NEXT SURVEY: Spring 2008
 

(from the Office of the Governor)

The Governor’s Teacher Working Conditions Initiative expands on a NC Professional Teaching Standards Commission pilot project in 2001. With the support of the State Board of Education, the Commission adopted working conditions as a primary focus. The Commission, through research and focus groups, developed 30 working conditions standards for schools in five broad categories. The standards were validated by focus groups and by more than 500 teachers. The Commission then developed a survey based on the standards.

In the fall of 2001, this survey was administered in a pilot study to 2,300 teachers and administrators in 60 schools throughout the state. The pilot provided important feedback on the working conditions in participating schools. Based on these results, Governor Easley expanded the initiative to encompass every public school-based educator in the state.

 

In May of 2002, in partnership with the Commission, assistance from the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), and support and funding from BellSouth-NC, the Governor sent out surveys to every licensed public school-based educator in North Carolina. The goals of the survey were to

The survey was sent again in 2004 and 2006.  The survey includes 39 statements about working conditions in five categories:

Educators were asked to respond to each of the statements with a value of “1” through “6” with “1” representing “Strongly Disagree” and “6” representing “Strongly Agree.” All statements are written to indicate a positive description of the school environment (e.g., “The principal is a strong, supportive leader” and “Adequate and appropriate time is provided for professional development”). Therefore, higher scores always indicate a more positive opinion of the school environment.