Burlington Public Schools survey finds high safety scores but sharp drop in students saying they "look forward" to school

Christine Concepcion, a district staff member who led the presentation, told the school committee the district fielded the 2024 school climate survey from Dec. 2 through Dec. 20 and had “exactly 554 parent and guardian responses” and “297 staff responses.”

The survey covered parents/guardians, all staff and students in grades 4–12. Concepcion reported 490 completed responses from elementary (grade 4–5) students and 1,378 complete responses from secondary students (grades 6–12), with an additional 1,463 partial secondary responses. Responses were submitted in 11–12 languages depending on the group.

Why it matters: school committee members and district leaders said the results help shape the district’s three strategic priorities — Learning, Equity and Thriving — and guide planning and resource decisions. Superintendent Dr. Conte said the climate data are “the antecedents to learning,” adding that students must feel safe before they can learn effectively.

Key findings presented by Concepcion: - School safety scored highly across parents, staff and students and remained a district strength year over year. Parents rated items about safety going to and from school at 91% favorable. - Staff connectedness and adult relationships showed gains; Concepcion noted a large jump in several staff items (for example, reports that students treat each other with respect rose substantially in staff responses). - Parent involvement remained the lowest-scoring theme for parents and staff, but Concepcion said the district saw increases of 1–7 percentage points in that area after targeted engagement work (for example, virtual “lunch and learn” events and a new family and community engagement specialist). - Elementary students showed improvements on several questions (for example, “my school wants me to do well” was 90% favorable). Concepcion said many elementary indicators trended upward from 2023 to 2024.

Most notable decline: Concepcion flagged one large negative change in the secondary student survey. “The question specifically was ‘most days I look forward to going to school.’ We had a 67% favorability rating in 2023 and we have a 30% favorability rating in 2024,” she said. The presenter and committee members noted the drop is concentrated in some grades (Concepcion said 8th grade showed particularly large declines) and said the district will follow up with more targeted inquiry.

Committee response and next steps: - Committee members asked Concepcion to pursue a deeper dive into the sharp drop on the “look forward” item, including grade-by-grade breakdowns and follow-up qualitative engagement with students in the affected groups. - Concepcion said building principals and school-based teams already have the full dataset and would develop school-level action plans; the district will produce suggested district actions tied to the three strategic priorities and report back to the committee. - Dr. Conte said the committee should see how climate work connects to district improvement planning and longer-term outcome metrics.

Additional context from the presentation: Concepcion described the survey instrument as the district’s third consecutive year using the same school climate questions and the second year using the ThoughtExchange platform, which enables both quantitative scores and free-text submissions. The presentation included a qualitative executive summary that highlighted improved teacher–student relationships, expanded extracurricular activities and stronger perceptions of belonging in several schools.

Concepcion said the district will prioritize targeted follow-up (including teacher PLCs, school staff debriefs and focused student and parent engagements) and return to the committee with suggested actions and timelines.

Sources and attribution: Direct quotations and participation counts in this article are taken from Christine Concepcion’s presentation to the Burlington School Committee on Jan. 28, 2025, and comments by Superintendent Dr. Conte during the same meeting.

Ending: The committee asked the administration to return with a short, public-facing highlights summary and a set of recommended next steps tied to the district improvement plan; the administration said it will present suggested actions at a future meeting and continues to review school-level findings.