Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado Survey

TLCC Survey Overview

The main purposes of the TLCC Survey are to:

Amplify Educators' Voice

Provides schools, district and state policymakers with reliable data on teaching and learning conditions. It offers additional information for discussion and gives potential suggestions on areas that deserve attention in a school environment.

Deepen Improvement Planning

Provides additional data to support school improvement efforts (e.g., root cause analysis in the Unified Improvement Plan). The survey data can help staff to identify positive trends in school conditions, as well as identify areas that merit further discussion. This is the only data source on school conditions that offer state comparison points.

Strengthen Research and Policy

Informs researchers and policymakers by providing data on the impact of school conditions on student growth and on staff retention. This survey provides a unique look into schools across the state that can lead to more informed policies and practices.

The survey is operated through a statewide collaborative that includes partners such as the Colorado Education Association, Colorado Education Initiative, Governor's Office, Colorado Association of School Boards, Colorado Association of School Executives, Colorado League of Charter Schools, representatives from school districts, universities and researchers.

History of the TLCC Survey

Initiated through HB08-1384, the Teaching and Learning Conditions in Colorado (TLCC), formerly known as TELL Colorado, is a statewide, confidential survey intended to support school, district, and state improvement planning, as well as research and policy.

Schools and districts will need more than 50% participation and at least five responses to access their data.

View an interactive report of historic district and school level TELL data.

Updates To Reporting for TLCC 2024

To ensure that TLCC Survey result aggregations are more representative and to increase accuracy, CDE and Panorama have made some minor modifications in the TLCC reporting platform.  Any changes are only at the topic favorability level - specifically for the New Teacher and the Professional Development areas.  Topic favorability refers to the aggregated total of responses to survey questions that have a measurable relationship to each other (e.g., Time, Student Conduct). All data for individual items remain accurate and unchanged. If you have already reviewed your district and/or school reports, you will see some changes in your reports, including reporting for 2020, 2022, and 2024. We have also added some guidance language to ensure more accurate interpretation in the reports.  TLCC reports have been updated and can be reviewed at www.tlccsurvey.org.

Detail on New Teacher Topic.  We removed three questions in the New Teacher section from the topic favorability calculation. The questions provide program information and do not inform perceptions of favorability. This change is in alignment with previous reporting of TLCC results.  If you have already looked at your 2024 results, this change could shift your overall favorability New Teacher/Staff construct summary.  The individual items remain unchanged. 

Detail on Professional Development Topic.  Because survey respondents were asked different questions depending on their current job role (i.e., classroom teacher, building leader, SSP, ESP), we have discovered that the topic favorability may statistically over-represent a group depending upon who participated. CDE has decided to un-score the Professional Development construct for 2022 and 2024. The department will be reviewing the questions for the next administration to ensure that the topic can be scorable in the future. Districts and schools are encouraged to review data in the Professional Development topic at the question level, paying particular attention to differences by job role by reviewing the “Breakdown by Current Position” response details.

TLCC Off Year Administration

Panorama Education will offer the TLCC survey for districts in the state’s “off-year” (i.e., 2025). This will enable sites to view results over time and track progress on implementation. Districts that already have a partnership with Panorama may be able to administer the survey at no cost. Districts may learn more about the opportunity reviewing this Panorama Off Year Administration flier. 

Contact Information

For more information about the TLC Colorado Survey, please contact Lisa Steffen at steffen_l@cde.state.co.us or 720-498-3020