Whitnall reports high response rate in winter student engagement survey; belonging scores lag
Loading...
Summary
District officials reported 1,624 valid survey responses (88.17% response rate) in the winter administration, with safety rated highest and belonging lowest; staff will share building-level data with principals for action planning.
Whitnall School District officials said the district's winter student engagement survey collected 1,624 valid responses — an 88.17% response rate — and showed increases across the district in the three values the survey measures: advancement, belonging and courage.
Dana (district staff member) presented the results and said 368 students left comments and that buildings have begun receiving their data. “If I hear about a threat to school or student safety, I would report it,” Dana said, noting that question showed one of the largest gains in student agreement.
The nut graf: The survey gives the district a baseline to guide building-level action steps. District leaders said they will compare the survey responses with focus-group information and historical data to inform strategic goals and local interventions.
Officials reported the highest agreement in the theme of safety and the lowest in belonging (about 77% agreement). Advancement and courage each approached roughly 79–80% agreement. Dana said that, overall, the district saw increases of about 2% year-over-year in each main value and more than a 4% increase in student respect compared with the previous winter.
The presentation included a summary of open-coded comments. Of the 368 students who left comments, about 22% of respondents provided free-text remarks. The district coded negative comments broadly; the top negative theme (27% of negative comments) concerned students not getting along. About 20% of negative comments mentioned teachers (tone, perceived fairness or teaching styles), and about 15% expressed dissatisfaction with learning (some said work was too hard, some too easy). On the positive side, staff and food service received many personal shout-outs; the most common positive theme (about 43% of positive comments) was “I like this school,” frequently citing friends and teachers.
Board members asked how the district handles partial or invalid responses. Dana said only submitted surveys count as valid; partial responses or incorrect student IDs result in invalidation of that entry. When board members asked whether comments can be tied to individual teachers for constructive feedback, Dana said she typically is the only staff member who sees all raw comments; administrators receive spreadsheets of themes and staff-level comments when a pattern or specific concern emerges. Single, isolated comments are investigated but are not automatically treated as systemic problems.
District officials said buildings will be asked to share action steps with students and families to close the feedback loop: “As the adults in the district, did these things in accordance with what you recommended,” Dana said, describing the intent to report actions back to students so they know their input informed changes.
Ending: The board discussed the survey data and asked staff to continue analyzing patterns (including transition-year trends such as middle- to high-school) and to return with more granular findings and suggested next steps at a future meeting.
