VASD presents second year of Climate Survey results with Hanover ... - Verona Press

VASD presents second year of Climate Survey results with Hanover Research | News | veronapress.com

The Verona Area School District (VASD) presented findings from the 2023 School Culture and Climate Survey during a Board of Education meeting on Monday, June 5 that reflected input from students, staff, parents and community members.

Mary Kate Taylor and Sean Watkins of Hanover Research joined via Zoom to present survey results with VASD public information officer Marcie Pfeifer-Soderbloom. Taylor said this is their second year working with VASD – noting she’s worked closely with Pfeifer-Soderbloom to design, administer and analyze the district’s annual climate survey.

“Year two of the Hanover Research Climate Survey is in the books, but really it’s just getting started because it gives us a wealth of resources and data for us to use throughout the district throughout the year,” Pfeifer-Soderbloom said.

VASD’s climate survey was designed to describe community members’ perceptions of the current school climate in the district, compare perceptions of the school climate across different community groups and compare results to previous survey administrations, i.e., the 2021-2022 school year, Watkins said.

The survey was administered online during March and April this year. Students, staff, parents and community members of the district were invited to participate. All participants completed the full survey except for students in grades 3-5 who took a modified, shorter version.

VASD received 3,448 responses; the majority of responses came from the elementary level and high school at 35% and 31% respectively. The lowest number of responses came from Pre-K at 1%. Roughly 87% of those responses were from parents, compared to 13% from students.

Watkins noted participation is down a little bit from last year by about 500 people, however the majority of responses for elementary, K-8, middle and high school were from students themselves.

“It’s a great opportunity to add student voice to your initiatives in the district,” he said.

The first item on the survey looked at the school and building environment itself, asking questions surrounding school safety, building maintenance and classroom environments. Respondents were required to state how much they agree with a statement.

Compared to other districts, Watkins said VASD had an overall positive response regarding the maintenance of the buildings themselves and classroom environments that support learning.

However, agreement was not always a common factor among different community respondents.

“One of the things that we’ll see throughout the presentation tonight is a slight difference between students, staff and parents – and I think that’s worth exploring a little bit more in the future,” Watkins said.

For example, around 40% of students and staff agree that VASD does not have issues with violence or theft compared to 56% of parents. While 89% of parents and staff agreed that students at their child’s school feel welcomed, 67% of students themselves responded similarly.

Watkins noted a difference between student, parent and staff responses is not unusual, especially given the post-pandemic environment.

“There are students that are struggling throughout the country, and a lot of districts are finding ways to better support them,” he said.

Compared to last year’s climate survey results, Watkins said there has been an improvement in those who experience bullying or harassment. Yet, the numbers tend to differ quite significantly between staff and students.

“More additional support and more investigation is probably necessary with this category,” he said.

Questions surrounding the academic environment were generally positive, yet there are some areas to consider for further evaluation, Watkins said. These include discrepancies in agreement to which the district develops students’ ability to manage emotions, empathize with others and resolve conflict.

Vast differences in student and staff responses were evident for student attitudes and engagement, Watkins said. When answering how much respondents agreed to whether students work hard, come to class prepared, are motivated to learn or enjoy learning, staff members agreed to the statements much more than students.

“Our recommendation would be to take a closer look and really dive into what is going on here,” he said. “It often is a fairly complicated situation that’s happening in students’ lives and perceptions around feeling supported. Sometimes it’s a matter of miscommunication or misalignment and there are some easy, low hanging fruit to address some of these issues.”

During the presentation, board member Nicole Vafadari questioned the reasoning behind the language of survey questions that ask about experiences of other students versus the student’s own experiences.

Superintendent Tremayne Clardy said asking about the experience of others across demographic lines is difficult to ascertain a response.

“The same people in the same space of a different race can have a very different experience in the same space,” he said. “It’s not to say their perceptions of others are not important, but I think it can get mired if you’re working across demographic lines a little bit.”

Since the survey focused on the larger community itself, Watkins suggested holding student interviews or focus groups to learn more about individual perceptions of school culture and climate.

Lastly, survey results from this year demonstrated improved ratings regarding the district’s communication with parents and the public – up 5% from last year – but only 35% of participants feel adequately informed about the district's decision-making, down 2% from last year.

Based on the data presented to the board, Hanover Research recommends VASD improves its communication with parents and community members, with particular emphasis on improving transparency regarding district decision-making.

VASD’s next steps have included providing access to survey data for all principals and associate principals to ensure they can access the data dashboard. Following this, a climate survey infographic will be created and shared with the public.

Data from the survey will then be cross-referenced, particularly with the Communications Audit, to inform the development of a district Communications Plan. The district will continue to consult internally and with Hanover Research to maximize the use of data.