ABOUT EVERGREEN
Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley in San Jose, Evergreen Elementary School District (EESD) serves nearly 11,000 students across 18 schools. In the words of Superintendent Katherine Gomez, “Our vision is that our schools are safe, caring, and nurturing place for students where they can achieve academically, socially, and emotionally.”

As part of this vision, YouthTruth helps EESD gather and act on feedback from students about their experiences of schools. Through YouthTruth’s valid and reliable surveys, EESD measures what matters most to driving student achievement and ensuring that students feel safe, engaged, and supported.

LISTENING TO STUDENTS
“When I first heard about YouthTruth, I loved it.” said Gomez. “Student voices are an important piece of the puzzle of understanding schools — asking for their feedback makes so much sense.”

EESD staff have found their YouthTruth reports — which include their students’ feedback in a nationally comparative context and also contain open-ended comments from students — to be a powerful tool. Equipped with this data, district leaders are able to more deeply understand student experiences, fueling improvements both at individual schools and district-wide.

“An essential part of educating students is truly understanding their needs, and there’s nothing more effective in achieving that than with solid data,” says Superintendent Gomez. “YouthTruth has helped us get the feedback we need in students’ own words, which enables us to more precisely identify programs that will better support them.”