Education Leaders Want Teachers to “TELL” Texas! 

(Austin, TX) – Prominent state education stakeholder groups announced the official launch of the first statewide survey of teachers and administrators on school teaching and learning conditions today. The TELL Texas Survey (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) is an anonymous, statewide survey being administered to assess if teachers and other educators have the teaching and learning conditions needed to be effective. The survey results will provide valuable data for schools and districts to use in improvement planning.

Already, more than 50,000 school-based educators have completed the survey which opened April 7 and has an official launch date of May 1 continuing through May 31. “Together, we can work to make every school in Texas a wonderful place to teach and learn – but we need help from the experts in our schools: teachers and principals. TELL Texas is a unique opportunity that asks for our school-based educators to tell leaders what they need to do their jobs well,” said Representative Villarreal, who sponsored the legislation that required the survey. HB2012 funds the survey and requires the commissioner of education to develop an online teaching and learning conditions survey to be administered statewide biennially to teachers, principals, counselors and other school-based professional staff.

TELL Texas is supported by Educate Texas, the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE), the Texas American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT), the Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA), and the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA). “I encourage every teacher in our state to complete the TELL Texas Survey” said Ginger Franks, President of ATPE. “Research across the country shows the connection of positive teaching conditions to improved student performance.” 

Linda Bridges, President of Texas AFT, agrees, noting, "The research shows that better working conditions for teachers and better learning conditions for students are one and the same. That is why all of our organizations have come together to encourage all teachers and principals to take the anonymous survey.”

Anyone may view the response rate at every school in the state by visitingwww.telltexas.org. Overall state-level results and school-level results for campuses reaching a minimum response rate of 50 percent with at least five educators responding will be publically available. “We know the value of using this data at the school level and that is why we are so strongly encouraging all educators to complete the survey,” said Grace Mueller, President of TCTA. 

Rita Haecker, President of TSTA emphasizes, “The TELL Texas Survey stands for Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning. This is our chance to empower our educators – please take this opportunity to ‘TELL’ Texas.” 

John Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of Educate Texas, is pleased that so many of the state’s professional organizations have joined together to ensure the success of this effort, “Educate Texas has been supportive of this work since the early writing of the legislature in 2013. We are pleased that we are part of such a wonderful opportunity for our teachers and principals across the state to have their voices heard, and be part of the improvement efforts across the state. We have already heard from more than 50,000 but we want to hear from every teacher and principal!”

The survey is administered by the New Teacher Center (NTC), a national organization dedicated to supporting the development of a high-quality teaching force. The questions used on the survey are research-based, externally validated, and shown by external research to be connected to both teacher retention and student achievement. The NTC has conducted similar surveys in other states, and since 2009 has heard from more than 1 million educators. 

Results from the TELL Texas Survey will be available approximately five weeks after the close of the survey window. For more information about the 2014 TELL Texas Survey, and to track individual response rates by school, please visit www.telltexas.org