Understand Reports

Insight offers a full suite of surveys, and the intent is that everyone within a school community would fit into one of the applicable surveys below. Because roles vary widely based on district/network context it is advised that clients review the item banks when determining which roles are assigned to each survey to ensure the items are relevant to those individuals.

Below is some general guidance to consider for each group.

	Primary Audience(s) for Survey Results	Who should be included in the survey population?
Teacher Survey	School-Based Leaders District/Network-Based Leaders	Include school employees who spend 50% or more of their time delivering direct instruction to students in the classroom, such as classroom teachers. Individuals who do not meet the 50% criterion often report to us that the survey questions are not applicable to their roles.
School Support Staff Survey	School-Based Leaders District/Network-Based Leaders	Include school support staff such as librarians, media specialists, counselors, social workers, nurses, teaching assistants, student support staff, and other similar school-based roles. Typically, this does not include school-based staff that are in leadership positions (see below for School Leadership Survey).
School Leadership Survey	District/Network-Based Leaders	Include school-based leadership staff whose roles are directly impacted by district/network support. Consider how roles are structured in your district/network to determine who to include in this grouping. In addition to Principals, consider roles such as Assistant Principals, CAOs, Deans, and other leadership roles. While this survey was originally designed for district/network-level feedback, single-campus schools may participate by having the school-based leadership team take the survey with the school-based leader(s) in mind.
Central Teams Staff Survey	Department Leaders District/Network-Based Leaders	Include staff who are based in the district or network central teams, including the superintendent’s office, finance, human resources, IT, academics, multilingual supports, student support services, and other central departments.
Student Survey	School-Based Leaders District/Network-Based Leaders	Include students in grades 3-12.
Family Survey	School-Based Leaders District/Network-Based Leaders	This survey is intended for parents, guardians or caretakers of students.

How does TNTP maintain staff confidentiality?

We only share deidentified or aggregate responses with our school, district, and network partners. We summarize staff and student responses at the school and district/network levels and only provide school or department-level results with a minimum response rate. We also do not report out on subgroups of less than 4 individuals.

Family surveys are administered using an anonymous survey link, and cannot be tied to individual families or students.

Why does Insight require minimum response rates for reporting?

Based on the research we’ve conducted on the Insight dataset, as well as on external validation conducted by the American Institutes for Research, we’ve learned that higher response rates increase the reliability of the Insight Index as a leading indicator of effective teacher retention and student outcomes. Because of this, we only share Insight results at the school or department level for surveys with a 40 percent response rate for that school or department.

With at least a 40 percent response rate, the average group-level reliability is 0.84, which is considered strong in a research setting. Requiring this minimum response rate allows us to be confident that the survey results are reliable and paint an accurate picture of leadership practices at the school level.

For Family Surveys, we do not require a minimum response rate in order to share results back with the school or district/network.

Why does Insight require minimum sample sizes for reporting?

Insight requires at least four responses to share school, department or group-level results for an individual question, because sharing the results of less than four responses can compromise the confidentiality of the survey participants—and make them less likely to provide candid feedback.

Why does the Likert scale used in Insight have no neutral option?

The six-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree) encourages respondents to think about their true opinion on a topic, while also allowing for a range of intensity in expressing that opinion. Multiple studies have shown that the inclusion of a neutral option significantly increases the number of people stating they have no opinion when they actually do.

Neutral responses are also difficult to interpret; it is unclear if a respondent chose a neutral response because they feel neutral about the topic, don’t have enough information to answer, or prefer not to answer. No Likert questions are required; if respondents have insufficient information or prefer not to answer a particular question, they may skip it and continue with the rest of the survey.

General Insight Vocabulary

What are Insight domains?

Insight domains represent concrete components of instructional culture that help leaders identify what’s working and what need improvement.

Domains are prioritized based on the topics that each stakeholder group is best positioned to provide feedback on, as well as topics that provide the most actionable and highest-leverage opportunity for school and district/network-level improvement.

Standard Domains

Each survey has a set of required survey domains. These domains are required because they represent areas where stakeholders can provide actionable feedback to school or district/network leaders that is based on their direct experience.

Supplemental Domains

In addition to standard domains, districts/regions/networks can choose additional supplemental domains that are central to their strategy, values, or interests.

Click here to see a list of domains across surveys.

How are domain scores calculated?

Domain scores summarize your stakeholders’ feedback on topics and are based on the average ratings of Likert items (those that ask about agreement with a statement) in that domain.

When we report on individual questions, we usually share the percentage of respondents who agree or strongly agree. Because domain scores consider the full answer scale, they also capture the strength of agreement or disagreement with statements in that domain. We summarize the average ratings and then place the calculation on a 0–10 scale.

For each domain, a score of 5 represents the national average for the domain for each type of survey. This allows for straightforward comparisons across domains and to benchmarks nationwide. A domain score of 7 is one standard deviation above average; a domain score of 3 is one standard deviation below average. Similarly, a domain score of 9 is two standard deviations above average and a score of 1 is two standard deviations below the average.

Domain scores give leaders the ability to compare domain scores against each other to prioritize areas for improvement. They also allow leaders to understand their school, district, or network’s performance in the national context.

To account for updates to survey items and allow for shifts in the national landscape, the Insight national dataset consists of all participating schools, districts, and networks within the last three years. Because the survey item banks and national dataset change slightly from year to year, historical domain scores in the current report may differ from previous reports. These differences are minimal and usually vary by a few tenths of a point or less. Responses to individual survey items are unaffected by domain score calculations and will always remain consistent from year to year.

How are national averages calculated in Insight reports?

The nationwide comparisons found in the reports are calculated as a three-year moving average to both provide stability over time and allow us to share nationwide comparisons when we deliver your reports.

The national averages in your Spring 2023 reports reflect the three-year average from Spring 2019, Spring 2021, and Spring 2022. Spring 2020 data is not included due to minimal participation during the start of the pandemic.

The national averages in your Fall 2023 reports reflect the three-year average from Fall 2020, Fall 2021 and Fall 2022.

Teacher Survey Vocabulary

What is the Insight Index and how is it calculated?

Note: The Insight Index is specific to the Teacher Survey.

A measure of school instructional culture, the Insight Index can be used to compare schools of all types, regardless of grade band, subject, or learning model.

The index is calculated from the percentage of teachers who “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” with three items from the survey:

The expectations of effective teaching are clearly defined at my school.
Teachers at my school share a common vision of what effective teaching looks like.
My school is committed to improving my instructional practice.

These three items are used for the Index because we have found they reliably summarize teachers’ experiences of performance management practice in their schools. These questions come from distinct domains and represent essential elements for achieving exceptional instruction in every classroom. Index scores are reported on a scale from 1-10 based on the responses from all teachers.

What are top quartile schools and why do we use them as a benchmark?

Note: Top quartile schools are specific to the Teacher Survey.

Top quartile schools refer to the schools with the top 25% of Insight Index scores within a district/network or peer group. Insight was designed around the concept of positive deviance theory of social change, the belief that we can learn from the successes and practices of local exemplars who are facing similar challenges. Top quartile schools represent schools with strong instructional cultures despite facing similar challenges as all schools in their local area or peer group. We encourage leaders to prioritize improvement areas based on the difference between their school’s results and the results of top quartile schools.

We use index scores to create this benchmark group because the Insight Index is a valid, leading indicator of student performance and teacher retention. Insight reports allow leaders to compare their school results—across all domains and survey items—with the average results of the top quartile schools in their survey administration. The top quartile schools are static and do not change throughout the Insight report, although a new group of top quartile schools is created with each survey administration.

Navigating Online Reports

What is the basic structure of an Insight report? (Includes video guidance)

Report Organization

Single School Report
Surveys Contained in Report	Teacher, Support Staff, Family
Description	Provides Insight survey results for a single school.
Video Walk-Through	Single School Report Video

Multi-School Report
Surveys Contained in Report	Teacher, Support Staff, School Leadership, Central Teams, Family
Description	Provides survey results for groups of schools in aggregate, as well as for each school individually for school-level stakeholders (teacher, support staff, and family). Provides survey results of school leaders and central teams in aggregate. As well as by role or department where applicable.
Video Walk-Through	Multi-School Report Video

Central Teams Single-Department Reports
Surveys Contained in Report	Central Teams
Description	Provides survey results of those working on a centralized district/network department or team, showing results by individual department or team.
Video Walk-Through	Central Teams Single-Department Reports Video

Student Survey Report
Surveys Contained in Report	Student
Description	Provides survey results for a group of schools in aggregate, as well as each school individually. Two reports included – a student district/network report and a student school-level report.
Video Walk-Through	Student Survey Report Video

Use the following tabs to view your data and explore your report:

Introduction: Explains how to use the online report and share the data with others.

Cross-Survey Overview: Compare stakeholder experiences side by side on domains and survey items they have in common.

Focus Areas: Displays current domain scores and top quartile scores for comparison. The bottom part of the page displays the survey questions that were asked for the selected domain.

Trends over Time: Shows historical data. The blue lines represent your school or department and the average domain scores from each administration. The green lines show the average domain score for the district or network’s top quartile benchmark (when available). The individual questions that make up the selected domain are at the bottom of the page. Please note that this tab is only available if you’ve had more than one administration of Insight.

Retention: Offers information to help inform your strategy for retaining strong staff at your school, district or network.

Comments: Filters by question to show the verbatim responses from survey recipients.

District/Network Reports also include:

School Sorter: Facilitates viewing schools or school/department groups by item results as well as domain results.

Data Export: Allows you to download data across many domains at once into an Excel file.

Contact Us

Can’t find what you’re looking for?

Send us an email at insight@tntp.org.