What is the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey?
The SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey (SCTWCS) explores public school and district factors related to educator support and retention. SC TEACHER is charged through Act 185 to conduct the survey every two years.
It’s important to note that the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey differs from the School Climate Survey as it aims to gain teacher perspectives on working conditions, rather than overall school environment.
Every teacher’s involvement makes a difference. Increased survey participation means more data and better insights to improve working conditions within our school districts and the state.
Read the SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey report for the most recent state-level results.
Is my district eligible to participate in the 2024 survey administration?
The 2024 SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey is for districts that did not participate in early 2023 survey administration or did not have a response rate above 25%. The 2024 survey will run from Jan. 29 to Feb. 16, 2024. The standard survey runs on a biannual schedule and will occur again statewide in 2025.
Is your district highlighted in blue?
Your district is eligible to take part in the 2024 SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey!
District personnel will have received information on how to participate.
Is your district highlighted in grey?
We appreciate your participation in the Spring 2023 survey. While your district will not be asked to complete the survey again until the 2025 administration, your results grant district personnel access to specific data, ongoing expert support, and other free resources through SC TEACHER.
Not sure how to access resources? Email SCTinfo@mailbox.sc.edu.
Highlights from the 2025 SCTWCS administration
- The 2025 SCTWCS administration captured the experiences of close to 25,000 teachers (59.5%) from 54 traditional school districts (75%), as well as two charter districts and five other schools.
- Of the 54 traditional districts that participated, 45 of those districts (83%) had a teacher response rate of at least 50%.
- On May 27, district teams will receive access to their district-specific survey results. They can utilize data to identify strengths and opportunities for growth to employ in strategic planning and ongoing improvement efforts.
- Districts with at least a 50% response rate are invited to Data + Insight Workshops, where they can work through practical uses for their data alongside other districts and content experts.
Districts that participate in the survey receive access to a secure dashboard with their specific data to inform efforts around teacher recruitment, retention, and more. Watch the video to hear from engaged districts how the dashboard and survey results support their ongoing strategic planning.
FAQs for survey participation
The 2025 SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey is now closed! Thank you to everyone who participated.
The next survey will take place in 2027. District superintendents and personnel administrators should look for information on participating in Fall 2026.
- Broad takeaways are shared in a statewide report to inform policies and practice toward improvement. Only state-level, aggregated data are included in this report.
- District administrators alone receive district-level data. Teachers are not identifiable by their responses. Participating districts also receive free access to resources to support them through the improvement planning process, such as general data and district- and school-level toolkits.
- Schools (with a minimum of 10 teachers) that meet the participation threshold of 50% receive their results to use for internal strategic planning. Participating teachers also receive these results.
Classroom teachers in participating districts will be sent a link to participate in the survey via their district email addresses. This includes professional certification positions of special education (itinerant [03], self-contained [06], resource [07]), prekindergarten [04], kindergarten [05], classroom [08], and retired teachers returning to teach [09].
SC TEACHER recognizes the importance of all school perspectives. We will be surveying additional certified staff in future research efforts.
The survey should take less than 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 only so SC TEACHER can compute a response rate for each school. Raw data will not be shared, and teachers will never be identifiable by their responses.
There are two big differences between the surveys.
- While the climate survey asks for teacher perceptions of the overall school environment, the Teacher Working Conditions Survey seeks to understand teachers’ individual perceptions of working conditions.
- School climate information is included as part of accountability measures for schools and districts — Teacher Working Conditions Survey information is not.
For the 2025 SC Teacher Working Conditions Survey, districts will receive access to their personalized, interactive data dashboards by May 2025.
Schools (with a minimum of 10 teachers) that meet the 50% response rate threshold will receive reports by late summer. Both principals and participating teachers will receive reports of school-level data.
This schedule gives districts and schools time to use their data in planning for the following school year.
