Digging into Your 2017 School Climate & Connectedness Survey Results!

By Jenni Lefing

AASB School Climate Coordinator

As students, school staff, and district leadership head back to school, school districts across the state are using their school climate data to strengthen parent and community involvement in school, how connected students feel to adults and peers, and student social emotional learning (SEL).

This year, 27 school districts are using School Climate and Connectedness Survey (SCCS) results in a new platform.

Partnering with Panorama Education, an education-centered, data- systems organization, AASB has offered new tools for collecting and reviewing School Climate and Connectedness data. Not only do districts now receive results much earlier (May instead of August), but the platform also allows districts to truly interact with and better understand the data.

The new platform offers links to allow you to see school results for the past three years, comparisons across statewide and district, how students responded to a question by gender, grade level, race/ethnicity, attendance, and offers comparisons between students and staff.

One district staff member stated, “The reports on the website are very easy to work with! I appreciate these reports over the former reports we used to get.”

The survey also provides a dashboard to look at strength and growth areas for each district.

Many districts are taking advantage of the tailored support offered by AASB as a part of their survey package. This includes having staff view the recorded webinar on how to use the platform, as well as on-site workshops helping staff, students, board members, and families to use their data for planning. Other districts have utilized video-conference to bring AASB into data-driven decision-making by the board and district leadership.

After looking at her school’s results at a workshop this month, a teacher said “Now, I’m interested in the next steps, how to strategically address some key questions, [that have come up].”

Statewide, district leadership has been interested in staff and student results from the recently added cultural connectedness scale.

Statewide, 53% of grade 6-12 students responded favorably to “ My school values the language and culture of my family,” compared to 82% of staff responding favorably to “This school values the language and cultures of students’ families.” These are just two of the data points that can serve as great conversation starters to dig into student and staff perceptions on how well culture is integrated into their classrooms and schools.

Districts that create intentional time for stakeholders to review and discuss survey results are more likely to see improved school climate outcomes, and in turn overall student success.

Some highlights statewide include:

• Increases in Grade 3-5 student perceptions in all areas from 2016 to 2017.
• Peer Climate is the least favorable of all surveyed topics, and has decreased for Grade 6-12 students and staff from 2016 to 2017.
• First year results for new cultural connectedness scale. Lower grade levels (grade 6 and 7) reported higher ratings.

Most students and staff reported feeling safe at school (70% of grade 3-5 students, 72% of grade 6-12 students, and 87% of staff).

You can access the full Alaska Statewide Results here: Alaska Statewide Link

Some highlights:

Please do not hesitate to contact Jenni Lefing with questions about the new survey platform and how to make the most of school climate data in your district.