Statewide survey shows improvements in teaching conditions at Aspen School District
Some areas still see room for advancements despite upward trends
The climate and culture at the Aspen School District is increasingly favorable for teachers and staff, but there’s still room for improvement, according to the 2024 statewide Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado survey results.
The biennial survey of school-based staff is conducted statewide and surveys teachers and building leadership on their perceptions of the teaching and learning conditions in their schools. It asks questions about district support, school leadership, professional development, time, and resources.
“The purpose of the TLCC survey is to provide information to guide school and district improvement planning efforts and to inform broader research and policy discussions for supporting teacher recruitment and retention, effective school leadership, and instructional improvement,” according to a TLCC do’s and don’ts chart for interpreting the data.
The Teaching and Learning Conditions in Colorado survey was first conducted in 2018 and has been conducted every two years since. The survey is open from late January to the beginning of March and is led by the Colorado Department of Education. It uses a Likert scale with four main options: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree, and a fifth for “I don’t know.”
In the Aspen School District, 162 out of 226 teachers and building staff, or about 72%, completed the survey. Nearly every category saw an increase from the 2022 results, including community support and involvement, facilities and resources, instructional practices and support, and job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction saw the largest increase since 2022 — 76% of respondents in the school district answered favorably to questions regarding general satisfaction in their work, up 27% from 2022. General reflection questions, which measured staff’s overall impressions of the school as well as future employment plans, increased by 11% from 2022 to 83%. Favorable responses for community support and involvement, which summarize the school’s approach to family and community support and engagement, increased by 5% to 89%.
Several specific questions also saw significant increases from the 2022 survey. A question about how the school district’s system of supports for students, like its multi-tiered support systems (MTSS) and student intervention teams, had a favorable response rate of 87%. It is a 17% increase from 2022 and is 16% higher than the state average answer to that question.
A question about if the schools provide effective academic support to students who need them had a favorable response rate of 89%, a 29% increase from 2022. It is 9% higher than the state average.
But there is certainly still room for the district to grow. While responses were generally more favorable in 2024 than they were in 2022, respondents still had concerns, most notably with questions about district supports. The district supports section decreased by 5% since 2022 to 73%, which is 7% lower than the state average.
And several specific questions also saw low response in favorability ratings. Only 32% of respondents answered favorably in a question about the availability of external substitutes when teachers need to take leave — it is nearly 20% lower than the state average. A question about being able to meet expectations of a respondent’s position within their contracted work hours received only 36% favorable responses, which is about the same as the state average. And a question about supports for multilingual language learners decreased 15% from 2022 to 58%, though a majority of respondents still answered favorably. The response was 16% lower than the state average.
The Colorado Department of Education encourages school districts to use the survey data to conduct broader climate conversations, including how to improve professional development, leadership, planning, building conditions, and to help drive state and local-level policy decisions.
Teachers and staff from all ASD schools responded; 12 out of 19 people responded from the Aspen Preschool, 44 out of 62 responded from Aspen Elementary School, 40 out of 60 responded from Aspen Middle School, 45 out of 64 responded from Aspen High School, and all 21 staff members at Aspen Community Charter School responded.
Over 46,000 Colorado educators participated in the 2024 survey and over 100 districts statewide met thresholds to get data back, according to the 2024 TLCC fact sheet. Districts and schools with a more than 50% response rate receive survey data.
The Aspen School District Board of Education will discuss the results further at its May 15 board meeting.
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