SUMMARY OF 2021-2022 SCHOOL CLIMATE CONNECTEDNESS SURVEY RESULTS

Strong School Safety and Family Support Highlight a Resilient Community’s Perspectives on School Climate in New Haven

New Haven, CT - New Haven Public Schools has released the results [Public Link] of the 2022 administration of its School Climate and Wellbeing Survey. The survey, which is administered annually, provides valuable feedback from educators, families, and students on the successes, needs, and areas of growth that emerged from the recent school year.

“The School Climate Survey provides an opportunity for New Haven’s school community to express their needs and share their experiences,” said Superintendent Dr. Iline P. Tracey. “Despite the challenges brought by the return to the second fully in-person school year since the start of the pandemic, these results tell the story of an adaptable and responsive partnership between schools and families to support the needs of all our students.”

This year’s data is particularly valuable as it offers for the first time, detailed insights into the specific factors that impact student perceptions of school safety, as well as a deeper look into how students and staff gender identities and sexual orientation impact their experiences at school. In total, this year’s survey captured the feedback of 3,584 students, 883 staff, and 950 family members. The results of the 2022 survey reveal a strong narrative of inclusivity, partnership, and care for student well-being across our community, while also identifying continued areas for growth in the sense of belonging and professional development for staff.

Key Survey Terms:

• Percent Favorable: The primary measure used to determine how students, families, and staff feel about a particular question or topic. A typical question contains five answer choices, of which the top 2 are considered favorable. A high percent favorable typically indicates positive perceptions around a particular topic.
• Survey Topic: Each survey topic consists of several questions around a particular theme. The results of these questions are then averaged to create the topic score.
• Representativeness: How well the demographics of respondents represent the overall demographics of New Haven’s school community.

Summary of Spring 2022 School Climate Survey:

• Student, staff, and family participation decreased from the last time that surveys were administered in 2021.
• 72% of students had favorable perceptions around how diverse, integrated, and fair school is for students of different backgrounds.
• More than 2 in 3 staff had favorable perceptions of how valued they are by their school communities.
• Eight schools reported favorable student perceptions across a majority of the school climate and well-being topics including:
  How well students manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in challenging situations
  How well students consider the perspectives of and empathize with others
  How often students learn about, discuss, and confront issues of race, ethnicity, and culture in school

Participation:

Nearly 5,500 individuals participated in the 2022 School Climate and Wellbeing Survey, a decrease of approximately 20% from 2021. Factors that may have contributed to this decrease include the increased demands of returning to a fully in-person environment, as well as challenges in administering paper surveys. Approximately 66% of respondents were students, 18% were family members, and 16% were staff. Compared to 2021, the proportion of student and staff respondents relative to overall respondents increased, while family representativeness decreased.

School and Student Highlights:

Students at Augusta Lewis Troup, Engineering and Science University Magnet High, Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, Fair Haven, Metropolitan Business Academy, Elm City Montessori, New Haven Academy Magnet, and Worthington Hooker schools reported favorable perceptions across at least 4 out of the 7 surveyed topics around student social emotional skills and wellbeing, as well as supports for students and equity.

Student Perceptions of School Climate and Social-Emotional Learning:

Student responses presented a range of narratives about the student experience with the return to in-person learning:

• Areas to highlight include significant improvements in the amount of time students interact with students from different races, ethnicities or cultures relative to 2021.
• While 9 in 10 students reported that they were never or rarely bullied in the past year, a third of students reported that they were sometimes, often, or frequently verbally harassed at school because of their body type.
• Additionally, while two-thirds of students expressed that they cared quite a bit or a tremendous amount about other people’s feelings in the 30 days prior to being surveyed, only a third of students had favorable perceptions of their ability to describe their feelings during the same timeframe.

Student Areas of Growth:

Overall, areas of growth continue to remain in improving how much students feel they are valued members of their school community as well as how well students regulate their emotions.

• For the first time, less than half of students (43%) responded favorably when asked how much respect other students in their school show them, a decrease of 15 percentage points from last year.
• Additionally, only 48% of students responded favorably when asked how much they feel like they belong at their schools, a decrease of 12 percentage points from 2021.
• Students who identified as nonbinary, transgender, or genderqueer responded less favorably on the majority of school climate topics, especially around School Safety (at least 11 percentage points lower than the districtwide average) and Sense of Belonging (at least 4 percentage points lower than the districtwide average).

Next Steps:

The results from the 2022 School Climate and Wellbeing Survey reveal several key areas of opportunity around increasing how connected and valued students and staff feel at school, supporting professional development, feedback, and coaching for staff, and strengthening supports for nonbinary, transgender, and genderqueer students.

To view your school’s full results and to learn more, visit [Public Link].

For more information, please contact Dr. Michelle Kelly-Baker: (203) 859-8009, Michelle.baker@NHBOE.net