Thank you for participating in the 2012 FCPS Working Conditions Survey! The survey is now closed. Click here to view the response rate.

A supportive school climate is essential to creating conditions where educators want to work and students are able to learn. Teaching conditions are learning conditions, and FCPS wants use the views of educators to shape the development of strategies that enhance school, teacher, and student success.

This anonymous online survey is a vital tool that provides individual schools and the division with valuable information on how best to support student achievement and teacher retention. Working conditions are not about accountability or any one individual; they are about entire schools—and it takes a group effort to improve them. Let’s take a step toward improved school conditions by illustrating where to concentrate our efforts and where things are working well.

What the Experts Say

"Whether teachers believe there’s an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in the school … really correlates well with both student achievement and teacher retention.” – Eric Hirsch, director of the New Teacher Center

“The character of the workplace is enormously important in determining who enters teaching and who stays.” – Susan Moore Johnson, professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Safe, caring, participatory and responsive school climate tends to foster great attachment to school as well as providing the foundation for social, emotional and academic learning.” – Center for Social and Emotional Education

“When teachers believe that they can organize and execute their teaching in ways that are successful in helping students learn, and when the school climate supports them, teachers … act purposefully to enhance student learning. It is important to try to understand how specific school climate attributes influence critical teacher behaviors that improve teaching and learning in the classroom.” – Wayne K. Hoy, professor of Educational Administration at Ohio State University.

When the Results Come In: Support and training on data interpretation and utilization

Training will be provided for principals on reading and understanding their school’s data. To facilitate the data use and drill-down process, school leadership teams will be invited to participate in a workshop where in just a few hours they can come away with a practical action plan for school improvement. The New Teacher Center’s (NTC) Resources page can help schools engage in ongoing and meaningful conversations about potential strategies to improve teaching and learning conditions.

About the Survey

Since 2002, the NTC’s Teaching & Learning Conditions Survey has been implemented in 12 states and 10 districts nationwide to great success. Results have been used by education leaders and policymakers to make informed decisions critical to improving the teaching environment and student achievement. Survey data have been used to:

• Develop school leadership training for administrators on how to use the survey data in making school-level improvement decisions
• Change professional development offerings and provide teachers with more autonomy in selecting growth opportunities
• Implement targeted recruitment  strategies