Quantitative Layer
A structured six-domain anonymous inventory generates per-respondent Introspective Practices Profiles. Items are scored on Likert and frequency scales, then aggregated to school and district levels for year-over-year comparison.
ProTeachAI Foundation
Culture Pulse 360 Surveys
Research & Reporting
A Midwest United States K12 research study across 16 unique school sites. This three-year mixed methods action research project examines how educator self-assessment, anonymous voice, and longitudinal tracking move districts toward shared leadership, healthy systems of accountability, and distributive leadership models in K12 settings.
Study Abstract
A Three-Year Pulse of K12 Culture
The Culture Pulse 360 Inventory is a six-domain organizational assessment grounded in Eric Berne's transactional analysis and Carl Rogers' humanistic psychology. This longitudinal study is a Midwest United States K12 research study across 16 unique school sites, tracked across two anchor administrations in 2021 and 2024, with reliability testing in 2018 and 2020 establishing instrument internal consistency.
Findings demonstrate measurable district-wide growth across all six domains, with a 51.6 percent rise in staff-reported professional learning related to equity and inclusion, and clear convergence between teacher voice and district strategic priorities for school year 2024-2025: coaching and feedback as a healthy system of accountability, student engagement, and literacy instruction.
The study has since informed a published methodological successor, the Inner Compass Introspective Practices Protocol (IC-IPP), which extends the Culture Pulse 360 logic into a sequenced anonymous-inquiry framework for promoting shared leadership, healthy accountability, and teacher voice in strategic planning.
At a Glance
The Three-Year Story
+51.6%
Increase in district engagement in professional learning related to equity and inclusion (2021 to 2024).
64.7% → 13.1%
Drop in respondents reporting their school had not offered learning related to antiracism / inclusion and equity.
.950
Cronbach's alpha across the 95-item inventory. McDonald's omega = .951. n = 379. Both exceed the .90 benchmark for excellence.
6 / 6
Domains showing positive year-over-year mean shift, including the lowest-trust domain (Leadership and Coaching).
Research Design
Methodology
A mixed methods action research design pairing a six-domain anonymous self-assessment with thematic and discourse analysis of open-ended responses. The instrument was field-tested over six years and now anchors the IC-IPP protocol.
Qualitative Layer
Thematic and discourse analysis of open-ended participant responses surfaces what surveys alone cannot reach: the embedded cultural norms, recurring language patterns, and collective emotional themes participants carry through their written language, often without conscious awareness.
SWOT Integration
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are applied to the inner landscape of the educator, not to organizational strategy alone. The framework treats the practitioner as the unit of analysis and the system as the context.
The Full Action Research Cycle
- 1
Anonymous Inquiry
Individual inquiry across six domains delivered in a deliberate sequence.
- 2
Qualitative Analysis
Thematic and discourse analysis of open responses.
- 3
Collective Dialogue
Synthesis and facilitated dialogue in shared space.
- 4
Forward Planning
Reflection and planning with longitudinal tracking available across cycles.
Instrument Reliability
.950Cronbach's α (95-item)
.951McDonald's ω
.945α refined 78-item
379Pilot sample (n)
4630.508χ² goodness-of-fit
.000Significance
Both reliability coefficients exceed the .70 acceptability threshold and surpass the .90 benchmark for excellence, establishing the Culture Pulse 360 Inventory as a scientifically rigorous assessment instrument (Cronbach, 1951; McDonald, 1999). Peer review statistical analysis was conducted by LRF Bird Consulting.
New Methodology
IC-IPP
Inner Compass Introspective Practices Protocol
A published methodological successor to the Culture Pulse 360 Inventory, designed to promote shared leadership, healthy systems of accountability, and teacher voice in the strategic planning process and adoption of K12 distributive leadership models.
The sequence is the method. Permission is the design.
IC-IPP Core Principle
The Six Domains of Inquiry
Each layer builds the psychological permission necessary to access the next.
Stress Levels
Naming what is present before attempting to change it.
Managing Conflict
Examining how conflict was modeled, not assigned.
Interpersonal Communications
Verbal and nonverbal. The whole body communicates.
Emotional Intelligence
Is there a consistent method working for you right now?
Self-Awareness
Cultural origin story, soul purpose, passions, learning styles, and what you know about you.
Identifying Triggers
What environments bring up the most troubling emotions?
Why Sequence Is the Architecture of Trust
Most self-reflection tools ask too much, too fast, or too little, too late. IC-IPP pairs structured anonymous self-assessment with qualitative thematic and discourse analysis of open-ended participant responses. This surfaces what surveys alone cannot reach: the embedded cultural norms, recurring language patterns, and collective emotional themes participants carry through their written language, often without conscious awareness. The result is an individual Introspective Practices Profile and a synthesized collective snapshot that serves as the foundation for facilitated dialogue and sustained organizational transformation.
Interdisciplinary Roots
Theoretical Foundation
IC-IPP draws on more than eight decades of interdisciplinary scholarship. Select any scholar to read their key contribution.
From Inner Compass to Distributive Leadership
When educators are first guided to name their own stress, their own conflict patterns, their own communication style, and their own cultural origin story, they enter strategic planning conversations as whole adults rather than positional defenders. This is the operational basis for distributive leadership in K12 districts: you cannot distribute decision authority without first distributing the psychological readiness to hold it (Spillane, 2005; Harris, 2008).
Healthy systems of accountability, in this framing, are not surveillance structures. They are reciprocal feedback loops anchored in psychological safety (Edmondson, 2014) and shared language. Teacher voice, when sequenced through anonymous inquiry first, returns to the strategic planning table with substantially more specificity and substantially less defensiveness, which is precisely the condition shared leadership models require to function (Hallinger & Heck, 2010).
Year-Over-Year Findings
Three-Year Data Dashboard
This Midwest United States K12 research study covers 16 unique school sites, each coded as Midwest Site 1 through Midwest Site 16 to preserve participant anonymity. Charts are interactive. Hover for exact values.
District-Wide Domain Means · 2021 vs 2024
All six Culture Pulse 360 domains show positive year-over-year movement. Largest gain: Leadership and Coaching (+0.430).
Domain Growth Deltas
Magnitude of mean shift from 2021 to 2024 by domain. Higher bars indicate stronger upward movement.
School-Level Heatmap · 2024 Domain Means
Anonymized site-level domain means. Use the dropdown to switch year.
School Trajectory Explorer
Pick any anonymized site to see its 2021 to 2024 trajectory across all six domains.
Item-Level Growth · Choose Domain
Per-question district mean for the selected domain, 2021 vs 2024.
Active Teacher Reflection
Voices Across the Three Years
All quotations are reproduced verbatim from anonymous open-response items. Names of schools, principals, and districts have been removed or coded.
My principal understands and remembers what it's like to be in the classroom and all of the demands placed on us. She encourages us to have a life balance and good health all around: physical, mental, emotional.
Anonymous, 2024 administration
A top strength for my lead principal is her ability to actually see and meet her staff exactly where they are. Her sole focus is an atmosphere of relationship building and walking alongside her staff so that no one is left behind.
Anonymous, 2024 administration
My lead principal has many responsibilities given to him by district and therefore he has not been able to be as present with us. I know he wants this to change as well.
Anonymous, 2024 administration
Our principal should be in classrooms more and giving feedback to help teachers grow.
Anonymous, 2024 administration
My principal is the most knowledgeable person about different teaching strategies and student engagement. She makes it easy to ask for help and learn on a daily basis how to be a better teacher.
Anonymous, 2024 administration
I feel that the IED portion of our school statement is not being implemented or addressed with fidelity or transparency. It seems as if it is on paper but not a part of our daily routine. There is no real training or reinforcement when a staff member is racially biased or insensitive.
Anonymous, 2021 administration
Convergence with District Strategic Priorities
By the third administration cycle, three open-response themes converged with the priorities the district had independently identified for school year 2024-2025: coaching and feedback as a healthy system of accountability, student engagement, and literacy instruction. This convergence is the operational signal that anonymous-inquiry data is functioning as a distributive leadership input rather than as a satisfaction survey.
Open Research Assets
Downloads
All site identifiers in these files are anonymized. Use freely under the citation terms below.
Cite This Work
Citation
González, J. R. (2026). Culture Pulse 360 Surveys: A three-year mixed methods study and the Inner Compass Introspective Practices Protocol (IC-IPP). ProTeachAI Foundation. https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5911-903X
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. © 2016 to 2026 Justine R. González. All rights reserved under the above license terms.