Measuring Educator Engagement and Satisfaction to Inform Improvement

The school district’s Human Resources Department has a couple of new tools to measure educator and classified staff engagement and satisfaction and determine factors driving the retention of staff. District and school administration will use the data to plan improvement.

“Retention is the new recruitment,” said Kristen Ryan, executive director of human resources, referring to the national teacher shortage and diminished candidate pool from which to recruit teachers and classified staff.

The district surveyed 72% of certified staff in the Fall of 2021, when the COVID pandemic continued to impact education delivery models and masking and other safety requirements.

Results found Lawrence educators expressing high satisfaction with relationships with their colleagues and principal, the opportunity to work with a diverse student population, and the level of safety staff and students feel at school. Educators expressed low satisfaction with the district’s attention to supporting staff’s mental and emotional health, the quality of professional development days and opportunities, current salary, the ability to request and secure a substitute teacher, and salary growth potential in the future.

This survey tool, Epic, also enables the district to compare its findings with survey data from the state and a group of six identified benchmark school districts.

• District’s attention and approach to supporting staff’s mental and emotional health

• Quality of professional development days/ opportunities

• Current salary

• Ability to request and secure a substitute teacher

• Salary growth potential in the future

• Parent support and involvement at school

• Access to necessary resources and instructional materials

• Principal’s instructional leadership

• Reputation of the district

• Supports the school/ district has in place to meet student socialemotional needs

• Relationship with colleagues within school

• Relationship with their principal

• Opportunity to work with a diverse student population

• Level of safety staff and students feel at school