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VISTA Survey Project:

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated on 1/10/2018

  1. What is VISTA?

“Views of Instruction, State Standards, Teaching, and Assessment” (VISTA) is an annual survey sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. All Massachusetts superintendents and principals will be invited to participate. Educators will be asked to share their views on the implementation of five statewide initiatives: curriculum frameworks, educator growth and development, pipeline development, social and emotional learning, health, and safety, and ESE supports.

  1. What is different from last year?

This year’s survey provides educators with a unique opportunity to suggest what ESE’s new commissioner should focus on early in her/his tenure.

A new topic has been added to VISTA. Superintendent and principals will be asked their views on developing, hiring, and retaining effective educators within their districts and schools (the educator pipeline), respectively. This topic replaces the educator growth and development section.

The social and emotional learning (SEL) module has been expanded to include questions related to ESE’s school climate surveys and their administration.

Educator growth and development, as it relates to social and emotional learning, is now found within the SEL section.

New to the ESE supports module, ESE asks educators to evaluate its data resources (e.g., its DART tool).

Last year, ESE partnered with the Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), a national research study of curriculum framework implementation. No C-SAIL content is included this year.

  1. Why participate in VISTA?

The survey gives Massachusetts superintendents and principals a voice directly with the state on issues specific to education in Massachusetts. ESE will learn from educator experiences and use their feedback to improve statewide implementation, inform current and future policies, and better target state resources, grants and supports.

  1. Do the VISTA surveys replace ESE’s program office statewide surveys?

Yes.Several ESE program offices contributed to VISTA and consolidated their annual surveys into one survey.

  1. What is the role of Westat in this study?

Westat provides survey design, data collection, analyses and data reporting for the VISTA project.

  1. How and when will the survey be administered?

The survey will be administered online from mid-January through early-March 2018. Westat will administer the VISTA surveys through their web-based survey tool. Superintendents and principals will receive individual links to login to Westat’s survey system using a computer or mobile device.

  1. Do I have to complete the survey in one session?

No. Respondents can log in to the system multiple times rather than having to complete the survey in one sitting. Superintendents will have the option to delegate portions of the survey to other central office staff; for example, they may wish to have a curriculum director respond to the questions about curriculum. Superintendents will need to provide their link to whoever they allocate a portion of the survey to.

  1. Are the surveys longer than last year and how long will the surveys take to complete?

No. The numbers of items are approximately the same as last year’s surveys. The 2018 surveys should take between 20–30 minutes.

  1. Will teachers have to complete a survey?

No.

  1. Will educators receive an incentive to participate in the survey?

Unfortunately, ESE is unable to provide an incentive to either principals or superintendents.

  1. Will individual educator identities be protected through the survey administration process?

Yes. All principals and superintendents in the state will be invited to complete the VISTA survey. Westat will email principals and superintendents with personalized links to the VISTA surveys. Westat will correspond directly with principals and superintendents during the survey administration process and keep this information secure on their data systems. At no time will ESE have access to this information. ESE’s role is to only to make principals and superintendents aware of the opportunity to provide feedback. All principal and superintendent data will be reported in the aggregate (district, and/or state). The data ESE will receive from Westat will NOT include any educators’ individual identifying information.

  1. How will my data be used?

The state will track progress on the implementation of state initiatives over time. The data will also be used by ESE’s program offices to better identify resources, grants and supports for Massachusetts educators.

For more information on VISTA, visit or email Shelagh Peoples at .

Page 1 of 2Updated 12/15/2016