Interpret Results
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Introduction to the suite of Insight Stakeholder Surveys and how results can be used to improve schools, districts, and networks.
Understand Reports
Information about Insight methodology and tips for navigating reports.
Share Results
Resources for printing reports and engaging stakeholders with results.
How should I approach my Insight survey results? (Includes Reflection Guides)
Insight results provide you with information about how stakeholders are experiencing instructional leadership practices at your school/network/district. Use the Reflection Guides to reflect on your data and develop a strategy to improve instructional culture.
Step 1: Get Oriented to Your Data
Explore your report for a snapshot of how stakeholders are experiencing the instructional culture at your school (teachers, support staff, families, students) or in your district/network (school leadership, central teams).
Step 2: Prioritize a Focus Area
Review the survey data in more detail to determine what domain(s) and questions to prioritize for improvement.
Step 3: Commit to Next Steps
Make adjustments to your leadership practices and support structures for staff, students and families.
Step 4: Share Results with Others
Determine how you will share and engage others with the data.
View Reflection Guides
How should I review responses to the open-ended questions?
Skim the comments. Don’t get stuck on individual items. The goal is simply to see each one, so nothing is surprising when you return for an in-depth review.
Quickly move past non-productive or inflammatory comments. These may include personal attacks (e.g. “Ms. Smith should be removed from her role”) or broad statements of displeasure (“There’s nothing good about this school”). It’s helpful to dismiss these comments to avoid focusing on them again in the future.
Summarize the comments in a few bullet points. Weight responses based on frequency, capturing trends and themes more than specific details.
Interpret the open-ended results alongside the quantitative data. Revisit the Insight numerical scores through the lens of the comment summaries.
How should I process critical feedback on the Insight report?
Insight reports contain feedback from stakeholders, who experience the impact of leadership practices most directly. It’s common for leaders to have an emotional reaction to the data, particularly if it is critical or surprising. Be sure to give yourself time to acknowledge and address your reactions.
Common emotional responses leaders have experienced as they engage in their results include:
Denial: “My staff didn’t understand the questions.” or “My staff are wrong – this isn’t how we do things here.”
Anger: “Why would my staff throw me under the bus like this?” or “My staff don’t like me.”
Bargaining: “We’ll do better once the unhappy staff are gone.”
Depression: “There’s nothing I can do to make my staff happy.” or “All the work we’ve done this year was a waste.”
Acceptance: “This feedback is from the staff who engage most with my students and staff; I can use this to reflect on my own leadership practices.”
Inquiry: “How could we deepen our understanding of these results if we asked this additional question?”
Look out for these reactions, which may distract you from learning from your Insight results. If you experience any of the above reactions, acknowledge how you feel, then refocus on your analysis of the results, and move to acceptance: “This feedback comes from my stakeholders, and I can use this to reflect on my practice.” or “I’m going to use this to start a conversation with my stakeholders and leadership team to help us understand our areas for improvement.”
Use your support network while processing the results. Your leadership team, your manager, and other leaders in your network or district are all good resources as you review and process your Insight results. They may be able to provide a helpful perspective as you work to improve your school or department culture.
How can Insight support my existing priorities?
Insight should not be thought of as a separate initiative, but rather a tool to support the work you are already doing. Consider your current school and district/network priorities and initiatives when reviewing your results, and identify specific domains and questions that will help you build context about stakeholder perceptions in these areas. The two examples below show how you can align Insight items to existing priorities:
| Example 1 (Teacher Survey) | |
| Existing School Priority | Providing quality curriculum and instructional guidance to support instruction |
| Domains | Academic Expectations, Instructional Planning for Student Growth |
| Potential Questions to Monitor |
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| Example 2 (Teacher Survey) | |
| Existing School Priority | High-quality feedback and evaluation for all staff |
| Domains | Observation and Feedback, Evaluation |
| Potential Questions to Monitor |
|
Monitoring the Domains and questions connected to your priorities and initiatives can help you monitor progress and identify concrete leadership actions to start, improve, or discontinue.
When is progress meaningful?
The “Trends over Time” tab on the Insight report allows leaders to quickly assess whether domains and survey items are improving or declining over time. To determine whether the change in results is meaningful, consider (1) whether your experiences and qualitative data/anecdotes confirms that change, (2) whether other data sources are also confirming improvement, and (3) the amount of effort put into the initiative that is being assessed.
Some considerations when reviewing results over time:
- Declines are not always bad. Putting a new system or initiative in place often comes with a period of disruption for stakeholders. This can cause a temporary decline in satisfaction, but will likely eventually lead to stronger outcomes.
- Small gains from year to year may indicate success and be a sign of sustained improvement over time. Developing a strong instructional culture requires a clear vision, commitment to school and district/network priorities, and a constant dialogue between staff and leaders. Sustainable improvements rarely happen overnight or even within one year; incremental gains in domain or item scores from year to year – especially in areas corresponding to identified priorities – may be signs of meaningful progress.
- Sustained strong scores may indicate meaningful progress and a continued commitment to instructional culture improvement. Schools and departments continuing to show high domain and item scores year after year along with strong outcomes may be sign of a healthy culture.
Additional goal-setting guidance:
- Use the benchmarks. The benchmarks in your report show what is possible relative to other schools and departments in your district/network and nationally. Based on where your domain or item scores fall, use the gap to the average and/or top quartile benchmarks to anchor your goals.
- Compare results from the same time period each year. TNTP has found that across domains, stakeholders tend to respond less favorably in the spring. We suggest that, particularly when you are monitoring change over time, you compare fall to fall and spring to spring results. On the Trends over Time tab in the dashboard, you will see that the data shows you year-over-year results in this way to avoid changes that may be due to seasonality.
- Understanding what improvement looks like. Keep in mind that it is generally easier to realize an increase in a domain or item score when a school or department is starting from a lower score, because there is more room for improvement. Another helpful rule of thumb is that, because domain scores are normed on a scale of 0-10, an increase of two points in a domain score represents an increase of one standard deviation and likely represents a statistically meaningful change. This magnitude of change is likely due to some improvements or changes in leadership practice that staff are experiencing.
While progress monitoring and setting goals is helpful to set priorities around improvement efforts and where you hope to be as a school or department, it’s important to note that making sustainable change to culture can take some time. Incorporating stakeholders into the improvement efforts, by engaging in conversations about the data and the types of support that may be helpful in improving their experience, is really how we’ve seen leaders make the most significant and sustaining gains.