Teacher Implementation Survey

APPENDIX E. Teacher Implementation Survey

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Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic: Evaluation of A Toolkit to Support Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in Grades 2 Through 4

Teacher Implementation Survey

To be completed by teachers after all professional learning community (PLC) sessions have been completed.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is [xxxx-xxxx]. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 20 minutes. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202. If you have comments or concerns regarding the content or the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, 550 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20202.

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The U.S. Department of Education is sponsoring a study, the Evaluation of A Toolkit to Support Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in Grades 2 Through 4, to learn more about the effects of an elementary writing toolkit on teachers’ writing instruction and students’ overall writing quality. REL Mid-Atlantic is conducting this study for the Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education under contract 91990022C00112 with Mathematica.

Today, you are being asked to take a survey about the writing toolkit and the professional learning community (PLC) sessions you participated in. You will be asked to provide input on your experience in the PLC sessions, your perceptions on the diagnostic tools, and your overall perceptions on the writing toolkit materials and process.

We would like you to know the following:

• The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete.

• In reporting the study’s results, your answers will be completely confidential; no information that identifies you, your school, or your district will be reported. Your responses are protected from disclosure per the policies and procedures required by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part E, Section 183. REL Mid-Atlantic will present the information collected as part of this study in an aggregate form and will not associate responses to any of the people who participate. We will not provide information that identifies you, your school, or your district to anyone outside the study team except as required by law. Your responses will be used only for statistical purposes. Any willful disclosure of such information for nonstatistical purposes, without the informed consent of the respondent, is a class E felony.

• This form is voluntary, but your response is critical for producing valid and reliable data. You may skip any questions you do not wish to answer or opt of the entire survey without any consequences. However, we hope that you answer as many questions as you can. Your answers to questions will not affect your job or any hiring decisions now or in the future.

• After completing the survey, you will receive a $30 e-gift card via email.

• Participation in this survey does not pose any risks to you as a respondent other than accidental disclosure of information. REL Mid-Atlantic has safeguards in place to ensure respondents’ confidentiality, including restricted access to survey data and separating identifying information such as school names from survey responses. All REL Mid-Atlantic staff sign a confidentiality pledge, and all staff with access to identifiable study data have received clearance from the U.S. Department of Education and are subject to severe legal consequences for any breach of confidentiality. Any data that identifies you will be destroyed at the end of the study. If you have any questions about your rights as a research volunteer, contact the Health Media Lab Institutional Review Board (HML IRB) toll free at 1-202-753-5040 and reference IRB number [insert].

• If you have any questions about the study or your participation, email us at [study email].

 By clicking this box, you are confirming that you understand that the information you provide will be kept private and used only for research purposes. You further understand that your answers will be combined with the responses of other teachers so that no individuals will be identified.

A. EXPERIENCE IN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY (PLC) SESSIONS

The first questions are about your experience participating in PLC sessions.

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A1. Please indicate how often you engaged in each of the following activities. These activities could have occurred either before, during, or after the PLC sessions.

	Always	Most of the time	Some of the time	Rarely	Never
a. Completed the Prepare to Shares before PLC sessions	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m
b. Planned lessons that incorporated what was learned in the PLC sessions	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m
c. Discussed teaching experiences related to the writing-specific material covered in PLC sessions	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m

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A2. Thinking about your experience participating in the PLC sessions, to what extent did you feel supported by:

	Not at all	To a small extent	To a moderate extent	To a great extent
a. The PLC facilitator Support could include ensuring you knew the activities to complete between sessions, engaging the PLC in productive conversations, and serving as a resource for implementation of the instructional strategies	1	2	3	4
b. Other members of the PLC Support could include providing feedback or ideas on implementing new writing instructional practices	1	2	3	4
c. The school administration Support could include providing adequate time for PLC sessions and writing instruction	1	2	3	4

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A3. Did you encounter any of the following challenges when participating in the PLC?

Select all that apply

• Schedule conflicts prevented attendance in some of the PLC sessions 1

• Inability to complete the Prepare to Shares prior to PLC sessions 2

• Uncertainty on how to effectively work through the Prepare to Shares prior to PLC sessions 3

• Uncertainty on how to implement the practices covered in PLC sessions in the classroom 4

• Other (Please specify) 99

(STRING 150)

• I did not encounter any challenges when participating in PLC sessions 5

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A4. What did you find most useful about participating in the PLC sessions?

(STRING 250)

B. TEACHER PERCEPTIONS ON THE SELF-REFLECTIONS ANG GOAL SETTING

The next set of questions ask you to provide your perceptions on the Initial Self-Reflection that was completed before you started using the toolkit.

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B1. The Initial Self-Reflection guided you through an assessment of your writing instructional practices before you started using the toolkit. It included two parts. Part 1 was a reflection on your current practices and Part 2 focused on setting high-level learning goals for using the toolkit.

Did you complete the Initial Self-Reflection?

Select all that apply

• Yes, I completed Part 1 1

• Yes, I completed Part 2 2

 No, I did not complete either part of the Initial Self-Reflection 0

IF B1 = 1 or 2

B2. How easy or difficult was it to complete the Initial Self-Reflection?

 Very easy 1

 Easy 2

 Neither easy nor difficult 3

 Difficult 4

 Very difficult 5

IF B1 = 1 or 2

B3. Are there any aspects of the Initial Self-Reflection that can be improved?

 Yes (Please specify) 1

(STRING 250)

 No 0

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B4. The toolkit included self-reflections after Module 1 and after Module 2. Did you complete the module-specific self-reflections?

Select all that apply

• Yes, I completed the Module 1 Self-Reflection 1

• Yes, I completed the Module 2 Self-Reflection 2

 No, I did not complete either of the module-specific self-reflections 0

IF B4 = 1 Or 2

B5. How easy or difficult was it to use complete the module-specific self-reflections?

 Very easy 1

 Easy 2

 Neither easy nor difficult 3

 Difficult 4

 Very difficult 5

IF B4 = 1 Or 2

B6. Are there any aspects of the module-specific self-reflections that can be improved?

 Yes (Please specify) 1

(STRING 250)

 No 0

IF B1 = 1 or 2 OR B4 = 1 or 2

B7. In this next item, please consider time spent after completing the Initial Self-Reflection and/or time spent after completing the module-specific self-reflection(s).

Did you do any of the following?

	Yes	No
a. Reflect on my writing instructional practices	1	0
b. Set goals or plan for improving my writing instructional practices	1	0
c. Discuss my writing instructional practices with others	1	0

IF B7_a = 1 OR iF B7_B = 1 OR IF B7_C = 1

IF B7_a = 1, DISPLAY B8_A, iF B7_B = 1, DISPLAY B8_B, IF B7_C = 1, DISPLAY B8_C

ELSE, DO NOT DISPLAY ROW

B8. To what extent did you find it helpful to your writing instruction to do the following?

	Not at all	To a small extent	To a moderate extent	To a great extent
a. Reflect on my writing instructional practices	1	2	3	4
b. Set goals or plan for improving my writing instructional practices	1	2	3	4
c. Discuss my writing instructional practices with others	1	2	3	4

The next set of questions ask you to provide your perceptions on the goal setting activity that was completed as part of Module 3.

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B9. Module 3 included an activity on goal setting (Activity 3.1b), where you were asked to develop new short-term and long-term goals related to writing instruction.

Did you complete the goal setting activity?

 Yes 1

 No 0

IF B9 = 1

B10. How easy or difficult was it to complete the goal setting activity?

 Very easy 1

 Easy 2

 Neither easy nor difficult 3

 Difficult 4

 Very difficult 5

IF B9 = 1

B11. Are there any aspects of the goal setting activity that can be improved?

 Yes (Please specify) 1

(STRING 250)

 No 0

C. OVERALL PERCEPTIONS OF THE WRITING TOOLKIT

The next set of questions ask you to provide your overall perceptions on the writing toolkit.

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C1. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements.

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Neither agree/disagree	Agree	Strongly agree
a. The writing toolkit helped me implement new instructional practices	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m
b. The writing toolkit improved my writing instruction	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m
c. What I learned from the writing toolkit will improve my students’ writing performance	1m	2m	3m	4m	5m

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C2. Listed below are the how-to steps covered in the toolkit. Please select up to three how-to steps that you found most useful to work on. For each how-to step selected, please provide 1 to 2 sentences to illustrate why that was useful to you.

Please note that in addition to the how-to steps listed below, Module 1 also includes a response option for “Recommendation 1: Provide daily time for students to write”, because there were no how-to steps in the toolkit for that recommendation.

PROGRAMMER: DO NOT ALLOW MORE THAN 3 CHOICES TO BE SELECTED. FOR EACH HOW-TO STEP SELECTED, PLEASE DISPLAY AN OPEN-ENDED TEXT BOX (STRING 250).

Select up to three how-to steps

Module 1

• Recommendation 1: Provide daily time for students to write 1

• How-to step 1: Teachers should participate as members of the community by writing and sharing their writing 2

• How-to step 2: Give students writing choices 3

• How-to step 3: Encourage students to collaborate as writers 4

• How-to step 4: Provide students with opportunities to give and receive feedback throughout the writing process 5

• How-to step 5: Publish students’ writing, and extend the community beyond the classroom 6

Module 2

• How-to step 1: Teach students strategies for the various components of the writing process 7

• How-to step 2: Gradually release writing responsibility from the teacher to the student 8

• How-to step 3: Guide students to select and use appropriate writing strategies 9

• How-to step 4: Encourage students to be flexible in their use of the components of the writing process 10

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C3. Listed below are the how-to steps covered in the toolkit. Please select up to three how-to steps that you found most challenging to work on. For each how-to step selected, please provide 1 to 2 sentences to illustrate why that was useful to you.

Please note that in addition to the how-to steps listed, Module 1 also includes a response option for “Recommendation 1: Provide daily time for students to write”, since there were no how-to steps in the toolkit for that recommendation.

PROGRAMMER: DO NOT ALLOW MORE THAN 3 CHOICES TO BE SELECTED. FOR EACH HOW-TO STEP SELECTED, PLEASE DISPLAY AN OPEN-ENDED TEXT BOX (STRING 250).

Select up to three how-to steps

Module 1

• Recommendation 1: Provide daily time for students to write 1

• How-to step 1: Teachers should participate as members of the community by writing and sharing their writing 2

• How-to step 2: Give students writing choices 3

• How-to step 3: Encourage students to collaborate as writers 4

• How-to step 4: Provide students with opportunities to give and receive feedback throughout the writing process 5

• How-to step 5: Publish students’ writing, and extend the community beyond the classroom 6

Module 2

• How-to step 1: Teach students strategies for the various components of the writing process 7

• How-to step 2: Gradually release writing responsibility from the teacher to the student 8

• How-to step 3: Guide students to select and use appropriate writing strategies 9

• How-to step 4: Encourage students to be flexible in their use of the components of the writing process 10

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C4. Do you have any additional feedback about the how-to steps that were covered in the toolkit? This could include feedback on the time spent covering each how-to step or feedback on how-to steps that were not included but you wished had been.

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK (STRING 250)

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C5. Did you encounter any of the following challenges when implementing the toolkit?

Select all that apply

• Inability to complete the Prepare to Shares 1

• Uncertainty on how to effectively work through the Prepare to Shares 2

• Too much time spent on some recommendations in the toolkit, and not enough time spent on other recommendations 3

• Confusing or ineffective order of sessions 4

• Uncertainty on how to apply the writing toolkit content to my writing instruction practices 5

• Uncertainty on how to apply the writing toolkit contents to my specific student population 6

• The writing toolkit content is not relevant to my writing instructional practice 7

• Other (Please specify) 99

(STRING 150)

• I did not encounter any challenges when implementing the toolkit 0

IF C6 NE 0

C7. How, if at all, did you or the PLC address the challenge(s) with implementing the toolkit?

PROGRAMMER: DO NOT ALLOW THE RESPONSE OPTIONS TO BE SELECTED AND THE OPEN-ENDED TEXT TO ALSO BE ENTERED.

(STRING 250)

• I did not make any adaptations to address those challenges 1

• The PLC did not make any adaptations to address those challenges 2

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C8. Do you have any recommendations for how the writing toolkit can be improved?

 Yes 1

 No 0

IF C8 = 1

C9. Please describe the specific recommendations you have for improving the writing toolkit.

(STRING 250)

D. SUPPORTS

The next set of questions ask about supports when working through the writing toolkit.

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D1. Did you receive any of the following support(s) when working through the writing toolkit? Please consider any support you received either individually or as part of a PLC.

Select all that apply

• The school provided time to complete the Prepare to Shares 1

• The school provided time for staff to collaborate on writing instruction materials or plans 2

• The school provided adequate space (e.g., an unused classroom) for the PLC sessions to be held 3

• The school provided funding for any supplemental resources that were needed while working through the writing toolkit 4

• The school district provided resources to help the school implement the toolkit 5

• Other support (Please specify) 6

SPECIFY (STRING 150)

• Other support (Please specify) 7

SPECIFY (STRING 150)

• Other support (Please specify) 8

SPECIFY (STRING 150)

• We did not receive any writing instruction support 0

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D2. Thinking about your experience developing and implementing new writing instructional practices, to what extent did you feel supported by:

	Not at all	To a small extent	To a moderate extent	To a great extent
a. The PLC facilitator	1	2	3	4
b. Other members of the PLC	1	2	3	4
c. The school administration	1	2	3	4
c. The district administration	1	2	3	4

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D3. Thinking about ways to improve supports provided to future toolkit users, what additional support(s) from the PLC facilitator, other members of the PLC, the school administration, or district administration would you have found helpful for developing and implementing new writing instructional practices?

• SUPPORT (STRING 500)

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D4. Are there any additional writing instruction support(s) that would have been helpful that you haven’t described in this survey?

 Yes (Please specify) 1

(STRING 250)

 No 0

Thank you for completing the survey!