Teacher Survey

Appendix B: PRISMS Toolkit Evaluation Teacher Survey

Please respond the questions on this survey. The research team will protect the confidentiality of all information collected for the study and will use it for research purposes only. Only the evaluation team members with training in how to deal with sensitive and confidential data will be allowed access. None of your responses will be individually attributed to you or your school or district and will be used for statistical purposes only. You may opt out from responding to a question or the entire measure at any time with no consequences.

Screening question

Do you provide reading interventions to students in grades 6–8 in the current school year? Reading interventions may take place in many settings (for example, a general education classroom, remedial education classroom, or special education classroom) and may be provided by many different types of teachers (for example, general education or special education teachers, reading interventionists, or paraprofessionals).

☐ Yes

☐ No

If NO, stop the survey.

Background

1. What is your primary role at this school during the current school year (select all that apply)?

○ English language arts (ELA) teacher

○ Reading interventionist/intervention provider

○ Special education teacher

○ Reading coach

○ Reading specialist

○ Paraprofessional

○ Other: ____________________

2. What grades do you serve during this school year (select all that apply)?

○ 6th grade

○ 7th grade

○ 8th grade

3. What best describes your role at this school during this school year?

○ Regular full-time teacher

○ Regular part-time teacher

○ Reading interventionist

○ Paraprofessional

○ Reading coach or reading specialist

○ Other: ___________________

If NONE OF THE ABOVE, stop the survey.

4. Including the current year, how many years of experience do you have teaching?

○ 1

○ 2

○ 3

○ 4

○ 5

○ 6

○ 7

○ 8

○ 9

○ 10

○ 11

○ 12

○ 13

○ 14

○ 15

○ 16

○ 17

○ 18

○ 19

○ 20

○ 21

○ 22

○ 23

○ 24

○ 25+

5. What is the highest degree that you have earned?

○ High school degree

○ Associate’s degree

○ Bachelor’s degree

○ Master’s degree

○ PhD, EdD, or JD

○ Other: ___________________

6. Do you have a major, minor, or special emphasis in any of the following subjects as part of your undergraduate or graduate coursework?

   	Yes, a major	Yes, a minor emphasis
   Literacy instruction: Elementary grades	1	2
   Literacy instruction: Middle grades	1	2
   Literacy instruction: Secondary grades	1	2

7. Select the type of license(s) you have.

☐ Standard Educator Certificate

☐ Probationary Educator Certificate

☐ Substitute Educator License

8. Select all the grade levels you are certified to teach.

☐ Prekindergarten

☐ Kindergarten

☐ 1

☐ 2

☐ 3

☐ 4

☐ 5

☐ 6

☐ 7

☐ 8

☐ 9

☐ 10

☐ 11

☐ 12

9. Select all your certification areas.

☐ Core subjects

☐ English language arts/Reading

☐ Mathematics

☐ Science

☐ Social studies

☐ Bilingual or English as a second language (ESL)

☐ Special education

☐ Other: ___________________

10. Have you earned certification in the Science of Teaching Reading (STR)?

☐ No, I have not earned STR certification

☐ Yes, in early childhood–grade 3

☐ Yes, in core subjects with STR: Early Childhood–grade 6

☐ Yes, in core subjects with STR: Grades 4–8

☐ Yes, in ELA and reading with STIR: Grades 4–8

☐ Yes, in ELA and reading/social studies with STR: Grades 4–8

11. During the 2025/26 school year, how many hours in total have you spent in online courses and virtual or in-person professional learning focused on literacy instruction? Note: Treatment school teachers will see the following prompt: “Include any hours spent using online modules as part of the PRISMS Toolkit.”

○ None

○ Less than 6 hours

○ 6–15 hours

○ 16–35 hours

○ More than 35 hours

12. During the 2025/26 school year, how many hours in total have you spent in professional learning communities (PLCs)? Note: Treatment school teachers will see the following prompt: “Include any hours spent in professional learning communities as part of the PRISMS Toolkit.”

In-person only ______ hours

Virtual only ______ hours

Hybrid ______ hours

13. During the 2025/26 school year, how many hours in total have you spent in individual professional learning focused on literacy instruction (for example, individual reading focused on literacy instruction or using checklists to monitor your implementation of recommended instructional practices)? Note: Treatment school teachers will see the following prompt: “Include any hours spent in individual professional learning as part of the PRISMS Toolkit.”

______ hours

14. During the 2025/26 school year, did you participate in or lead any of the following professional learning activities related to the teaching of literacy? Note: Treatment school teachers will see the following prompt: “Include any hours spent in individual professional learning as part of the PRISMS Toolkit.”

☐ College literacy course If YES, _______ hours

☐ Online self-paced literacy course If YES, _______ hours

☐ Virtual or in-person live literacy workshop or training session If YES, _______ hours

☐ Literacy instructional coaching If YES, _______ hours

☐ Literacy classroom walk-throughs (for example, a school leader observed my classroom using a literacy checklist) If YES, _______ hours

☐ Literacy checklist to reflect on my teaching If YES, _______ hours

☐ Literacy professional learning community If YES, _______ hours

15. Consider all the professional learning activities you participated in during the 2025/26 school year (including summer 2025). To what extent did you learn about the following topics? Note: Treatment school teachers will see the following prompt: “Include any hours spent in professional learning as part of the PRISMS Toolkit.”

	Not at all	Small extent	Moderate extent	Large extent
Implementing reading interventions for students	1	2	3	4
Identifying students who would benefit from reading interventions	1	2	3	4
Literacy instruction: Secondary grades	1	2	3	4
Identifying when to intensify reading intervention	1	2	3	4
Identifying when to exit students from reading interventions	1	2	3	4
Monitoring students’ progress in the context of reading intervention	1	2	3	4
Building students’ decoding skills	1	2	3	4
Supporting students in reading complex, multisyllabic words	1	2	3	4
Providing fluency-building activities	1	2	3	4
Developing students’ knowledge of the world and words to support reading comprehension	1	2	3	4
Providing students with opportunities to ask and answer questions to support reading comprehension	1	2	3	4
Helping students determine the gist of text	1	2	3	4
Helping students self-monitor their comprehension of text as they read	1	2	3	4
Providing students with “stretch text” (that is, challenging text)	1	2	3	4

16. How many times did you meet with your PLC during the school year?

• In-person: Drop down for 0 to 20+

• Virtual: Drop down for 0 to 20+

• Hybrid: Drop down for 0 to 20+

Toolkit Implementation Items for Teachers in the Treated Sample

Note: Only treatment teachers respond to the items in this section.

1. How did your instructional practices in reading interventions change this year because of your use of and participation in professional learning related to the PRISMS Toolkit?

○ My instructional practices changed significantly.

○ My instructional practices changed some.

○ My instructional practices stayed about the same.

2. How many times did you use the Fidelity of Implementation Tool during the school year?
   Note: Insert link to tool so that teachers can see what it looks like.

○ I did not use this tool

○ Once

○ Twice

○ Three or more times

○ I’m not sure

3. To what extent do you disagree or agree with the following statements specifically about the Fidelity of Implementation Tool? Note: Insert link to resource so that teachers can see what it looks like. Do not show this item if response is I DID NOT USE THIS TOOL.

   	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree
   The Fidelity of Implementation Tool helped improve the quality of my teaching.	1	2	3	4
   The Fidelity of Implementation Tool helped me prepare students to advance their reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Fidelity of Implementation Tool helped me get students interested in reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Fidelity of Implementation Tool was highly engaging for me.	1	2	3	4
   The Fidelity of Implementation Tool was easy for me to use.	1	2	3	4

4. Did you complete Online Toolkit Module 1? This module focuses on building students’ decoding skills so that they can read complex multisyllabic words and providing purposeful fluency-building activities. Note: Insert link to module with description so that teachers can see what it looks like.

○ Yes

○ Partially

○ No

○ I’m not sure

5. Did you complete Online Toolkit Module 2? This module focuses on using comprehension-building practices to help students make sense of text and providing students with opportunities to make sense of “stretch text.” Note: Insert link to module with description so that teachers can see what it looks like.

○ Yes

○ Partially

○ No

○ I’m not sure

6. To what extent do you disagree or agree with the following statements specifically about the Online Toolkit Modules? Note: Insert link to resource so that teachers can see what it looks like. Do not show this item if response is NO for both question 4 and question 5.

   	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree
   The Online Toolkit Modules helped improve the quality of my teaching.	1	2	3	4
   The Online Toolkit Modules helped me prepare students to advance their reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Online Toolkit Modules helped me get students interested in reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Online Toolkit Modules were highly engaging for me.	1	2	3	4
   The Online Toolkit Modules were easy for me to use.	1	2	3	4

7. How often did you use the Toolkit Resource Roundup? Note: Insert link to roundup so that teachers can see what it looks like.

○ Never

○ Less than monthly

○ Monthly

○ Weekly

○ Daily

8. To what extent do you disagree or agree with the following statements specifically about the Toolkit PLCs? Note: Insert link to resource so that teachers can see what it looks like. Do not show this item if response is NEVER.

   	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Agree	Strongly agree
   The Toolkit PLCs helped improve the quality of my teaching.	1	2	3	4
   The Toolkit PLCs helped me prepare students to advance their reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Toolkit PLCs helped me get students interested in reading.	1	2	3	4
   The Toolkit PLCs were highly engaging for me.	1	2	3	4
   The Toolkit PLCs were easy for me to use.	1	2	3	4

9. To what extent did you do the following during the school year in PLCs and/or independently or with a partner? Note: If teacher did not participate in PLCs, do not show the “During PLCs” items.

   	During PLCs				Independently or with a partner (NOT during a PLC)
   	Not at all	Small extent	Moderate extent	Large extent	Not at all	Small extent	Moderate extent	Large extent
   Reviewed my ratings on the Fidelity of Implementation Tool Note: Insert link to tool so that teachers can see what it looks like.	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that makes sense of stretch text	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that uses routines and strategies for decoding multisyllabic words	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Selected which visual scaffolds I will use in my classroom Note: Insert link to scaffolds so that teachers can see what it looks like.	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that uses a set of comprehension-building practices with text (such as pulling out essential words and background knowledge)	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that builds students’ world and word knowledge so they can make sense of the text	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that teaches students to monitor their comprehension as they read	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that asks and answers questions based on the text	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that uses the routine for generating gist statements	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4
   Planning instruction that provides fluency-building activities	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4

10. To what extent did each of the following make implementing the toolkit approach challenging this year? Note: Insert link to resource so that teachers can see what it looks like.

	Not a challenge	Minor challenge	Moderate challenge	Major challenge
The number of students for whom I am responsible	1	2	3	4
The variation in achievement levels among my students	1	2	3	4
The variation in age or maturity among my students	1	2	3	4
The amount of training on the toolkit	1	2	3	4
The frequency of ongoing coaching on the toolkit	1	2	3	4
Time to practice and discuss the toolkit approach with my team	1	2	3	4
Time to implement the toolkit approach	1	2	3	4
Lack of support from school leadership	1	2	3	4
Lack of support from my local facilitator	1	2	3	4
The toolkit approach does not align with my philosophy about how to teach reading	1	2	3	4
Lack of coherence with the reading program my school uses	1	2	3	4
Pressure to cover specific material as a result of state or district testing	1	2	3	4
Lack of clear guidance from my school leadership	1	2	3	4
Lack of guidance on how to adapt the toolkit approach to teaching students who are English learners	1	2	3	4
Lack of guidance on how to adapt the toolkit approach to teaching students with disabilities	1	2	3	4
Resistance from parents of my students	1	2	3	4
Resistance from my students	1	2	3	4
Resistance from school staff	1	2	3	4
Misalignment between the toolkit and my beliefs about how my students learn	1	2	3	4

Teacher Knowledge Questionnaire

For each of the following questions, please choose the response that you think best answers the question.

Questions 11-36 are from the Teacher Knowledge of Early Literacy Skills (TKELS; Folsom et al., 2017) survey.

11. What does morphemic analysis help students do?

    1. Identify letter sounds.

    2. Blend speech sounds.

    3. Examine words for meaningful parts.

    4. Separate syllables into onsets and rimes.

12. What is a requirement of a syllable?

    1. It contains at least one consonant letter.

    2. It contains no more than one vowel letter.

    3. It is a pronounceable unit.

    4. It contains no more than one phoneme.

13. What literacy concept does vocabulary instruction primarily teach students?

    1. Highly frequent words

    2. Base words and meaningful parts (for example, prefixes and suffixes)

    3. Decodable words

    4. Word meaning

14. What is NOT an irregular, high-frequency word?

    1. when

    2. does

    3. were

    4. said

15. If “tife” is a word, the letter “i” would probably sound like the “i” in which word?

    1. if

    2. beautiful

    3. find

    4. ceiling

16. Which of the following sets of words would be best for a teacher to use when providing students with examples of words conforming to the “silent e” phonics generalization?

1. time, make, cube, done

2. lake, breathe, raise, fate

3. brake, use, hope, shine

4. tree, lie, blue, toe

17. As a teacher reads aloud to his students from a social studies text, he comments aloud, “This word pioneer is in bold print, so that means it is an important word,” and “The chapter headings in the book can help me understand the main ideas in the book, so I will be sure to read them.” How is the teacher helping students improve their comprehension of informational text?

    1. Teaching them how to use graphic organizers

    2. Modeling attention to useful features of informational text

    3. Improving students’ recall of the details of the text

    4. Teaching them how to infer word meanings from context

18. Two or three times each week, Mrs. Hruby teaches “phonics through spelling” with her students. She pronounces words sound by sound as her students listen, write the appropriate letters, and then blend the letters to identify the words. Why is this activity likely to be effective?

    1. Reinforces students’ recognition of common spelling patterns

    2. Requires students to use letter-sound relationships to blend unfamiliar words

    3. Reviews and strengthens students’ ability to recognize and blend word chunks

    4. Prepares students to combine letter-sound relationships with meaning-based clues

19. Mr. Lewis’ class has been learning spelling rules for adding “ing” to base words. He is looking for groups of words that illustrate the various rules to give his students a complex challenge. Which of the following groups of words would be best for this purpose?

    1. hopping, running, sending, getting

    2. hoping, buying, caring, baking

    3. seeing, letting, liking, carrying

    4. All of the word sets are useful for this purpose

20. Ms. Card wants to help her students become good spellers. Which activity should Ms. Card do?

    1. Pronounce a word and have students write each sound.

    2. Display letter cards and have students pronounce the sounds.

    3. Say each sound of a word and have students say the word.

    4. Ask students whether pairs of spoken words rhyme.

21. Why is metacognition important in reading comprehension?

    1. It helps students to monitor their own comprehension.

    2. It makes the teacher aware of when students are experiencing difficulty during reading.

    3. It prompts students to create mental images.

    4. It causes automatic processing of the text so that students can make meaning of the text.

22. Teachers often read texts aloud as students follow along before students try to read the text themselves. Which is the best reason why teachers might do this?

    1. To teach comprehension strategies directly.

    2. To model their expert decoding skills to students.

    3. To present a challenge to the students to read the text quickly.

    4. To demonstrate appropriate phrasing and expression for the text.

23. What is a reading method that focuses on teaching the application of phonemes to letters called?

    1. Phonics

    2. Phonemics

    3. Orthography

    4. Phonetics

24. What would the open syllable of the nonsense word “botem” most likely rhyme with?

    1. coat

    2. hot

    3. rah

    4. low

25. After reading a story, what should the discussion focus on to maximize comprehension?

    1. Sequencing the events of the story

    2. The most important parts of the story

    3. The details of the story

    4. The characters in the story

26. Which of the following is an example of reading comprehension instruction that helps to promote active construction of meaning?

    1. Independent silent reading

    2. Doing a think-aloud

    3. Sounding out difficult words

    4. Looking up words in a dictionary

27. What is the most important reason that oral segmentation and oral blending activities should be a part of reading instruction?

    1. To strengthen students’ fluency development through oral practice.

    2. To help students hear and identify short and long vowel sounds.

    3. To allow students to hear the mistakes of other students.

    4. To give students practice with skills they will use in silent reading.

28. Which word(s) is/are phonetically irregular?

    1. done

    2. give

    3. peach

    4. a and b

29. Following her lesson on recognizing diphthongs in words, Mrs. Byrnes wants to provide her students with additional practice. Which type of text should she select to provide the best practice?

    1. Predictable text with repetitious phrases

    2. Authentic text from children’s literature

    3. Text with a high percentage of selected decodable words

    4. None of the above

30. Mr. Kubota teaches his students to decode unfamiliar words by breaking words into parts, such as word root, prefix, and/or suffix (for example, un-imagine-able). Which skill is he teaching?

    1. Structural analysis

    2. Analyze the meaning of the word parts

    3. Syllabication

    4. Chunking the word

31. A teacher assigns pairs of students to reread a text aloud to each other three times. What skill will this activity strengthen most effectively?

    1. Choral reading

    2. Text comprehension

    3. Fluency development

    4. Automatic word recognition

32. How many morphemes are in the word “unhappiness”?

    1. 2

    2. 3

    3. 4

    4. 5

33. Which phonemic awareness activity would be the most difficult for a student?

    1. Blending phonemes into real words

    2. Blending onset-rime units into real words

    3. Deleting a phoneme and saying the word that remains

    4. Segmenting words into phonemes

34. How many phonemes are in the word “box”?

    1. 1

    2. 2

    3. 3

    4. 4

35. Decoding skills will benefit a student’s understanding of text only if the words they decode are what?

    1. Recognized at sight

    2. Encountered several times

    3. Included in the student’s oral vocabulary

    4. Also defined by context clues

36. Which of the following is a nonsense word that does not follow English spelling patterns?

    1. Shease

    2. Toyn

    3. Squive

    4. Clow

Questions 37 to 47 are from the Fluency Subscale of the Teacher Understanding of Literacy Constructs and Evidence-Based Practices (Hall et al., 2023).

37. Fluency instruction is likely to be most effective once students:

    1. Develop initial phonemic awareness.

    2. Learn their first grapheme-phoneme correspondence.

    3. Begin to show some confidence with basic decoding.

    4. Are in middle school.

Match the description to the appropriate component of fluent reading.

	Rate	Accuracy	Prosody
A child reads aloud at a steady pace, similar to the speed of their speech.	X
A child reads aloud with phrasing and intonation that mirrors normal speech.			X
A child reads most of the words on the page correctly.		X

41. When seeking to improve a student’s reading fluency, research evidence supports the following instructional approach:

    1. Providing frequent opportunities to engage in independent, silent reading

    2. Guiding students to engage in round robin reading (that is, take turns reading a text)

    3. Telling students to skip a difficult word and come back to it later

    4. Guiding students to engage in repeated reading with feedback

42. Which of the following is not an evidence-based component of reading fluency instruction?

    1. Expert modeling

    2. Repeated reading

    3. Round robin reading

    4. Corrective feedback

43. Which is not an appropriate way to assess fluency?

    1. Calculating the percentage of total words read accurately

    2. Calculating words read correctly per minute

    3. Listening for voice inflection and how it reflects the punctuation in text

    4. Listening to a retelling and determining knowledge of story grammar elements

44. Which option below classifies the morpheme “tract” in the word “contract” most appropriately?

    1. Derivational suffix

    2. Inflectional suffix

    3. Latin root

Different types of teacher questions prompt students to engage in different kinds of thinking. For each of the following prompts, choose whether the prompt is literal, inferential, applied/evaluative, or strategic.

	Literal	Inferential	Applied/ Evaluative	Strategic
“Based on the list provided in the text, name three things that penguins can eat in the wild.”	X
“In Chapter 3, Agnes has to make a tough decision. Would you make the same decision she did? Why or why not?”			X
“Based on what we’ve read, why do you think Jake is mad at his mom?”		X

Questions 48 to 50 are from the Teacher Knowledge of Reading Comprehension (TKRC) survey (Hudson, 2021).

48. If a teacher wanted to help children infer the meaning of the word “scarlet” from context, which of the following sentences would provide the best example for him to use?

1. John's face turned scarlet with embarrassment when he realized his mistake.

2. Mary loved the color scarlet and often bought clothes in that shade.

3. A scarlet sports car sped along the highway, weaving in and out of traffic.

4. The two children fought at length over the scarlet crayon, then Billy decided to use the magenta one instead.

5. I'm not sure.

49. A science teacher is about to teach a unit on the digestive system. Which of the following types of vocabulary words would be most appropriate to preteach?

1. Multisyllable words related to the topic

2. Important content words related to the topic

3. High-frequency words

4. Common phonetically irregular words

5. I'm not sure.

50. A teacher notices that many of her students seem confused about the meaning of the word “incomprehensible,” which they have encountered while reading a novel aloud in class. If the teacher wants to help students learn the meaning of the word and extend their vocabulary knowledge to other words, which of the following should she do?

1. Have students divide the word into syllables orally.

2. Explain the meaning of the word and ask students to use it correctly in another sentence.

3. Teach students about common roots and affixes, and help them to infer the meaning of the word.

4. Have the students look the word up independently in the dictionary.

5. I'm not sure.

Teacher Self-Efficacy

(Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy In Language Instruction; Tschannen-Moran & Johnson, 2011)

Please indicate your opinion about each of the questions below by marking any one of the five responses in the columns on the right side, ranging from (1) “Not at all” to (5) “A great deal,” as each represents a degree on the continuum.

Please respond to each of the questions by considering the combination of your current ability, resources, and opportunity to do each of the following in your present position.

	Not at all	Very little	Some degree	Quite a bit	A great deal
To what extent can you use a variety of informal and formal reading assessment strategies?
To what extent can you adjust reading strategies based on ongoing informal assessments of your students?
To what extent can you provide specific, targeted feedback to students during oral reading?
To what extent can you meet the needs of struggling readers?
To what extent can you use a student’s oral reading mistakes as an opportunity to teach effective reading strategies?
To what extent can you get students to read fluently during oral reading?
To what extent can you provide your students with opportunities to apply their prior knowledge to reading tasks?
To what extent can you help your students monitor their own use of reading strategies?
To what extent can you model effective reading strategies?
To what extent can you implement effective reading strategies in your classroom?
To what extent can you help your students figure out unknown words when they are reading?
To what extent can you use flexible grouping to meet individual student needs for reading instruction?
To what extent can you implement word study strategies to teach spelling?
64. How much can you motivate students who show low interest in reading?
65. How much can you do to adjust your reading materials to the proper level for individual students?

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