, or phone. If respondents need to stop the survey at any point, they are welcome to pick it up where they left off, as responses are saved as soon as they are entered.
Survey questions are broadly categorized into supports and stressors that can affect teachers’ day-to-day work. Supports refer to psychological, physical, social, or organizational supports that help teachers meet their work goals, develop personally and professionally, reduce stress, and serve as coping strategies. The TWC Survey asks about teachers’ experiences with resources in seven areas: (1) administrative support; (2) communication with principal; (3) availability of resources; (4) parent support; (5) cooperation and recognition among staff; (6) influence over school policy and decision-making roles; and (7) autonomy in the classroom.
Other areas refer to on-the-job demands encountered as part of a teacher’s day-to-day work. There are four sources of potential challenges examined on the TWC: (1) amount of paperwork and routine duties; (2) student engagement; (3) student behavior; and (4) student safety and health.
Additional areas on the TWC Survey include teacher self-efficacy and intent to return to teaching. Two open-ended comment boxes are also included for teachers to provide additional details about areas of stress and support.
The goal of the TWC Survey is to obtain actionable data for use with systematic improvement at school and district levels. The plan is to have a two-year cycle. In year one, SC TEACHER will administer the TWC Survey to all South Carolina classroom teachers. The second year will focus on the use of the survey data.
Based on the results, we will provide a data dashboard for districts and schools to identify areas where they can draw upon improvement planning and strategies. We will also provide concrete improvement strategies to help act on these changes by providing toolkits and protocols for educators based on what is learned from the data. This helps keep the focus on areas and goals that are important to schools and districts based on these data.
The survey is confidential, not anonymous – this is only for being able to compute a response rate for each school. The information is not identifiable, and raw data will not be shared. SC TEACHER will provide feedback to schools, but we will not share any data for schools with fewer than 50% of the eligible teachers responding or schools with less than ten eligible teachers. All data will only be reported in the aggregate.
The TWC Survey is being 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 developed the TWC Survey based on areas outlined in Act 185 and in collaboration with the Recruitment and Retention Task Force.
Want to respond to the survey?
If you are a South Carolina classroom teacher who has not received an email to complete the TWC Survey or received a link in your email for the incorrect school, please submit the form below to request to complete the survey.