examining teachers’ perceptions of school working

1

Introduction

In January 2021, the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Charter School Office (CSO) partnered with

Basis Policy Research (Basis) to develop and administer a School Operations survey. The survey solicits’

teachers’ perceptions on school culture and climate, school leadership, faculty commitment and

responsibility, school resources and time use, and parent/guardian engagement. This research brief

examines results from select GVSU schools meeting reporting requirements.

Examining Teachers’ Perceptions of School Working

Conditions: Analysis of GVSU School Operations Survey

Kiel McQueen, PhD February 2021

Using teacher survey data across K-12 schools authorized by Grand Valley State University (GVSU),

this research brief examines teachers’ perceptions of school working conditions.

Key findings include:

• Most teachers are satisfied working in their school and like the way it is run.

• Most schools in the GVSU network have favorable working conditions.

• Establishing a trusting professional culture positively influences teachers’ sense of

satisfaction.

• Teachers’ perceptions of individual and collaborative planning time and opportunities offered

to parents/guardians detract from schools’ resources and parent/guardian engagement scores.

Recommendations include:

• Highlight best practices for supporting teachers’ individual and collaborative planning time

and providing opportunities for parent/guardian engagement.

• Use survey results to differentiate support to unique needs of individual schools.

2

Research Questions

This brief examines the following research questions:

1. To what extent are teachers satisfied with working in their current school?

2. To what extent do schools have favorable working conditions?

3. What factors contribute to teachers’ perceptions of satisfaction and working conditions?

3

Results

Drawing on data from the Winter 2021 administration of the GVSU CSO School Operations Survey,

Basis researchers conducted a series of descriptive and inferential analyses. Results are organized by

research question below with a full description of methods provided in Appendix A.

At the conclusion of the survey window, 659 participants (41 percent) completed the survey (See

Appendix B for response rate). Basis researchers restricted the analysis to the 502 teachers working in 45

schools with at least a 50 percent response rate or greater than 10 responses. This sample restriction

reduces the degree to which school-level results are driven by a small percentage or subset of teachers.

Most analyses included in this brief explore descriptive trends in the percentage of participants

responding to different response options.

1 | To what extent are teachers satisfied with working in their current school?

Most teachers are satisfied working in their current school.

Figure 1 displays the percentage of teachers who “agreed” or “strongly agreed” to questions gauging

workplace satisfaction. Results suggest overall satisfaction is overwhelmingly high in GVSU network

schools, with 92 percent of teachers reporting they are generally satisfied working in their school.

Moreover, the survey asked whether teachers like the way their school is run. Figure 1 indicates

approximately 70 percent of all teachers agreed with this statement. The discrepancy in results between

questions indicates that approximately 20 percent of teachers are satisfied working in their school even if

they have less favorable opinions of school leadership.

Figure 1: Percentage of teachers who “agree” or “strongly agree” to questions about personal

satisfaction

Source: GVSU CSO School Operations Survey; author’s analysis.

92%

Percentage of teachers satisfied with

being a teacher in their school.

Percentage of teachers who like the

way their school is run.

70%

4

2 | What percentage of schools have favorable working conditions?

To answer this research question, we aggregated teachers’ responses at the school-level and applied the

following scoring key to code measures discussed in this section:

• Favorable Conditions – School Operation score exceeding 3.00;

• Moderate Conditions – School Operation score between 2.50–2.99;

• Unfavorable Conditions – School Operation score below 2.49.

Basis researchers aggregated participants’ responses across 27 survey questions to construct a school-

level “Working Conditions” score. We also constructed five sub-measures – School Climate, School

Leadership, Collective Responsibility, School Resources, and Parent/Guardian Engagement – to better

understand what is driving schools’ working condition scores. A description of each measure is included

in Appendix A.

Most schools in the GVSU network have favorable working conditions.

Figure 2 displays the percentage of schools with favorable, moderate, or unfavorable working conditions.

Results indicate most schools (71 percent) have favorable working conditions. Moreover, we sought to

understand if there is a relationship between working conditions and the percentage of economically-

disadvantaged (ED) or minority students served. Results from a two-sample t-Test suggest there is no

meaningful difference in schools’ working condition scores for schools serving a larger percentage of ED

and minority students.

Figure 2: Percentage of schools with favorable, moderate, or unfavorable working conditions


Most schools have favorable school climate, school leadership, and collective responsibility conditions.

Figure 3 displays the percentage of schools with favorable, moderate, or unfavorable conditions by sub-

measures. Results indicate most schools have favorable Collective Responsibility (91 percent), School

Climate (87 percent), and School Leadership (73 percent) conditions. This suggests most teachers (a) feel

responsible for student learning and establishing healthy learning environments, (b) believe there is an

atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in their school, and (c) perceive their administration as strong

0%

29%

71%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Unfavorable Conditions Moderate Conditions Favorable Conditions

5

instructional leaders. In contrast, Figure 3 indicates fewer schools have favorable School Resources (34

percent) or Parent/Guardian Engagement (58 percent) conditions.

Figure 3: Percentage of schools with favorable, moderate, or unfavorable conditions by measure


3 | What factors contribute to teachers’ perceptions of satisfaction and working conditions?

Establishing a trusting and open professional culture positively influences teachers’ sense of

satisfaction.

GVSU teachers are more likely to be satisfied working in their school and approving of the way the

school is run when administrators establish a collaborative, trustful, and open staff culture. For instance,

88 percent of teachers feel comfortable raising issues or addressing concerns with school leadership. Of

those teachers, 77 percent approve of the way things are run at their school compared to 23 percent of

teachers who do not feel comfortable raising concerns with administrators (See Figure 4).

22%

11%13%

27%

9%

44%

31%

87%

73%

91%

34%

58%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

School Climate School Leadership CollectiveResponsibility

School Resources Parent/GuardianEngagement

Unfavorable Conditions Moderate Conditions Favorable Conditions

6

Figure 4: Percentage of teachers satisfied with being a teacher and like the way their school is run

as a function of feeling comfortable raising issues with school leadership


Moreover, 89 percent of teachers agree there is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect within their

school. Most of these teachers (94 percent) are satisfied with being a teacher in their current school (See

Figure 5). In contrast, 64 percent of teachers who do not agree an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect

exists report being satisfied to work in their school. Three quarters of teachers reporting an atmosphere of

trust and mutual respect exists approve of the way things are in their school. This represents a 50 percent

difference when compared to teachers who do not report an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect exists.

Figure 5: Percentage of teachers satisfied with being a teacher and like the way their school is run

as a function of feeling comfortable raising issues with school leadership.


Among teachers who feel comfortable raising

issues or concerns with school leadership

77% like how the

school is run

Among teachers who do not feel comfortable

raising issues or concerns with school leadership

23% like how the

school is run

Among teachers who agree there is an

atmosphere of trust and mutual respect

94% are satisfied being a

teacher in the school

64%

Among teachers who disagree there is an

atmosphere of trust and mutual respect are satisfied being a

teacher in the school

7

How administrators handle student discipline influence teachers’ sense of satisfaction and perceptions

of how the school is run

Beyond establishing an open and trusting staff culture, how administrators handle student misbehavior

positively influences teachers’ sense of satisfaction and perceptions of how their school is run. For

instance, 88 percent of teachers agree school leadership effectively handles student discipline and

behavioral problems. Of these teachers, 94 percent are satisfied with being a teacher in their school while

78 percent like how the school is run (See Figure 6). In contrast, a considerably smaller percentage of

teachers are satisfied being a teacher in their school or like how their school is run when they do not

believe their leadership effectively handles student discipline or behavioral problems.

Figure 6: Percentage of teachers who like how school is run based on how leadership handles

student behavior.

Among teachers who report school leadership effectively address

student behavior

94% 78%

Among teachers who report school leadership does not effectively

address student behavior 76% 34%


Moreover, results suggest there is a positive association between administrators’ handling of student

misbehavior and the amount of time teachers spend focused on teaching and learning. Approximately 79

percent of teachers who agree administrators effectively handle student misbehavior and discipline report

being allowed to focus on teaching students with minimal interruptions. In contrast, only 43 percent of

teachers who do not agree administrators effectively address student misbehavior report being able to

focus on instruction without disruptions.

Teachers’ individual and collaborative planning time and opportunities offered to parents/guardians

detract from schools’ resources and parent/guardian engagement scores.

While survey results are overwhelmingly positive, Figures 7 and 8 identify two areas in which most

schools could improve. First, the percentage of teachers “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” to having

sufficient individual (58 percent) or collaborative (60 percent) planning time is considerably lower than

most questions included in the survey. Moreover, teachers’ responses to these two questions contributed

to an increase in the percentage of schools with “unfavorable” or “moderate” conditions for resources and

time use.

like how the

school is run

like how the

school is run

are satisfied being

a teacher in the school

are satisfied being

a teacher in the school

8

Figure 7: Percentage of teachers “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” to questions addressing school

resources and time use.


Second, teachers are less likely to agree their school offers diverse opportunities for parents/guardians to

participate in school planning, leadership, and volunteering or report feeling supported by the

parents/guardians of their students in these areas. Similarly, results from this question contribute to a

decrease in the number of schools with “favorable” conditions for parent/guardian engagement. Finally,

when we examined whether there were significant differences in resources or parent/guardian engagement

scores for schools serving larger percentages of ED or minority students, we found no meaningful

difference exists. This suggests results are not driven by the student population served.

Figure 8: Percentage of teachers “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” to questions addressing

parent/guardian engagement.


44%

47%

51%

51%

14%

13%

23%

25%

My individual planning time is sufficient.

My collaborative planning time is sufficient.

Teachers in my school are allowed to focus onteaching students with minimal interruptions.

Teachers have opportunities to lead professionaldevelopment for their peers.

Agree

Strongly Agree

51%

63%

50%

37%

19%

22%

This school regularly communicates withparents/guardians about how they can help their

children learn.

I feel supported by the parents/guardians of mystudents.

This school offers an array of opportunities forparents/guardians to participate in school planning,

leadership, and volunteering.

Agree

Strongly Agree

9

Discussion and Implications

This brief summarizes teachers’ perspectives on working conditions, including school culture and climate,

school leadership, faculty commitment and responsibility, school resources and time use, and

parent/guardian engagement. Most teachers in the GVSU network are satisfied working in their current

school (92 percent) and like the way their school is run (70 percent). These results contribute to most

GVSU schools having favorable working conditions (71 percent). Moreover, favorable results are largely

driven by teachers’ responses to school climate, school leadership, and collective responsibility questions.

In contrast, fewer schools have favorable school resource or time use and parent/guardian engagement

conditions. These results are largely influenced by teachers’ responses to questions about whether

individual or collaborative planning time is sufficient and whether schools offer diverse opportunities for

parents/guardians to engage with the school. Considering these findings, we suggest the GVSU CSO and

its stakeholders consider the following two recommendations when planning future network supports.

1 | Highlight best practices for supporting teachers’ individual and collaborative planning time and

providing opportunities for parent/guardian engagement.

Results from the GVSU CSO School Operations Survey could be used to highlight schools excelling in

select measures. The GVSU CSO could then conduct a series of case studies to understand what schools

are doing to thrive in school climate, school leadership, school resources and time use, and

parent/guardian engagement. For instance, schools with favorable resources and time use, and

parent/guardian engagement conditions could participate in a case study highlighting actions they

undertook or structures they developed that are positively received among staff. Insights from these case

studies would highlight best practices that could be disseminated to the broader GVSU network with a

toolkit of support to help implement these best practices.

2 │ Differentiate support to unique needs of individual schools.

The CSO could explore measures included in the survey by schools included in the analytic and non-

analytic sample. Results will provide the GVSU CSO with insights into strengths and areas for

improvement for each school. Moreover, the GVSU CSO can further review how schools score on

individual questions identifying areas of strength and areas needing improvement. Insights from this

analysis support the GVSU CSO in tailoring supports to the unique needs of the respective schools.

10

Appendices

Appendix A: Methods

Data Sources. This research brief draws on data from the Winter 2021 administration of the Grand

Valley State University (GVSU) Charter School Office (CSO) School Operations Survey. The survey

includes validated items from the annual Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Educator Survey.

Researchers from Basis Policy Research (Basis) selected items addressing school culture and climate,

perceptions of school leadership, school resources and time use, and parent/guardian engagement. Basis

researchers shared the survey items with GVSU CSO leadership for review and approval. See Appendix

A for a copy of the survey instrument. Basis researchers administered the survey through Qualtrics.

Sample. Basis researchers distributed survey invitations to 1,608 full-time teachers working in 75 K-12

schools authorized by the GVSU CSO. At the conclusion of the survey window, 659 participants (41

percent) completed the entire survey. See Appendix B for school response rates. We further restricted our

analytic sample to the 502 teachers working in 45 schools with at least a 50 percent response rate or

greater than 10 teacher responses. This sample restriction reduces the degree to which school-level results

are driven by a small percentage or subset of teachers. While the response rate may be on the lower end, it

is important to note that 41 percent exceeds the average response rate for large-scale teacher surveys by

approximately 2 percentage point (Cook et al., 2000).

Measures. In this section, we describe the focal measures used in this research brief. We used five survey

measures – school climate, school leadership, collective responsibility, school resources, and

parent/guardian engagement – previously identified from research using the TDOE Educator Survey.

Each measure is discussed below.

School Operations. The school operations score represents the mean score across all survey items.

Questions used in this measure are included in Q1-5 in Appendix C.

School Climate. Survey items address teachers feeling satisfied being a teacher in this school, having a

sense of trust and mutual respect in this school, teachers recommending this school to parents/guardians,

and students treat adults with respect at this school. Questions used in this measure are included in Q1, A-

G in Appendix C.

School Leadership. This measure includes survey items addressing leadership communicating a vision for

this school, teachers feeling satisfied with the way things are run at this school, and leadership being

knowledgeable about curricula being used. Questions used in this measure are included in Q1 G, Q2 A-H

in Appendix C.

Collective Responsibility. Survey items address teachers feeling responsible when students fail, teachers

feeling responsible to help each other do their best, and teachers taking responsibility for improving their

school. Questions used in this measure are included in Q3, A-D in Appendix C.

School Resources. This measure includes survey items addressing teachers having time to focus on

teaching with minimal disruptions, having sufficient planning time, and having opportunities to lead

professional development for their peers. Questions used in this measure are included in Q4, A-D in

Appendix C.

11

Parent/Guardian Engagement. Survey items address the school regularly communicating with

parents/guardians, teachers feeling supported by parents/guardians, and the school offering opportunities

for parents/guardians to participate in planning, leadership, and volunteering. Questions used in this

measure are included in Q5, A-C in Appendix C.

Moreover, Basis researchers aggregated schools’ scores across respective measures and applied the

following scoring key to classify schools’ conditions:

• Favorable Conditions – School Operation score exceeding 3.00;

• Moderate Conditions – School Operation score between 2.50–2.99;

• Unfavorable Conditions – School Operation score below 2.49.

Analytic Strategy. Basis researchers conducted a series of descriptive analyses to answer the research

questions. We mostly explored descriptive statistics to report on the distribution of scores across schools

and measures.

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Appendix B: Response Rate

Table B1: Survey Invitations and Response Rates by GVSU Charter School

School Name Invites Responses % Responses

Achieve Charter Academy 33 7 21%

Arbor Academy 10 5 50%

Black River Public School 57 25 44%

Byron Center Charter School 21 13 62%

Canton Preparatory High School 20 7 35%

Chandler Woods Charter Academy 33 18 55%

Cornerstone Health and Technology School 17 6 35%

Cornerstone Jefferson-Douglass Academy 23 14 61%

Covenant House Academy Detroit - Central 7 5 71%

Covenant House Academy Detroit - East 6 3 50%

Covenant House Academy Detroit - Southwest 7 5 71%

Covenant House Academy Grand Rapids 7 7 100%

Crossroads Charter Academy - Elementary 18 9 50%

Crossroads Charter Academy - Middle/High 16 6 38%

Detroit Achievement Academy 13 3 23%

Detroit Enterprise Academy 36 15 42%

Detroit Merit Charter Academy 36 8 22%

Detroit Premier Academy 37 5 14%

Detroit Prep 13 2 15%

Eagle's Nest Charter Academy 5 4 80%

East Arbor Charter Academy 33 8 24%

Endeavor Charter Academy 36 9 25%

Excel Charter Academy 42 9 21%

Flint Cultural Center Academy 21 15 71%

Forest Academy 4 3 75%

Fostering Leadership Academy 5 3 60%

Francis Street Primary School 4 1 25%

Global Heights Academy 20 14 70%

Grand River Charter Academy 37 5 14%

Grand River Preparatory High School 25 11 44%

Hanley International Academy 27 5 19%

Hillsdale Preparatory School 9 6 67%

Kalamazoo Covenant Academy 5 3 60%

Knapp Charter Academy 37 16 43%

Legacy Charter Academy 41 4 10%

Light of the World Academy 9 5 56%

Lincoln King Academy 20 7 35%

Lincoln King Academy: Adams-Young Campus 15 12 80%

Madison Carver Academy 23 19 83%

Martin Luther King Jr. Education Center Academy 17 4 24%

Metro Charter Academy 35 5 14%

Michigan Math and Science Academy - Dequindre 35 18 51%

Michigan Math and Science Academy - Lorraine 19 6 32%

Muskegon Covenant Academy 7 3 43%

New Paradigm College Prep 2 1 50%

New Paradigm Glazer Academy 3 1 33%

New Paradigm Loving Academy 4 1 25%

Oakland Academy 9 5 56%

13

Old Mission Peninsula School 15 7 47%

Paragon Charter Academy 29 5 17%

Reach Charter Academy 36 9 25%

Saginaw Covenant Academy 5 1 20%

South Canton Charter Academy 34 9 26%

Taylor Preparatory High School 19 3 16%

The Greenspire School 9 6 67%

Timberland Charter Academy 39 15 38%

University Prep Science and Math Elementary-Miller Campus 20 15 75%

University Prep Science and Math High School 26 13 50%

University Prep Science and Math Middle School 27 19 70%

University Preparatory Art & Design Elementary 20 16 80%

University Preparatory Art & Design Middle/High 18 5 28%

University Preparatory Elementary- Ellen Thompson Campus 16 14 88%

University Preparatory Elementary- Mark Murray Campus 24 17 71%

University Preparatory High School 31 24 77%

University Preparatory Middle School 24 14 58%

Vanderbilt Charter Academy 27 11 41%

Vanguard Charter Academy 34 14 41%

Walker Charter Academy 38 17 45%

Warrendale Charter Academy 33 8 24%

Washington-Parks Academy 30 11 37%

West Michigan Academy of Arts & Academics 29 21 72%

Westfield Charter Academy 2 2 100%

Westfield Preparatory High School 19 6 32%

William C. Abney Academy 19 9 47%

Windemere Park Charter Academy 34 2 6%

CSO Network 1,608 649 41%

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Appendix C: Survey Instrument

1. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding your

school.

Strongly

Disagree

Disagree Agree Strongly

Agree

A. There is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect within this

school. 1 2 3 4

B. I am generally satisfied with being a teacher in this school. 1 2 3 4

C. I would recommend this school to parents/guardians seeking a

place for their child. 1 2 3 4

D. Our school staff is a learning community in which ideas and

suggestions for improvement are encouraged. 1 2 3 4

E. Students treat adults with respect at this school. 1 2 3 4

F. Students in my school are safe from bullying. 1 2 3 4

G. I feel prepared to respond to any type of emergency situation

that may occur at my school. 1 2 3 4

H. Teachers are encouraged to participate in school leadership

roles. 1 2 3 4

2. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding

school leadership in your school.

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

A. The principal at my school communicates a clear

vision for this school. 1 2 3 4

B. I feel comfortable raising issues and concerns

that are important to me with school leaders. 1 2 3 4

C. I like the way things are run at this school. 1 2 3 4

D. My principal regularly models effective

instruction. 1 2 3 4

E. My principal regularly gives feedback on my

instruction. 1 2 3 4

F. My principal knows my instructional strengths

and areas of growth. 1 2 3 4

G. My principal is knowledgeable about the

curricula being used. 1 2 3 4

H. School leadership effectively handles student

discipline and behavioral problems. 1 2 3 4

15

3. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding the

teachers at your school.

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

A. Teachers at my school feel responsible when

students fail. 1 2 3 4

B. Teachers at my school feel responsible to help

each other do their best. 1 2 3 4

C. Teachers at my school help maintain discipline in

the entire school, not just their classroom. 1 2 3 4

D. Teachers at my school take responsibility for

improving their school. 1 2 3 4

4. Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding

teacher workload at your school.

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

A. Teachers in my school are allowed to focus on

teaching students with minimal interruptions. 1 2 3 4

B. My individual planning time is sufficient. 1 2 3 4

C. My collaborative planning time is sufficient. 1 2 3 4

D. Teachers have opportunities to lead professional

development for their peers. 1 2 3 4

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

regarding teacher/parent/guardian relations at your school.

Strongly

Disagree


Agree

A. This school regularly communicates with

parents/guardians about how they can help their

children learn.

1 2 3 4

B. I feel supported by the parents/guardians of my

students. 1 2 3 4

C. This school offers an array of opportunities for

parents/guardians to participate in school planning,

leadership, and volunteering.

1 2 3 4

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About This Report

This research was conducted by Basis Policy Research. Basis conducts applied public policy research,

primarily in the field of education; provides technical assistance to state departments of education,

districts, and schools; and supports policymakers by providing the data they need to make sound

decisions. For more information visit our website at www.basispolicyresearch.com.

http://www.basispolicyresearch.com/

examining teachers’ perceptions of school working

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