A school climate survey revealed how Upper Adams School District students, staff, parents and community members view the district.
Joseph Albin, director curriculum, instruction and assessment, presented the results of the fall 2024 survey to the school board Tuesday. He compared the findings to the results of the winter 2022 survey.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education offers the PA School Climate Surveys to districts throughout the state.
“This is perceptional data, so there’s not a right or wrong answer to the questions on the survey. It’s how you feel,” Albin said. “For the students, how does the environment make you feel? Do you feel safe? Do you feel supported?”
The survey evaluated student support, social and emotional learning, how physically safe students feel and how emotionally safe students feel.
Students from third through 12th grade took the survey, according to Albin. Taking into consideration students’ maturity and development, Albin said the survey was not offered to the youngest students, though parents/guardians of students in all grade levels were given the opportunity to the take the parent climate survey.
Albin found great value in the high school survey results.
“This group probably has the most validity, I believe,” he said. “Most of them have been in this school district K [to] 12. They know their classmates, they know the programs the schools run, they know the community, they have a lot of experience.”
At the high school level, the perception of the district improved among students, staff and parents in every category from 2022 to 2024, while the community’s results were less favorable compared to 2022.
Albin noted the “community” results did not represent every resident of the district. The community survey was sent to individuals who have direct relationships with the district, such as vendors and school board members.
The climate survey considers favorable scores to be 3.4 and above, unfavorable to be 2.5 and below, and anything between is considered neutral. Albin said changes of 0.05 or greater are generally considered statistically significant.
The high school staff survey average rose from 3.06 in 2022 to 3.22 in 2024. The student average rose from 2.67 to 2.71, and the parent average from 3.37 to 3.49. The community average, however, fell from 3.37 in 2022 to 3.23 in 2024.
Breaking the data down further, Albin pointed out a disparity between how safe high school staff feel compared to how their students feel. Staff gave the district a favorable 3.43 in the safety category, while students’ results came in at 2.89 in 2024, which is considered neutral.
At the middle and elementary school levels, results improved in every category among staff. Parent perception of the district also improved, community perception fell, and student results were mixed.
Some of the community respondents misunderstood the purpose of the survey, according to Albin, causing confusion.
“There were a lot of stakeholders in this community group that took the survey that wanted strongly to express their opinions on what they felt or didn’t feel about [school] board action, to be honest,” Albin said. “I stressed over and over again, this is not evaluating board action,” but about how respondents felt in the various schools interacting with students and educators.
Committees made up of teachers and support staff in each of the Upper Adams schools will take this data, analyze it, and use the information to try to improve school climate through different tactics, according to Albin.
The next school board meeting is set for March 18 at 7 p.m.
Mary Grace Kauffman, freelance reporter, worked six years as a full-time reporter for newspapers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She has covered topics including business, crime, education, government and features. Mary Grace has a bachelor's degree in communication/journalism from Shippensburg University. She resides in Adams County.