I work with district and school leaders across the country who want all students to succeed in reading. These leaders have invested deeply in building strong literacy systems grounded in the science of reading. They’ve purchased high-quality instructional materials, literacy screeners, diagnostic assessments, and progress monitoring tools. They’ve provided professional learning for teachers.
And yet, teacher implementation varies.
Some teachers feel confident but lack follow-through. Others are unsure where to start. Some are superstars but work in isolation. Still others may resist shifts in practice altogether.
If this sounds familiar, I have a suggestion.
I have found that an important (but underused) tool helps leaders understand uneven implementation and move their staff toward full implementation: teacher perceptual data.
Leaders can collect teacher perceptual data in a brief survey or feedback form (See Sample Teacher Perceptual Survey Questions in the dropdown below). When used well, teacher perceptual data provide a powerful window into teacher knowledge, confidence, current levels of implementation, and desire for professional learning. These insights help leaders take targeted action that meets teachers’ needs and strengthens implementation grounded in the science of reading.
Why Teacher Perceptual Data Matters for Implementation
Most districts rely heavily on student achievement data to guide decisions. That’s essential, but it’s not the full picture.
Teacher perceptual data help answer critical questions about teachers’ experiences with implementing the district’s literacy initiative and their ability to implement it effectively. These questions include:
- Where do teachers feel confident, and where are they uncertain or confused?
- What professional learning do teachers want, and how does that relate to their confidence?
- Which parts of the literacy system (core instruction, interventions, assessments, etc.) do teachers think they need further emphasis and support? Which parts are strong?
Answering these questions helps leaders support teachers and guides full implementation of literacy initiatives.
Importantly, perceptual data reflect teachers’ perspectives, not absolute truth. That means the data must be interpreted thoughtfully, alongside professional expertise, contextual understanding, and other evidence sources.
But when used well, perceptual data become a powerful driver for implementing effective literacy practices.
What Teacher Perceptual Data Can Reveal
Consider what one district learned from its teacher survey in the following example from our work.
Confidence Was Uneven Across Reading Components
Teachers reported relatively high confidence in areas like vocabulary and comprehension, but lower confidence in areas such as:
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
This is an important insight. In science of reading implementation, not all components are equally intuitive. Foundational skills, like phonemic awareness and phonics, often require deeper linguistic knowledge and instructional precision.
Even more telling, these survey results surprised administrators. They had held a professional learning day about early reading skills and believed teacher confidence would be higher.
That gap between what leaders perceive and what teachers report can signal:
- Uneven implementation
- Misalignment in expectations
- Opportunities for support
Teachers Were Asking for Targeted Support
In the same survey, large percentages of teachers expressed interest in professional learning related to:
- Foundational skills (85%)
- Differentiating Tier 1 instruction (83%)
- Using Tier 1 materials effectively (73%)
This was another critical insight. Too often, professional learning is designed based on leadership priorities alone. But perceptual data reveal where teacher demand intersects with system need, a powerful lever for engagement.
In this district, teacher perceptual data gave leaders new insight into professional learning on topics that teachers both wanted and needed. Foundational skills needed further review and attention.
How to Use Teacher Perceptual Data for Better Decision Making
Here is a simple process literacy leadership teams can use to discuss teacher perceptual data and make decisions that strengthen literacy instruction. As the literacy leadership team discusses the survey results, remember that all results represent teachers’ perspectives rather than absolute reality. The literacy team will need to use its members’ professional expertise to make sense of these results. The team may also want to gather additional information about the topics in the survey.
Step 1: Start with Reflection and Define Questions
Before reviewing survey results, leadership teams should define the team’s focus and formulate questions. Discuss the following:
- What are the key questions our team needs to answer that teacher perceptual data can help inform?
This step focuses literacy leadership teams on the critical questions and decisions they need to make.
Step 2: Focus on the Most Relevant Data
After reviewing all available data, narrow the focus depending on how the team defined the key questions.
Discuss the following:
- Which survey items are most relevant to our key questions?
- How should we organize or display the data so that meaningful patterns are easier to identify?
This step keeps time and attention centered on the data that matter most for decision making.
Step 3: Analyze the Data (Focus on Facts)
Next, review the survey results with a focus on what the data actually show, without adding interpretation. If the team is tempted to go beyond the data, team members should put those thoughts in a “parking lot” or jot them down on a sticky note. The team will come back to these interpretations in the next step.
Consider questions such as:
- Which areas show the highest and lowest levels of teacher confidence?
- Where is there strong or limited interest in professional learning?
- What patterns or trends are visible across items?
This step ensures that teams ground their conversation in evidence rather than impressions.
Step 4: Interpret the Data (Add Professional Expertise)
Once the facts are clear, shift to interpreting what the data might mean in the district’s specific context.
Consider these types of questions:
- How do these results align with what we see in classrooms?
- Where might teachers be overconfident or underconfident?
- What do these results suggest about the effectiveness of our current supports?
- What additional data or evidence do we need to better understand these results?
This step connects the data to real-world practice and helps teams avoid misinterpretation.
Step 5: Make Decisions That Strengthen Literacy Instruction
Finally, use analysis and interpretation to guide clear, actionable decisions.
Ask the following:
- What should we prioritize in our literacy plan based on these results?
- Where do teachers need targeted professional learning or coaching?
- How can we better align supports across Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3?
- What changes do we need to make to improve how teachers use data to inform instruction?
- How will we monitor progress and adjust our approach over time?
At this stage, teacher perceptual data become a tool for effective leadership, helping districts align professional learning, instructional supports, and system-level decisions with actual teacher needs.
For more detailed information about using data for decision making, including student achievement data and observational data, see our 5D Data Analysis Process.
When to Use Teacher Perceptual Data
Implementing literacy instruction grounded in the science of reading is a human challenge as well as a technical challenge.
Teachers bring beliefs, confidence levels, prior experiences, and varying levels of expertise to the work. If we ignore that, even the best literacy materials and assessments will fall short.
But when we listen carefully to teachers through well-designed surveys and use of perceptual data, we gain the insight needed to lead change with precision, empathy, and impact.
I advise leaders to use teacher perceptual data at least once a year. Identify the time of year when the literacy team reflects on and plans for change to literacy instruction and systems. It might be during professional learning schedule planning for the year, or during revision or evaluation of the literacy plan. Then, use a brief survey or feedback form to gather teachers’ perceptions and proceed through the steps in this blog.
When used well, teacher perceptual data help leaders provide more targeted professional learning and better supports for teachers. In turn, teachers can provide better literacy instruction, which ultimately leads to higher achievement for students.
If you have questions about this process or would like assistance with literacy data use, contact me here.