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The Purpose of the Survey

• The NC TWC Survey is an anonymous statewide survey of teachers (certified and non-certified) and other licensed, school-based educators to understand teaching conditions at the school, district and state levels.
• All information about the survey, survey results and resources can be found online at https://www.nctwcs.org.
• The 2026 NC TWC survey will be live from March 2-31, 2026. No extensions will be allowed beyond March 31.
• Educators can access the survey anytime, anywhere, via any internet-enabled device using an individual, confidential survey code distributed by the school’s NC TWC Coordinator. If you are unsure of your school’s NC TWC Coordinator, reach out to your school administration.
• The survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and must be completed in one sitting. 

• Individual survey letters (with codes) will be available via an online portal for NC TWC Coordinators to print and distribute to school participants.
• Survey codes are still anonymous. Educators will not be asked for any identifying information while participating in the survey. 

• The state’s education leaders want to ensure that every educator in North Carolina has the supportive environment necessary to help their students achieve excellence.
• The survey provides data for school and district improvements to be used along with other data points such as student achievement and growth, percent poverty level, teacher turnover rate, etc. Results are also expected to inform state-level policy.
• Research associated with the NC TWC Survey results has shown strong connections to student achievement and to teacher retention. Over the past 20 years, state policymakers have incorporated the use of the NC TWC Survey results in various strategies for school and district improvement including annual school and district improvement plans, the evaluation of administrators, the state’s plan for the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title I and Title IIA programs and the state’s Equity Plan. 

Supporting educators starts with asking about the teaching conditions needed to do their jobs well. The questions are objective and externally validated.

What topics are covered in the survey?
• Leadership (School & Teacher)
• Managing Student Conduct
• Safety & Wellbeing
• Facilities & Resources
• Community Support & Involvement
• Professional Learning, Supports & Development
• Instructional Practices, Supports & Needs
• Time
• Non-Discrimination

How are these topics aligned to educators' everyday work?
• Facilities & Resources now measures whether a school's physical environment is sufficient for quality instruction
• Professional Learning now asks about top three needs for areas of professional development
• Instructional Supports & Practices are now about top three needs for support and the NC Educator Effectiveness System (NCEES) process
• Teacher Leadership is now aligned to Standard 1 (Teachers Leading in the Classroom and School)

What types of questions are included?
• Basic demographic (nothing identifiable)
• Likert scale/Rating scale
• Ranking
• Multiple choice
• Open-ended

• All classroom teachers (certified and non-certified) and licensed school-based educators:
o Licensed school-based educators include school counselors, media coordinators and instructional coaches who are based at the school and under the supervision of the school-based administration.   

• School Principals and Assistant Principals:
o School principals and APs do NOT take the NC TWC Survey
o North Carolina’s principals and assistant principals have expressed the need for a dedicated survey to assess their working conditions and leadership experiences. In response, a working group of North Carolina superintendents and principals of the year, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and research faculty from UNC-system universities developed the NC Principal Working Conditions (NCPWC) Survey to provide a clearer understanding of school leadership conditions across the state.
o A pilot study was launched in the fall of 2025 to refine and validate the survey before a potential statewide rollout. 10 districts from our eight educational regions participated in the survey.

• Instructional assistants (IA):
o Because the role and accompanying duties of an instructional assistant can vary greatly from district to district, IAs do NOT participate in the TWC survey.

• Central office-based licensed personnel:
o School personnel that report to a central office location and are not under the supervision of a school-based administration do not take the survey. Examples may include psychologists, social workers and central office-based pre-k teachers.   

• The NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has contracted with Academic Development Institute (ADI) to administer the NC TWC Survey.

• Because NCDPI wants to reduce the data collection burden on teachers, it is preferred that each teacher only complete the survey for their base school. If approved by the district NC TWC Coordinator, teachers have the option to take it at any other school that they serve where they spend enough time to be able to assess the teaching and learning conditions in that school under that school’s administration.
• If a teacher receives a survey code for schools other than their base school, and does not want to participate for those schools, they should contact the NC TWC Survey Coordinator at that school to let them know they will NOT be participating. 

• Public K-12 schools (i.e., traditional, charter, lab, residential) under the authority of NCDPI are the focus of the NC TWC Survey.
• Preschools with an NC school identification number can also be included.
• If your school has not received information about the 2026 survey, an administrator should contact Survey Support to register. 

Accessing the Survey

• NC TWC Coordinators will receive login information for the TWC Survey Portal, where they will be able to print survey codes to distribute prior to the start of the survey.
• Each survey code is anonymous and not specific to any educator. Survey codes are only specific to the school itself.
• Each code can only be used one time. 

• If you are an individual educator and you have not received/misplaced a code, please contact your school’s NC TWC Coordinator. If you are unsure of your school’s NC TWC Coordinator, reach out to your school administration.

• If you are a NC TWC Coordinator, please contact Survey Support by clicking on “Need Help?” at the top of the website to contact Survey Support. 

• Once the survey is completed, you will get a message letting you know it has been submitted successfully.  

• Yes, absolutely! Confidentiality of responses is a TOP priority for NCDPI. A unique survey code will be populated for each staff member and printed for distribution by the TWC school based coordinator. Each survey code can only be used once.
• The TWC Coordinator will not know who has taken the survey, only how many people have taken it based on the count on our website. 

• All requests for changes to the number of expected survey participants for your school must be submitted by the TWC Coordinator or building administrator using the “Need Help?” link or by calling the toll-free number: 1-888-404-9704
• Please note: Changes will only be accepted prior to and during the survey window. Once the survey closes, no educator count changes can be made.   

• Designated NC TWC Coordinators and principals can contact the help desk to adjust headcount, report lost emails or ask questions about the survey. Click on “Need Help?” at the top of the website to contact Survey Support.
• Individual educators should contact their school’s NC TWC Coordinator for assistance. 

The survey questions were created by the NCDPI based on extensive feedback from educators in North Carolina and national experts. Each individual question addresses specific and relevant aspects of a teacher’s working conditions. The following activities were part of the survey revision process:
      o Facilitated external feedback sessions with teachers, principals, charter leaders, CAOs, and superintendents
      o Deployed an external survey (n=2,416) that included item-by-item review and open-ended items
      o Met with other state leaders and national experts to understand best practices for large-scale teacher surveys
      o Leveraged an internal NCDPI Working Group and NC TWC Advisory Board
      o Worked with an external survey methodology expert to conduct rigorous NC TWC Survey Revision Data Analyses including:
        - using Item Response Theory (IRT) to screen items within existing 12 domains and identify floor/ceiling effects, low correlation    with domain, and IRT-based item fit
        - selecting from screened items to achieve high overall reliability and ensure domain coverage
      o Using the data from the most recent survey, NCDPI will work with an external survey methodology expert to:
        - use Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to combine data across domains
        - validate domain structure
        - explore correlation among domains
        - ensure the measure performs similarly across school level, size, locale, and region 

Taking the Survey

NC TWC Coordinators will receive an email with login credentials to access the TWC Survey Portal. In the Portal, survey reps will see their currently listed educator count and print survey invitations for their educators. TWC Coordinators will then distribute invitations to all eligible educators in their building. Each survey invitation includes an anonymous code that can be entered to take the survey. Each code may only be used once.

• To participate in the survey:
     o Go to the NC TWC Survey website and click “Take the Survey”.
     o Enter the code that you received from your TWC Coordinator.
     o Complete all survey questions.
     o Click the submit button once all questions are answered…that’s it!
• The survey will open on March 2, 2026 at 7 a.m. EST and close on March 31, 2026 at midnight EST.
• If you did not receive your code, lost your code or are having trouble with the code, please contact your NC TWC Coordinator. 

Yes. All respondents will answer the same items.

• You will receive instant confirmation that your survey has been submitted. 

• The survey platform creates a unique survey code for every survey invitation. Educators will not be asked for any identifying information.
• NCDPI has increased the minimum response rate to 50% to send data back to your school to reduce any chance that results could be attributed to any individual respondents.
• NCDPI also commits to protect your anonymity by requiring a minimum of responses from at least five school educators before any data is shared.
• The survey is about the school environment, not about any one person or individual.
• There are NO questions asked that refer to an individual educator or administrator, but rather “leadership” at the school.
• There are no required demographic questions that specifically ask about the subject areas or grade levels you teach.
• While there are some optional demographic questions on the survey, answers to these questions are only reported at the state level, not at the district or school level.   

• There is a minimum sample size of at least five educators for any school-level report. Unless there are at least five educators who have responded to those individual items, no data will appear on the school level report.

• The survey is administered by the Office of Research and Promising Practices at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Please email NCTWC@dpi.nc.gov if you have any NC TWC questions for NCDPI.
• Individual educators should reach out to their NC TWC Coordinator if they need a survey code or have questions about participation.
• TWC Coordinators can reach out to the Survey Support team to update educator counts, if they have questions or need additional assistance. Contact information can be found by clicking “Need Help?” from the menu bar at the top of this page. 

Survey Results 

• NCDPI’s goal is to share data directly back with schools and districts as soon as possible after the close of the survey window for all schools reaching the minimum threshold of 50% response rate and at least five educators completing the survey. The target for sharing preliminary results is 2-3 weeks after the survey closes.
• NCDPI will provide an update to the NC State Board of Education in May 2026 on the statewide results from the NC TWC Survey and will release the data publicly at that time. 

• Results Page: Anyone may view and download the most current survey results, which will be available approximately six weeks after the survey closes. Schools and districts will receive their data prior to the public release in May.
• Research Page: Results from the previous two surveys will also be available. Instructions for obtaining specific data sets are also located on the website under the Research Section.
• View the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey - Insights Dashboard  

• Visit www.nctwcs.org to view live response rates for schools and districts.

"As a school leader, I acknowledge that having a quality teacher in every classroom is the most impactful strategy to increase student achievement. The NC TWC Survey is an important tool I use as a school leader to improve school culture and climate for teachers so they have the powerful resources and learning environments to meet the diverse needs of all students."

TJ Worrell

Charter POY 

The TWC is one of the most important data points for a school and school district. I have always believed that if staff feel supported, valued and heard...great things will happen for students. The TWC gives us that data so that we can continuously improve conditions for staff and, ultimately, conditions for students.

Dr. Joe Ferrell

Superintendent, Sandhills Region

Academic Development Institute
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Need Help?

Contact Your School's TWC Coordinator  




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