Qtel Teacher Survey

QTEL TEACHER SURVEY¹

(Treatment Teacher Form)

Dear Teacher,

Berkeley Policy Associates (BPA) is a major subcontractor to Regional Education Laboratory, West (REL West) which has been contracted by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate WestEd’s Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) professional development program. As part of this study, we need to collect information about your background, your instructional practices, and your experience with the program.

Your input is a very important part of this study. Our report aims to be of value to education leaders across the country. We know how precious your time is and we greatly appreciate your participation.

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 30 minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202-4651. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of this form, write directly to: Rafael Valdivieso, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Room 506E, Washington, D.C. 20208.

This collection of information is authorized by Public Law 107-279 Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, Title I, Part C, Sec. 151(b) and Sec. 153(a). Participation is voluntary. Your responses are protected from disclosure by federal statute (PL 107-279 Title I, Part C, Sec. 183). All responses that relate to or describe identifiable characteristics of individuals may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be disclosed, or used, in identifiable form for any other purpose, unless otherwise compelled by law. Data will be combined to produce statistical reports. No individual data that links your name, address, telephone number, or identification number with your responses will be included in the statistical reports.

If you have any questions about the study please contact Raquel Sanchez at Berkeley Policy Associates (626-356-4610). You can also learn more about BPA at http://www.berkeleypolicyassociates.com.

If you encounter any technical problem in completing this survey², please contact Vanora Thomas, Survey Administrator, at Berkeley Policy Associates 1-800-891-0272 (Toll Free) for further assistance.

I. Background Information

1. _______________________ ___________ _______________________

First Name Middle Initial Last Name

2. Contact Information:

__________________________________________________________

Email Address

__________________________________________________________

Mailing Address Street Apt. Number

_________________________ ___________ ______________________

City State Zip Code

___________________________________________________________

Phone Number

3. Which of the following college degrees do you currently hold? (Check all appropriate boxes)

• Bachelor’s degree

• Master’s degree

• Doctorate or professional degree (Ph.D., Ed.D., M.D., J.D., D.D.S., etc.)

• Other (Specify)

4. Which of the following teaching credentials or professional licenses do you hold?

• California Teaching Credential (Preliminary or Clear)

• Special Endorsement, Special Education

• Special Endorsement, CLAD

• Special Endorsement, B-CLAD

• Other Special Endorsement

• Administrator

• Substitute/Provisional License

• National Board Certification

• Teaching License from state other than California

• Other (please specify)

5. What is your sex?

• Male

• Female

6. Do you consider yourself to be Hispanic or Latino origin? (Please select one)

• No

• Yes

7. Which of the following best describes you? (Please select one or more)

• American Indian or Alaska Native

• Black or African American

• Asian

• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander

• White

8. Is English your primary language (the first language you learned as a child)?

• No

• Yes

9. Do you have conversational fluency in a language other than English?

• No

• Yes, please specify language(s)

For questions 10-12, please tell us about your past teaching experience:

10. Counting this year as one year, how many years have you been teaching at any school in any district in the U.S.? Include all teaching experience except student teaching and substitute teaching.

• 1-3 years

• 4-6 years

• 7-9 years

• More than 10 years

11. Counting this year as one year, how many years have you been teaching in San Diego County public schools? Include all teaching experience except student teaching.

• 1-3 years

• 4-6 years

• 7-9 years

• More than 10 years

12. To your best knowledge, of all your years spent teaching, how many of those years did you spend teaching in classes with 20% or more English language learners?

_________years

13. Which is the highest percentage of English language learners in any of your current classes?

• Less than 20%

• 21-30%

• 31-40%

• 41-50%

• more than 50%

14. Please indicate to what extent in the last two (2) years you have participated in professional development focused on the following topics.

	Not at all	1-3 days	4-6 days	7 days or more
a. English language development standards
b. Content area standards
c. Support for a published curriculum in language arts or other content areas
d. Instructional strategies for secondary English language learners
e. Differentiation of instruction
f. Other

15. If you selected "Other" in Question 14 above, please describe the type of professional development you received.

II. Instructional Practices

16. Please indicate how often you use the following instructional strategies.

	Never/almost never	1-2 times per week	1-2 times per day	More than 2 times a day
a. Explicitly teach academic language particular to your content area
b. Use multiple techniques to make concepts and tasks clear (e.g., visuals, manipulatives, realia, modeling)
c. Make lower level materials available for students with lower English proficiency
d. Provide opportunities for all students to use higher-order thinking skills (e.g., problem solving, predicting, organizing, evaluating, self-monitoring)
e. Simplify input to make it more comprehensible to English learners
f. Adjust expectations for students’ whose limited English proficiency prevents them from meeting state or district standards
	Never/almost never	1-2 times per week	1-2 times per day	More than 2 times a day
g. Provide students with extra wait time
h. Perform regular comprehension checks (e.g. requests for clarification, repetition, on-going assessment of students’ performance)
i. Group students by English language proficiency level

17. How frequently do you ask students in your class(es)—including English language learners—to engage in the following activities? (Check one box on each row)

	Never/almost never	1-2 times per month	1-2 times per week	1-2 times per day
a. Develop oral or written summaries of reading
b. Evaluate their own work
c. Complete workbook or textbook exercises in class
d. Evaluate a piece of work completed by another student
e. Memorize vocabulary, facts, rules or procedures
f. Engage in discussions about a reading
g. Listen to lectures
	Never/almost never	1-2 times per week	1-2 times per day	More than 2 times a day
h. Work in small groups of two or more students
i. Use data and text references to support their ideas

18. To what extent is each of the following a challenge for your school?

	Serious Challenge	Moderate Challenge	Minor Challenge	Not a Challenge
a. Shortage of qualified teachers
b. Shortage of bilingual teachers
c. Time for teachers to collaborate
d. A high proportion of English language learners
e. Student behavior/discipline
f. A lack of community or parent support
g. A lack of student motivation
h. A lack of appropriate materials for ELLs
i. Collegiality among faculty

19. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements about student learning.

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree	Don’t Know
a. Some students I teach are not capable of learning the material I am supposed to teach them
b. Some teachers at my school have lower expectations of ELL students than for other students
c. It is important for ELL students to develop and maintain their primary language
d. Teachers should incorporate the cultures of their students into instructional activities
e. The use of primary language in the classroom slows down English language learning
f. ELL students require a disproportionate amount of a teacher’s time compared to non-ELL students
g. Teachers should modify the curriculum to meet the needs of ELL students
h. ELL students thrive in mainstream classes with native English speaking peers
i. The use of native language at home can impede learning a second language

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree	Don’t Know
j. Parents of ELL students value education as much as other parents
k. Students may use their primary languages in my classroom
l. Culture is part of the curriculum in my classroom
m. I feel I have the preparation or professional development necessary to meet the needs of ELL students
n. The presence of ELL students in mainstream classrooms has a negative impact on the achievement of other students
o. My ELL students tend to interact with one another rather than with their native English-speaking peers
p. My participation in professional development will increase the number of ELL students assigned to my classroom
q. The appropriate way to deal with an ELL’s lack of comprehension is to use simplified materials and simplified language

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree	Don’t Know
r. Teachers should modify their instruction to meet the needs of ELL students

20. To what extent do the following factors hamper your ability to teach to the standards?

	Not at all	Very little	Somewhat	A great deal
a. The number of English language learners in my class
b. The ability level of my students
c. Level of parent or community support
d. Limited knowledge for working with English language learners
e. The range of students’ needs in my class
f. Level of support from principals/administrators
g. Limited knowledge of my content area
h. Level of support from other teachers
i. Inadequate materials and resources

III. Professional Development Support

21. Please indicate the extent to which you participated in QTEL (check all that apply)

• Attended 3 days of Building the Base

• Attended less than 3 days of Building the Base

• Attended 4 days of the follow-up summer professional development

• Attended less than 4 days of the follow-up summer professional development

• Attended _____ coaching sessions during the school year

• No coaching sessions have been scheduled so far

• Attended _______ collaborative planning sessions/ study groups with other QTEL participants in my school

• No collaborative planning sessions or study groups have been scheduled so far at my school

22. What was the main reason you were not able to attend/ participate in components of QTEL?

	Building the Base	Follow-up professional development	Coaching session	Collaborative planning meting
Conflict with personal plans
Conflict with my school/ professional activities
School/ district did not compensate me for my attendance
I did not think that it would be useful
Other: Please explain_______________________

23. Please indicate the extent to which you found the QTEL summer professional development useful:

• Not useful at all

• Not very useful

• Somewhat useful

• Very useful

• I did not attend

24. My coaching sessions have consisted of: (Check all that apply; if no coaching sessions have been scheduled so far, please skip to question 27)

• One-on-one lesson planning meeting

• Observation of the lesson’s implementation

• Discussion of the classroom observation with my coach

• Reviewing and discussing samples of student work

• Other: Please explain ________________________

25. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of the following statements:

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree
a. My QTEL coach encouraged me to network with other teachers at my school
b. My QTEL coach encouraged me to collaborate with other teachers and work on lesson plans together
c. My QTEL coach emphasized the QTEL principles that were learned in the Building the Base workshops
d. My QTEL coach helped me develop lesson plans
e. After each QTEL coaching session, I was asked to reflect on the session and evaluate how I felt about the coaching
f. My QTEL coach helped me to understand the purpose behind student tasks
g. My QTEL coach was available to me outside the normal session time, e.g. by email, by phone

	Strongly Disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree
h. Coaching sessions were well thought out and organized
i. My QTEL coach was knowledgeable with respect to the QTEL principles
j. My QTEL coach was knowledgeable with respect to implementing a variety of student tasks
k. My QTEL coach was knowledgeable with respect to implementing a variety of scaffolding techniques
l. I will be able to continue using QTEL principles after the coaching sessions have ended
m. The coaching was invaluable to my understanding of the QTEL method

26. Please indicate the extent to which you feel the following QTEL coaching activities were useful:

	Not useful at all	Not very useful	Somewhat useful	Very useful
a. Gathering information about my teaching context
b. Identifying learning goals for my target lessons
c. Identifying activities that will support the learning goals
d. Discussing grade – appropriate academic content
e. Discussing language learning issues
f. The questions my coach asked to help me deepen the content of my lesson
g. Discussing how my lesson supports all students’ achievement
h. Taking notes on the content and structure of my target lessons during the pre-conference
i. Coach’s record of the types of interactions that predominate in my classroom
j. Coach’s record of the content of the interactions in my classroom
k. Coach’s suggestions for tasks that engage students in productive activity

	Not useful at all	Not very useful	Somewhat useful	Very useful
l. Coach’s notes on the alignment of the observed lesson with my pre-conference plan
m. Discussing the observed lesson
n. The way my coach presented specific evidence from my classroom
o. The questions my coach asked to help me reflect on specific aspects of my teaching
p. Revising/identifying the learning goals for my future lessons

27. Please indicate the extent to which you found the Collaborative planning sessions/ study groups with other QTEL participants useful (Check one response)

• Not useful at all

• Not very useful

• Somewhat useful

• Very useful

• I did not attend

• Collaborative planning sessions have not been scheduled at my school

28. Please indicate the extent to which participating in QTEL affected the following:

	Not effective at all	Not very effective	Somewhat effective	Very effective
a. Your knowledge regarding the needs of English language learners
b. Your confidence in implementing QTEL tasks in the classroom
c. Your awareness of the cultures of English language learners
d. Your knowledge regarding the purposes of scaffolding
e. Your ability to construct tasks that allow for multiple points of entry
f. Your use of scaffolding techniques to move students to higher levels of understanding
g. Your use of homogenous and heterogeneous groupings in order to facilitate understanding
h. Your use of academic, rather than simplified, language

-- End of Survey --

Thanks for completing this survey! Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the persons listed on the cover page.

1 This survey will be given to the treatment teachers first at the beginning of Fall, 2007, then at the end of each Spring, 2008-2010. The section III of the survey will not be included for the survey administration in Fall, 2007 since the teachers would have not been exposed to the QTEL program at that time.

2 This survey will be administered through World Wide Web.