Secondary Engagement Survey is administered to students in grades 7-12 and is completed through a Qualtrics survey.
Common Metrics and student engagement
The NExT Common Metrics surveys have been psychometrically analyzed for factors related to teaching such as planning for instruction, instructional practices, assessment, and professionalism. We have also found reliability for six items that relate to a factor construct for student engagement. These items include aspects of engagement including the classroom environment that promotes student engagement; a classroom learning environment that is responsive to students’ race, language, and culture; the teacher’s communication of expectations; the teacher’s response to student behavior; how students work cooperatively; and classroom management focused
on student self-regulation.
Reliability analyses were conducted on 529 responses to the 2016 Transition to Teaching Survey (TTS) and 431 responses to the 2016 Supervisor Survey (SS), using data collected from 11 of the 14 institutions in NExT. Using Cronbach’s Alpha (α), the analysis of “student engagement” survey items revealed high internal consistency (TTS α = .921; SS α = .949). A principal components factor analysis was conducted
and revealed a single factor, as expected. All items loaded at acceptable levels (i.e., > .30) on this one factor, representing “student engagement.”
This illustration shows that in addition to adopting new survey instruments, existing survey items can be used to identify important instructional and classroom characteristics that can impact student learning such as student engagement.
Protocols for Administering Student
Engagement Surveys
Student engagement surveys are administered at the school in which beginning teachers are employed. Site approval occurs through consent of the beginning teacher’s supervisor prior to surveys being completed.
For primary grades, surveys can be administered face-to-face and in paper form. Once consent has been obtained, the teacher should work with a colleague (e.g., another teacher, supervisor, fieldwork researcher) to distribute and collect the student engagement survey. For example, a colleague of the teacher distributes and collects the de-identified surveys during a period when the teacher is out of the classroom. This will allow the students to feel assured that they can respond candidly. The surveys can be delivered to the university electronically or through the mail in a sealed envelope. The engagement survey data can then be analyzed by members of the teacher education program and aggregate results provided to the beginning teacher.
For secondary teachers, once consent has been obtained, the beginning teachers can be asked to choose two classes for survey administration and to administer the surveys twice, approximately a month apart in the spring of the year, during the months of March and April if possible. This allows multiple observations to be made, increasing the reliability of the results, especially if there is concern about students “stacking the deck” against a teacher. Surveys can be made available electronically as a link the teachers shares with students. The surveys can be completed anonymously and submitted directly to the teacher preparation program, ensuring the students maintain their anonymity. Aggregate results can be provided to the teachers.