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1. Teacher Collaboration Assessment

Directions:
This questionnaire assesses your perceptions about your principal, staff, and stakeholders based on organizational change theories and teacher collaboration.

This questionnaire contains a number of statements about practices, which occur in some schools when they are moving toward having more release time for teacher collaboration.

Read each statement and then use the scale below to select the scale point that best reflects your personal degree of agreement with the statement.

Be sure to select only one response for each statement.

Key Terms:
Principal= Principal, not Associate or Assistant Principal
Staff = All adult staff directly associated with curriculum, instruction, and assessment of students
Stakeholders= Parents and community members
Department Team= The team where you engage in collaboration with others. Might be a subject-specific department, a grade-level, etc.

Question Title

* 1. Shared Beliefs, Values and Vision

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
There is a teacher-leadership team has a wide representation of different departments in the school.
Our department team developed a set of values that we share.
Decisions are based on the school’s vision.
The school’s mission statement is reviewed at least once a year.
As a department team, we have a set of short-term measurable goals.
Our school’s vision describes a future in which students achieve at high levels, and there is a measurable goal.
After the teacher collaboration program began at my school, I felt that my role had a different image in the school.
There is a teacher-leadership team that assists the school in creating and sharing common beliefs and values.
Our school-wide goals and objectives for student learning are related to our school vision.
The vision and mission statements were rewritten and used the entire staff’s input to develop them.

Question Title

* 2. Shared and Supportive Leadership

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
The principal is proactive and addresses areas where support is needed.
The principal participates democratically with staff sharing power and authority.
The staff has accessibility to key information.
Stakeholders assume shared responsibility and accountability for student learning without evidence of imposed power and authority.
The staff is consistently involved in discussing and making decisions about most school issues.
Opportunities are provided for staff to initiate change.
The principal shares responsibility and rewards for innovative actions.
Decision-making takes place through committees and communication across grade and subject areas.
Leadership is promoted and nurtured among staff.
The principal incorporates advice from staff to make decisions.

Question Title

* 3. Collective Learning

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
As a department team, we frequently innovate classroom practice and then measure its effectiveness with formative assessments.
The department team is comfortable with discussing data.
Struggling students are frequently discussed, and ways to re-teach them are implemented.
Data is summarized and trends are analyzed.
As a department team, we frequently engage in professional dialogue.
Teachers in the school spontaneously come together to solve problems of teaching and learning.
Team dialoguing is valued among the department team because we find that we come to common understandings when we voice our points of view.
Student data is frequently collected and discussed at department team meetings.
My department team’s planning leads to improved student learning.
During our department team meetings, common assessments are made to assess student achievement and learning.

Question Title

* 4. Supportive Conditions

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
Teaches across grade levels are involved in planning for to align their curriculum.
My colleagues and I mentor and coach each other, and are allocated the resources to do so.
My principal coaches our department team toward improving student learning.
There are a set of group norms developed by our department team that are strictly adhered to.
There is time allotted for teacher collaboration.
My view of collaboration is that it is strategic, based on data, and uses action research.
My principal uses data to make decisions that lead to improving student learning.
There are resources (hourly rate, etc.) allocated for teacher collaboration.
The school was given professional development in collaboration.

Question Title

* 5. Shared Personal Practice

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
My department team identifies instructional practices that they would like to learn.
Professional development activities at this school are teacher driven.
I share my knowledge and expertise with other teachers to solve problems of teaching and learning.
I seek out other teachers’ expertise to help me solve problems of teaching and learning.
Other teachers seek out my expertise to solve problems of teaching and learning.
I am asked about my teaching expertise to assist others in instruction.
I feel comfortable with sharing my failures with my department collaboration.
Teachers in this school frequently make classroom visits to observe other instructional practices.
Sharing personal teaching practices among colleagues is important and increases student learning.
Participating in the collaboration activities has improved my instructional practice.
Teachers who visit my classroom provide me with feedback on my instructional practice.

Question Title

* 6. Leadership Characteristics

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
The principal Is knowledgeable about current curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.
The principal ensures faculty and staff are aware of the most current theories and practices and makes the discussion of these a regular aspect of the school’s culture.
The principal is willing to challenge and actively change the status quo.
The principal inspires and leads new and challenging innovations.
The principal adapts his or her leadership behavior to the needs of the current situation and is comfortable with dissent.
The principal monitors the effectiveness of school practices and their impact on student learning.
The principal communicates and operates from strong ideals and beliefs about schooling.

Question Title

* 7. Normalizing Classroom Practice

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
The staff was involved in writing a common vision.
An inventory was taken in the school to find what structures already supported the values of a collaboration model and what structures needed to be implemented.
The staff was asked for input in common values and beliefs that the school would share.
Dialoguing among teachers as to their expectations, fears, concerns, and questions was engaged in while the school was moving into a teacher collaboration model.
Information on department-level collaboration was readily available to teachers.
Department teams were asked to write a set of norms that they agreed to adhere to.
Before the teacher collaboration was implemented at the school, data was taken and analyzed to find a benchmark or diagnoses of what structural aspects needed to be changed.
The staff was involved in writing or rewriting the school’s mission statement.
Department teams were asked to write a set of value statements that they would share, and was indicative of the core values as a teacher.

Question Title

* 8. Supporting Teacher Collaboration

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
Pacing guides were developed by the department teams to have a common practice and sequence to the curriculum.
A professional development plan was faculty created based on the faculty’s teaching goals.
Department meeting agendas are given in advance so each member knows how their time is spent.
Diagrams on the change process were presented in faculty meetings or passed out, so all members were aware of the changes that were going to take place.
Reflections of the department’s teaching goals could be seen in the following year’s master schedule.
Collective goals were incorporated into the yearly School Improvement Plan.

Question Title

* 9. Making Cultural Shifts

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neither disagree or agree Agree Strongly Agree
The achievements of short-term goals were celebrated along the way.
The teacher-leadership team represents my views and values to the principal.
The teacher-leadership team communicates my views and values to the principal.

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