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What is “TELL Indiana” ?The TELL Indiana (Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning) survey is a unique opportunity for all educators in schools participating in the Indiana Teacher Incentive Fund initiative to provide valuable input on key education issues such as school and teacher leadership, professional development, and more.
This endeavor is funded by the Teacher Incentive Fund as part of the principal evaluation requirements of the grant.
How is the 2015 TELL Indiana Survey connected to the Teacher Incentive
Fund?
In 2010, Indiana was awarded a federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant to implement teacher and principal performance-based compensation system in 44 Indiana schools. The TELL Indiana survey is provided by the TIF grant and is used to meet the grant requirements.
The TIF grant also funds the TAP System in all participating schools.
As in 2012, 2013, and 2014 the Indiana Department of Education has contracted with the New Teacher Center (NTC) to administer the state’s survey.
NTC is a national organization dedicated to supporting the development of a high-quality teaching force. NTC has conducted similar surveys in other states and provides induction and professional development for teachers and principals across the country.
Learn more at: http://www.newteachercenter.org/tlcsurvey/index.php
What has happened as a result of the 2012 - 2014 TELL Indiana Surveys?
• Data was used to determine 30 percent of principal and assistant principal performance awards.
• Tools were developed and posted at the www.tellindiana.org website for school and teacher leaders to utilize for school improvement planning.
• Presentations, webinars and brief training were provided to school leaders at the 2012 Indiana TAP Summer Institute and webinars in the summer of 2013 to facilitate data use.
• TIF-participating schools across the state analyzed the survey results to make school improvement decisions.
TELL Indiana is an anonymous, online survey of every licensed school-based educator in the participating schools.
The survey will be live from April 13 - May 15, 2015.
Educators can access the survey via any Internet location, using an individual, anonymous access code.
Anyone can view the response rate at any school during the survey window to make sure every school reaches the minimum response rate needed for data (50%).
Results will be available for schools reaching the 50% minimum response rate and minimum of 5 educators.
The principal in each school will receive a packet of letters the week of April 6th.. There will be a Letter of Instruction included. The principal is asked to:
Set up a faculty meeting to distribute the survey access codes and share information about the TELL Indiana Survey.
Disseminate the letters randomly. Teachers can switch their letters once received with other licensed educators based in their same school.
Meet personally with anyone not in attendance to explain the process.
How will teachers and administrators receive their anonymous access codes?
No. They will use the same website (www.tellIndiana.org) to access the survey using one of the anonymous access codes on the letter. At the very beginning of the survey the participant will be asked to select his/her school position.
Do administrators take the same survey as teachers?
When the principal selects “Administrator” he/she will then receive many of the same questions as teachers, but will receive an additional bank of questions that have been specifically designed for administrators.
Can you ensure that this is anonymous? The survey is about the school environment - not about any one
person or individual.
There are NO questions asked that refer to an individual educator or administrator rather, questions refer to “leadership” at the school.
There are no questions on the survey that specifically ask about subject areas or grade levels.
When the letters with the unique, anonymous access codes are distributed, educators are encouraged to switch letters, thereby demonstrating the codes are anonymous.
When the school reports are released (for all schools that reach at least a 50% response rate and with a minimum 5 teachers) there is nothing to indicate any type of teacher or any one administrator in a school or district.
While there are some demographic questions on the survey, the answers to these questions are only reported as an aggregate, and not at the district or school level.
There is no way that any connection can be made that a teacher or principal at a certain school gave a certain response.
TELL Indiana survey takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.
You must complete it in one session and be sure to click “submit” when you are finished and wait to receive a notice you have successfully submitted the survey.
When will the results be ready? How can they be viewed?
As in previous administrations, all data will be available on the www.tellIndiana.org in the summer once analyses to support principal evaluation are conducted.
Results show answers to every question by school* and district. Results can be downloaded in Excel format and comparisons to 2014 will be available.
*Only for schools reaching the minimum threshold for response.
• They are randomized codes that provide confidentiality for the educators, created by the New Teacher Center and associated to school buildings so that schools can use the results from their own teachers.
• They are not linked to an individual. • It is impossible to trace to an individual before, during, or
after the survey is completed.• It does not matter which educator uses a particular code
within a school building. • Each code can only be used once.
Gathering the data from those who work with children everyday in our schools- the teachers- helps to capture valuable information, which research as shown is important in improving student achievement and teacher retention efforts.
The results should be used, along with other data artifacts, in school improvement plans.
Results are also used to determine principal and assistant principal performance awards (count toward 30% of the principal and TAP performance award.)
Performance Award Calculation for Principals and Assistant Principals
2. Standard deviation from the mean of the weighted average from 35 selected comparison schools where the survey was identically administered
• Schools matched on level, urbanicity, poverty, size• Schools drawn from almost 7,500 schools across multiple
states and districts • Data on urbanicity and poverty from federal NCES data
The deviation could range between -4.00 and 4.00, but it will be capped if the deviation was greater or less than -.50 or .50) for a total ranging from -.50 to .50
Performance Award Calculation for Principals and Assistant Principals
3. The average of 2012, 2013, and 2014 weighted composite measures will be subtracted from the 2015 measure to attain an amount of growth. While the difference could range between -3.00 and 3.00, it will be capped at +.50 to -.50
4. The three scores will be added to create a single “score” that could range from 0.00 to 5.00. 2015 survey results comprise 80% of the score, growth in conditions 10% and comparisons to like schools 10%