About Us

Established in 2012, the Survey Research Initiative (SRI) at Teachers College, Columbia University, was created to meet the ongoing needs of K-12 educators, administrators and policymakers for unbiased and constructive feedback. The original survey group was founded in 2006 under the direction of Dr. Priscilla Wohlstetter while she was director of the Center on Educational Governance at the University of Southern California. When Dr. Wohlstetter joined the faculty at Teachers College, the surveys moved with her. Seed funding for the SRI was provided by the Provost Investment Fund at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Our mission is to provide K-12 educators, administrators, and policymakers with unbiased, constructive, and timely feedback they can use to improve their schools. We want to help our clients attract and retain the best professionals, increase engagement and performance, and strengthen the school community climate and culture.

Through a repository of high-quality surveys and development of new surveys tailored to our clients' needs, the SRI provides full research and surveying services, from survey design to data collection and data analysis, to in-depth reporting. We offer surveys for assessing stakeholder satisfaction, school climate, principal performance and program evaluation.

The SRI builds on the expertise of Teachers College faculty and their success in previous survey ventures. Our team includes experts in survey design, statistics, leadership, education reform, and technology. The SRI partners with a wide range of clients from state departments of education, schools and school districts, charter schools and charter management organizations, and private and nonprofit organizations.