Mike Armstrong, executive director of the Kentucky School Boards Association, helped draw TELL Kentucky Survey winners with Robin Hebert, director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s division of Next Generation Professionals, on March 17. Photo by Bobby Ellis, Kentucky Department of Education

Mike Armstrong, executive director of the Kentucky School Boards Association, helped draw TELL Kentucky Survey winners with Robin Hebert, director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s division of Next Generation Professionals.
Photo by Bobby Ellis, March 17, 2017

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – More than half of Kentucky’s school-based educators have taken part in the TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Survey of school working conditions in just the first two weeks of the survey. Sixty-four percent of the school-based certified educators eligible to participate completed the survey by March 16, for a total of 27,594 educators who have finished the survey.

Ten districts have already reached 100 percent participation and 956 schools have already met or exceeded the 50 percent minimum response rate to receive their school’s results.

The TELL Kentucky Survey is designed to find out about a number of school topics – including the adequacy of facilities and resources; time; empowerment; school leadership; community support; student conduct; professional development; mentoring and induction services; and student learning – from those on the front line of teaching and learning. The results of the survey will be used by educators, shareholders and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions on policies and practices that will improve student achievement and increase teacher retention. The half-hour, web-based survey is voluntary, anonymous and confidential.

To encourage greater participation in the TELL Kentucky Survey, the Kentucky Education Association, Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, Kentucky Association of School Administrators, the Center for Education Leadership, Jefferson County Teachers Association and the Kentucky School Boards Association contributed prize money for weekly drawings to be held throughout the period in which the survey is open.

Every school that reaches a 50 percent response rate is entered into a drawing for a $500 cash award for the school’s use. Schools that reach a 100 percent response rate are entered into a drawing for a $500 cash award to go to an individual educator at the school, who may use the prize how he or she wishes. No public monies are used for prize drawings.

Jaymie Ross, a teacher at Jennie Rogers Elementary (Danville Independent) won $500 in the second week of the 2017 TELL Kentucky Survey drawings. The TELL Kentucky Survey is live until March 31. Photo courtesy of the Kentucky Education Association

Jaymie Ross, a teacher at Jennie Rogers Elementary (Danville Independent) won $500 in the second week of the 2017 TELL Kentucky Survey drawings. The TELL Kentucky Survey is live until March 31.
Photo courtesy of the Kentucky Education Association

The second week’s winners are:

  • Week 2 School: Breathitt County Area Technology Center
  • Week 2 Educator: Jaymie Ross, Jennie Rogers Elementary (Danville Independent)

The first week’s winners were:

  • Week 1 School: Roby Elementary School (Bullitt County)
  • Week 1 Educator: Amy Bolar, Flemingsburg Elementary (Fleming County)

School and district completion rates are posted on the TELL Kentucky website at www.tellkentucky.org.

This is the fourth time the TELL Survey has been administered in Kentucky. In 2015, more than 89 percent of the eligible educators took the online survey.

The 2017 TELL Kentucky Survey is open through March 31 to all school-based, Kentucky-certified educators employed in the state’s 173 school districts.