The Colorado Department of Education has released the results of the 2024 Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado survey (TLCC).
Responses from nearly 46,000 survey participants show that educators feel positive about their working conditions, but that they need more time to prepare for classes and more support with serving special populations and meeting the social and emotional needs of their students.
The biennial TLCC survey is open to teachers, education support professionals (including positions such as teacher assistants and paraprofessionals), school leaders and special service providers such as psychologists and social workers. The survey was administered over six weeks with the partnership of the Office of the Governor, the Colorado Education Association, as well as other Colorado education organizations.
Statewide trend reports and all publicly available state, district, and school-level data are available at www.cde.state.co.us/site/tlccsurvey.
Based on survey results, the majority of respondents say their schools are good places to work (86%), good places to learn (88%), and have supportive communities (89%). Nearly 90% of respondents say they feel like they belong in their schools. Most educators say they have reasonable class sizes (78%) and adequate instructional resources (79%); however, only 63% on average feel that they have adequate time to prepare for their primary duties and engage in professional learning.
Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said: “We know from our work in the field that our educators have shared that they need more time to prepare engaging lessons, communicate with parents and families, evaluate student progress, and invest in their professional growth.”
Of note, the survey results show only 50% of teachers responded favorably that external substitutes are readily available when teachers need to take leave.
“One of the many challenges of our state’s educator shortage is that educators are losing prep time because they’re helping to cover classes. This means that students benefit from learning with qualified teachers at the expense of those educators having the time they need to most effectively serve and support students,” Córdova said.
The survey results also reflect state and national trends around student mental health and well-being. Educators and school leaders report needing more support with students’ social, emotional and mental health. Educators identify their greatest need for support in serving students who have experienced trauma. This is followed by a need for additional support in serving students with special needs and those who are multilingual learners.
The most recent Colorado Healthy Kids Survey reported nearly 40% of students surveyed experienced feeling sad or hopeless and 17% seriously considered suicide in the past year. TLCC survey results show that while most educators (95%) feel comfortable discussing resilience strategies with their students, only 52% feel comfortable discussing suicide.
The 2024 TLCC survey administration included a set of questions focused on teacher recruitment and retention. These questions were limited to teachers only and administered so that each teacher responded to a specific set of questions. Of the 32,000 teachers responding to the recruitment and retention items, about 7,800 responded to each subset. Responses highlight the need for increased diversity in the educator workforce: 96% of teachers surveyed said they had good teachers as role models but only 38% said that those educator role models included teachers of color.
The teacher recruitment and retention survey responses also reinforce the role of school leaders in educators’ decisions to remain in the classroom. Across the last two survey administrations, teachers continue to rank school leadership as the most important factor in retention followed by school staff and salary. Of the educators responding to the recruitment and retention questions, only 53% agree that district leadership “pays attention” to supporting educators’ emotional and mental health.
“School leaders set the tone for their buildings. While we were encouraged that our educators feel connected to their schools and communities, we have more work to do to ensure that educators have adequate working conditions, which are our students learning conditions, and the social, emotional, and mental health resources and supports they need to sustain in the profession,” said Colorado Education Association President Amie Baca-Oehlert.
“For students in Colorado to thrive, Colorado educators must thrive,” Baca-Oehlert said.
Statewide trend reports and all publicly available state, district, and school-level data are available at www.cde.state.co.us/site/tlccsurvey.