Original KEYS Survey
Original KEYS Research
Over 1,600 teachers completed the questionnaire. Respondents’ data were then analyzed to see how the questionnaire items clustered together and to determine the extent to which the existence of various organizational conditions could be positively related to high ratings of school quality and high student achievement. The results were very encouraging. Based on teachers’ responses, it appeared that 35 indicators of school quality, clustered around five major dimensions (shared understanding and commitment to high goals, open communication and collaborative problem solving, continuous assessment for teaching and learning, personal and professional learning, and resources to support teaching and learning), were significantly related to student achievement, irrespective of social or economic conditions. The research findings were further validated through a series of case studies in six school districts across the country.
The Original KEYS Instrument
Based on the original research, the 256-item questionnaire was streamlined into a KEYS opscan instrument, containing 120 items. The reduction of items was accomplished without affecting the instrument’s validity. The instrument is a self-assessment tool that is completed by the school and yields a set of objective data related to the 35 organizational conditions shown empirically to support effective teaching and learning and high student achievement. These school assessments are then compared with benchmarks, thus stimulating further inquiries and meaningful staff discussions and focused efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning processes. The Development of the NEA KEYS 2.0 Survey Although the original KEYS instrument has been used successfully in more than 1,000 schools around the country, NEA recently undertook the research task of revising and improving the survey. The revisions were undertaken to make the instrument more user friendly in terms of language, data reporting, interpretation, and, more significantly, to ensure all survey items address teaching and learning concepts and conditions that directly affect the core purposes of schools— improving student achievement.