An Investigation into the Viability of Using the Massachusetts Teaching and Learning Survey Instrument to Measure Internal Accountability

This quantitative study investigated whether the internal accountability related questions on the 2008 MassTeLLS instrument could be used as a diagnostic tool to identify differences between schools whose student growth percentile (SGP) levels deviate from expected patterns. For example, historically schools with high numbers of poor and minority students would be expected to underperform academically relative to schools with low percentages of poor and minority students. Schools that deviate from this historical pattern, with unexpectedly high and low student performance, could be designated as positive deviant (PD) and negative deviants (ND) respectively. If the internal accountability related questions characterize differences between positive and negative deviant schools, the survey results generated by the Commonwealth could be used as a diagnostic tool to identify areas needing improvement, greatly reducing the time and resources needed to administer and analyze other survey data.;The data did not support the use of the 2008 MassTeLLS instrument as a diagnostic to identify internal accountability differences between the PD and ND schools. Investigation of the unexpected higher levels of internal accountability for negative deviant schools yielded several categories of potential explanations. Recommendations for further research are discussed in hopes that the Commonwealth's investment in the TeLLS administration will yield data to energize the collective commitment to a culture of continuous improvement.