Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Climate Sel topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District survey shows modest gains overall but big disparities for Black and multiracial students; district plans teacher-facing tools and discipline review
Summary
Washington Unified presented CalHOPE and strategic-plan student survey results showing small districtwide improvements but large negative gaps for Black and multiracial students. The district will provide templates for teachers, strengthen SEL curriculum adoption and update the discipline matrix.
District staff presented results of two student surveys — the CalHOPE social-emotional learning (SEL) survey and the district’s strategic-plan survey — showing modest overall gains in student-reported climate but consistent disparities for Black and multiracial students.
Assistant Superintendent Autry Streak and SEL coordinator Rosario Arcona told trustees the CalHOPE survey showed districtwide overall favorability above the state average and a 3–4 percentage-point rise in several dimensions since a spring pulse survey. Arcona said the district’s highest dimension was “experiences with culturally and linguistically responsive environments” at 82 percent favorability.
However, when the district disaggregated responses by race and grade bands, the heat maps showed concerning patterns. For the elementary strategic-plan survey (33 items), Black or African American students were below the average on 25 of 33 items; multiracial students were below average on 28 of 33. For secondary students, Black students were below average on 44 of 50 items in one dimension and multiracial students were below average on 46 of 50 items.
Student board member Mariana Gutierrez and other trustees raised concerns about survey length and possible response bias among students given survey fatigue; Arcona and Streak said the district will explore a shorter instrument and improve administration routines. They also said parents had an opt-out option and that some schools achieved 90–100 percent participation among students who did not opt out.
Next steps the district announced include: providing a customizable slide-deck template so teachers can share survey results and solicit student input; supporting student leadership teams to analyze their site data; adopting an evidence-based SEL curriculum this year; and updating the district discipline matrix to improve consistency across sites. Streak said the district will prioritize programs that target student groups with the largest negative responses and will ask school sites to select one or two schoolwide evidence-based practices to implement.
Why this matters: survey data are being used to guide investments in SEL, equity work and discipline practices. The large negative differentials for Black and multiracial students represent a district-wide equity concern that leaders said will shape next steps.
Ending: Trustees asked staff to supply school-by-school disaggregated reports for site-level planning and requested firm plans for communicating results to families and students; staff agreed to provide site-level reports and tools for teachers to share results with students.
