DFI - Beginning Teacher Survey
The Beginning Teacher Survey is based on the New Teacher Preparation Survey (NTPS) developed by researchers at the University of North Carolina’s Education Policy Initiative at Carolina for use with graduates of the system’s teacher-education programs. The NTPS captures graduates’ perceptions of their preparation experience in five areas: academic background and teaching preparation, teacher preparation quality, teacher preparation program components, current teaching practices, and job satisfaction. CIS Network stakeholders modified the NTPS for use in the CIS by adding an introduction to explain the survey’s purpose, revising language to ensure the survey could be implemented successfully across diverse contexts, and eliminating some questions to focus the survey on key areas and reduce the burden on respondents. The resulting Beginning Teacher Survey captures graduates’ perceptions of their preparation experience across the five core areas using 26-36 items depending on the graduates’ preparation pathway. CIS Network members administer the survey to program graduates in early spring during their first year of full-time classroom teaching.
Evidence Base
Like most graduate surveys, the Beginning Teacher Survey has a limited research base, but the existing research provides promising evidence to support the survey’s value for informing educator-preparation program improvement. Early research demonstrates that two scales in particular, which focus on graduate perceptions of the quality of their preparation experiences (Quality of Teacher Preparation) and opportunities to learn about specific teaching practices while in their program (Opportunity to Learn), are predictive of important novice teacher outcomes including performance as measured by classroom observation ratings and value-added scores as well as retention (Bastian, Sun, & Lynn, 2017).
Relevant Descriptive and Validity Research
Bastian, K.C., Sun, M., Lynn, H. (2017). What do graduate surveys tell us about teacher preparation quality? Education Policy Initiative at Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC.