Principal Survey FAQs Question: When will principals receive the Principal Survey? Answer: The surveys will be available in the principals TEA educator profiles on April 9, 2012. When principals access their profiles, the principal survey button will be on the left-hand side of the screen on a menu. Question: Will the superintendents/human Resources/Personnel staff be notified when the Principal Survey is released on April 9 th? Answer: Yes, the Superintendents/Human Resources/Personnel Staff will be notified, based on the information provided in AskTED. Question: When will the superintendent/ Human Resources /personnel staff be able to access the lists of principals and teachers? Answer: On April 9 th, when the Principal Survey is released. Question: Will all campus principals receive the email on April 9 th notifying them of the Principal Survey release? Answer: All campus principals who have first-, second-, or third-year teachers will receive notification that the principal survey button is active in their individual TEA educator profiles. Question: What is the final day to submit the Principal Survey? Answer: The deadline for submitting the Principal Survey is June 15, 2012, by 5 pm. Question: Is there training for the principals with instructions for completing the Principal Survey? If so, how do principals access it? Answer: A Principal Survey Training Module is available on the TEA website. Look on the left hand side of the TEA home page in the Quick Links section. Click on the Principal Survey option. The training module is presented in an on-demand format, which means that it can be viewed at the principal s convenience. In addition, documents are embedded in the training which can be printed for later reference. Question: Is there training for the Superintendents and Human Resources/Personnel Staff on how to access and monitor the Principal Survey? Answer: Yes, Superintendent/Human Resources/Personnel Staff training is available on the TEA website. Look on the left-hand side of the TEA home page in the Quick Links section. Click on the Principal Survey option. The module is presented in an on-demand format, which means that it can be viewed at the Superintendent and HR/personnel staff s convenience. In addition, documents are embedded in the training which can be printed for later reference. Question: Do charter school principals need to complete Principal Surveys for beginning teachers? Answer: Yes, charter school principals are responsible for completing the Principal Survey for any beginning teachers on their campus.
Question: Will principals have a survey for each teacher or do the principals just fill out the number of surveys of teachers in years 1 3. In other words, a one-on-one match? Answer: The surveys will be pre-populated with the name of the teacher, the number of years of experience, and the name of the educator preparation program. Principals will complete a survey designated for each beginning teacher with one, two, or three years of teaching service (experience), as long as they have been teaching on the principal s campus for at least five months. Question: What about teachers who attended multiple preparation institutions/programs? Answer: Only the institution that recommended the beginning teacher for a standard or probationary certificate will be considered. This is the educator preparation program listed on each individual teacher s survey. Question: Does a survey need to be completed if the principal has a teacher with one to three years experience but was certified in an out-of-state teacher preparation program? Answer: No. Question: For which teachers must a principal complete a survey? Answer: Surveys must be completed for teachers in their first, second, and third years of teaching service after certification. Their education preparation program will be pre-populated for each individual teacher. Principals do not have to complete surveys for teachers who completed their certification out-ofstate. If the teacher is a former teacher s aide, that experience does not count toward the first, second, or third year of teaching service (experience). The beginning teacher must have been on the principal s campus for at least five months. Question: Is this survey for all first-, second-, and third-year teachers or just first-, second-, and thirdyear teachers who became teachers through an alternative certification program? Answer: This is for all first-, second-, and third-year teachers who were certified in a Texas educator preparation program, no matter whether they were certified by an alternative certification program, post-bac, or a traditional program. Teachers certified out-of-state do not need surveys completed. Question: If the list of teachers is not correct, what do principals do? Answer: Principals who have incorrect teachers on their list can delete them. In addition, the principal can add teachers that are not listed if he/she is confident that they are Texas first-, second-, or third-year teachers. The principal can also contact the human resource/personnel staff in their district, who can also delete and add teachers. Question: What if a principal is retiring or changing campuses or school districts? Answer: Principals who are retiring, being transferred to another campus, or are moving to another district should complete all of their beginning teacher surveys before they leave. The Superintendent/Human Resources/Personnel Staff can assist in ensuring this has been done before the principal exits the campus/district.
Question: Since the superintendent can access the status of his/her principals, can a HR director or deputy superintendent also have access to check the status of the principals responses? Answer: Yes, Human Resources directors/personnel staff will have a portal on the ECOS green screen. This requires that each Human Resources director or personnel staff responsible for monitoring the district s Principals Survey completions submit a secure access form signed by the superintendent of the district allowing TEA access to the Principal Survey. Other district staff that the superintendent wants to monitor the Principal Survey can be given access through their educator profile, but the superintendent must notify TEA that access is requested. Question: Where do I find the secure access form? Answer: The form may be found on the TEA website. At the TEA home page, look on the left hand side of the screen under Quick Links and select the Principal Survey option. A copy of the form can be downloaded and printed from that site. It is important that the Superintendent sign the form granting the access. The form needs to be faxed back to TEA at the fax number provided on the form. TEA will then send the identified staff person a user name and temporary password. Directions for accessing the Principal Survey is provided in the Superintendent/Human Resource/Personnel Staff Training Module located on the TEA website in the Principal Survey Quick Link. Question: Is it correct that in order for Human Resources to ensure that all surveys have been completed, HR would have to ask the superintendent for his/her educator log-in information? Answer: No, Human Resources/Personnel Staff will need to submit a secure access form in order to have access to the principal survey screens in ECOS. Question: It is correct that the recommending institution is the one being held accountable? Question: If a principal with beginning teachers on the campus checks his/her educator profile on April 9 th and no principal survey button is present, what does he/she do? Answer: Email TEA at principalsurvey@tea.state.tx.us. Question: Does the TEA educator profile have to be setup in order for the principal to access the Principal Survey on April 9th? Answer: Yes, an educator profile must be established on the TEA website in order to access the Principal Survey. Question: What if the principal doesn t remember his/her user name or password for the educator profile? Answer: Go to the TEA website and click on EducAtor Login (Internet Explorer required) square in the upper right hand corner of the screen; the next screen that appears will provide two options: 1) set up a new user profile or 2) Log in. Click on the forgot your password option. The next screen will take you through several steps to access your username and password. You may also watch the Principal Survey Training Module for instructions on how to access your user name and password. The Principal Survey Training Module is located on the TEA website under Principal Survey in under Quick Links on the lefthand side of the screen.
Question: If a principal has a lifetime certificate and has never set up an educator profile, how does he/she set one up? Answer: Go to the TEA website and click on EducAtor Login (Internet Explorer required) square in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The next screen that appears will provide you with two options: 1) set up a new user profile or 2) Log in. Select the blue bar which says Set up Account. You may also watch the Principal Survey Training Module for instructions on how to access the user name and password. The Principal Survey Training Module is located on the TEA website under Principal Survey under Quick Links on the left hand side of the TEA home page. Question: How much time will each survey take for first-year, second-year or third-year teachers? Answer: The time will vary for each individual principal depending on how thoughtfully he/she considers the beginning teacher s preparation. TEA anticipates that it will take approximately 15 20 minutes per teacher. Question: Will the system automatically save if you do not complete the entire teacher survey? Question: What is the process for a person who has been designated by the principal to complete teacher surveys? Answer: The designee completes a paper copy of the principal survey that is available on the Principal Survey website. From the TEA home page, click on the Principal Survey button which is located on the left-hand side of the screen under Quick Links. However, the principal must enter the responses into the actual online survey. The designee cannot complete the actual online survey because it is located in the principal s secured educator profile on the TEA website. The principal should not share log-in information with anyone. Question: Who can be the official designee for the Principal Survey? Answer: This person can be a grade-level team leader, department chair, assistant principal, or campus curriculum director. For a public school, the designee needs to be certified as an administrator. Charter school principals do not need administrator certification. Question: Is it possible for assistant principal staff who may perform the bulk of pertinent observations for certain individuals to participate also? Answer: Yes, the assistant principal may complete the paper copy of the survey for each teacher. However, the principal is the one responsible for entering, verifying the information, and completing the online survey. The downloadable form of the survey may be located on the TEA website, Quick Links on left-hand side of page, select Principal Survey. Question: Do the principals designees have to be PDAS certified in order to submit the survey? Answer: No, but the person must be trained by the district to observe the person as an evaluator. The designee needs to be certified as an administrator. TEA is aware that charter school principals may not be certified. Nevertheless, the charter school principal is responsible for submitting surveys for certified first-, second-, or third-year beginning teachers.
Question: If the survey is being completed and the principal has an interruption can he/she exit the survey and come back to finish the survey? Answer: Yes, a principal may return to the survey later to complete and submit it. Everything entered into the survey prior to the interruption will be saved and should be there when the principal returns to the survey. Question: The email in my Educator Profile is my home email. Should I use my school district email? Answer: Yes, that would be best. Question: If a teacher is released due to budget cuts or nonrenewal, is the principal required to complete a survey on that teacher? It does not matter whether the teacher has been released or nonrenewed. If the teacher taught on the campus for five or more months, a survey must be completed. Question: If the computer freezes, will the data entered prior to the freeze be lost or will it be saved? Answer: It will be saved. Question: Should survey results match PDAS? Answer: No, the principal will be evaluating the beginning teacher from the perspective of the quality of teacher preparation provided by their educator preparation program. Question: Will teachers have access to their own surveys? Answer: No, this is confidential information. Question: If a principal wants to keep a copy of the survey, must it be printed before submitting? Question: Do principals need student achievement data prior to completing the surveys for second- and third-year beginning teachers? Answer: No. However, it may help principals answer the survey questions that address student achievement if teacher effectiveness data and student achievement data are available. Question: For a survey that has already been submitted, can the principal click on the person s name and see the confirmation screen again? Answer: Yes, the principal will be able to see surveys that have been completed and can print the confirmation screen at any time. Question: If a principal forgets to print a principal confirmation screen, what can he/she do? Answer: As long as the survey is open, the principal can go back and print the status screen. The human resources/personnel staff who are monitoring the Principal Survey in the district can also print a list of teachers who had surveys completed by the principal.