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Shippensburg survey shows stronger staff engagement but high-school student measures lag peers
Summary
Districtwide YouthTruth survey drew about 1,900 student responses; staff engagement and safety ratings improved while high-school student engagement landed in lower percentiles compared with other rural schools. Board and administration discussed pathways, graduation‑requirement flexibility and local pilots to raise student engagement.
Superintendent August told the board that the district received more than 1,900 student responses to this year’s YouthTruth survey, a national research-based instrument that also asks staff and families for feedback.
The survey showed notable gains in staff engagement and staff perceptions of school safety across multiple buildings, Superintendent August said, and double‑digit increases in several family-engagement measures. At the same time, he flagged that most high-school student measures clustered in the district’s lower quartile when compared with other rural schools that take YouthTruth.
The YouthTruth instrument asks about engagement, academic challenge, relationships, belonging, peer collaboration, culture, college and career readiness and obstacles to learning. August said the district uses the results to set building-level goals, particularly around engagement and well-being, and that administrators spent a large portion of a recent retreat reviewing the reports and identifying action steps.
Board members pressed for more detail on sample size and peer comparisons. Board member Fred Scott asked whether the color‑coded percentile ranks reflect comparison with similar rural districts; August confirmed that the percentile ranking is relative to the set of other schools that took YouthTruth and that the building-level reports include comparisons (for example, “typical rural”) even when the synthesis slides did not show those full comparisons.
Several board members noted the pattern of declining positive responses as students age. Dr. Nathan Goetz and others urged the district to seek “wild” ideas from teachers and staff for pilots to reimagine high‑school offerings and increase engagement. August said the high school administration is developing plans to review graduation requirements and explore flexible pathways—examples discussed included “pocket academies” or pathways that better connect students with local industry and hands‑on learning opportunities.
August described next steps as a mix of planning, small pilots and gathering classroom‑level feedback (for instance, asking students at the end of a unit what worked). He said his charge to the high‑school team is to advance a proposal to loosen graduation requirements this year so that greater elective or pathway options could be available next school year; any such change would require a future board action.
The board and administration repeatedly stressed that the YouthTruth results are a starting point to guide building-level improvement, not a single definitive judgment. August and board members said administrators and teachers must continue to listen to students and test small pilots to identify what increases engagement.
Sources: Superintendent August’s presentation and discussion recorded during the Committee of the Whole meeting.
