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Student Voice in Oregon Drives Change

We sat down with district leaders in Oregon to talk about student voice. The result: a case study about district and school-level changes emboldened by student, family, and staff feedback.
Here’s how four districts in Oregon are using student feedback for improvement:
  • Corvallis School District monitors students’ emotional and mental health
  • Crook County School District boosts attendance
  • Medford School District checks-in with students’ perceptions of college and career readiness
  • North Clackamas School District addresses racial and gender inequity
Learn more about student success across the state in the age of the Oregon Student Success Act and Student Investment Accounts.
We use the words ‘student truth’ in our district, which is of course informed by who students are, what their gender identity, faith, or first language is. All of that is shaped by how the world sees students and how students see the world. To understand the students’ experiences, we have to ask them questions and authentically accept the answers.
Shelly ReggianiExecutive Director of Equity & Instructional Services, North Clackamas School District

A growing body of research shows that student perceptions are linked to academic outcomes. At YouthTruth, we believe that incorporating the unique perspectives of students into decision-making creates happier, healthier school systems with higher academic achievement. Emboldened by these principles and the newly passed Student Success Act, Oregon educators are amplifying students’ voices to support positive school climate and improve academic outcomes.

In this case study, four districts across the state share their experiences using anonymous school climate surveys to improve students’ experiences across a range of themes, including emotional and mental health, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, and culture. Their stories offer inspiration and practical guidance as educators across the country declare student feedback a priority.

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   OREGON AT A GLANCE

Schools
1,300 public K-12 schools

Students
~560,000

Districts
197

Education Service Districts
19

Staff
63,000 teachers, administrators, and other
school and district employees

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More about school climate in Oregon

Two students at schoolThe Oregon Student Success Act (SSA) invests $2 billion into students’ education every two years. Fifty percent of the funds go toward non-competitive grants that all districts are eligible for called Student Investments Accounts (SIA). SIAs are designed to help educators meet students’ mental and behavioral health needs and reduce academic disparities for groups that have historically been underserved.

Nearly 30 districts and 150 schools in Oregon use the YouthTruth Student, Family, and Staff Surveys. Many use their anonymous surveys to fulfill SSA requirements.

Here’s how student voice can support your district’s Student Success investments:

Reduce disparities: Anonymous school climate surveys like YouthTruth allow districts to disaggregate results and see where students are having dissimilar experiences relative to their peers.

Engage families and community members: Surveying school staff members and families helps districts engage families and communities while creating strong partnerships for student success.

Monitor change over time: Year-over-year survey results allow districts to see where they are making progress.

Build data fluency: Oregon districts are asked to use SIA funding to allocate staff time to engage with high-quality data for strategic planning purposes.

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Understanding the student lens and overlaying that with our parents' and seeing where those things overlap is sometimes a matter of figuring out whether it’s a matter of us communicating what we’re doing more clearly. Sometimes it’s a matter of using those SIA investment dollars to make some improvements.
Ryan NossSuperintendent, Corvallis School District
We all agree in Oregon that we need more emotional, behavioral, and mental health supports. We can hire more staff members. But we also need to then find out what the areas really are where students need more support. And YouthTruth tells us what those are.
Craig HoppesSuperintendent, Astoria School District

CORVALLIS uses student feedback to support students’ emotional and mental health

Corvallis School District (CSD), located south of Portland, serves approximately 6,500 students across 13 schools. The district uses YouthTruth surveys to support students’ well-being and measure progress against emotional and mental health goals.

“We wanted ways that we could get really clear data beyond the individual conversations system-wide,” says Superintendent Ryan Noss. “It’s really important to hear from students. Their experiences matter and getting system-wide feedback about the student experience allows us additional insights into the things that are happening in our schools that we can address. The survey is also easy to implement and gives you a ton of information.”

Corvallis School District Oregon

Asking students’ about their emotional and mental health needs

District leaders in CSD learned from the data that secondary students’ responses to the emotional and mental health questions on the YouthTruth survey were less positive than at the typical school in the YouthTruth aggregate dataset. Based on this finding, the district invested in hiring additional staff, offering skills training, and increasing communication about available support services. In particular, the data helped them identify the elementary level as a place to start proactively meeting students’ social and emotional needs. Here’s how the district is taking action using the baseline, comparative, and disaggregated data:

     Hire trained staff

The district hired multiple full-time district therapists to increase the availability of trained school staff.

     Skill development

CSD also hired “skills trainers” to help students improve their ability to cope when feeling upset, stressed, or having problems (where the district ranked near the bottom quartile in the YouthTruth survey).

    Share the message

The central office worked with counseling services to heighten the quantity and reach of messaging about the programs and services available to students at their local campus.

Resources to help educators move from data to action

Edutopia’s Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum
Check out some top-notch strategies and protocols to develop students’ SEL at www.edutopia.org/sel

The Great Body Shop
Explore the Great Body Shop curriculum (Pre-K – 6th grade) at www.thegreatbodyshop.net

Principal and students in workshopPrincipals from Corvallis School District unpack YouthTruth data during summer professional development

Ryan Ross HeadshotRYAN NOSS
Superintendent
Ryan Noss began his career as a Special Education teacher in the Tigard-Tualatin school district. He then taught for the Lebanon Community Schools before working as Special Programs Consultant. Since, he has served as principal at Pioneer School and Administrator of Program and Student Support and Assistant Superintendent in Lebanon. He became Superintendent of Corvallis School District in 2016.

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CROOK COUNTY uses student feedback to keep kids in school

Crook County School District (CCSD) uses YouthTruth school climate surveys to check-in with the experiences and social-emotional learning (SEL) of middle school students as they transition into high school. In support of their 3,000 students across eight campuses, CCSD also uses students’ feedback to address chronic absenteeism.

“Students don’t like to go where they don’t feel safe and supported, and we believe that the YouthTruth data ties directly to attendance,” says Superintendent Sara Johnson. “The work we’re doing in attendance should be reflected in the student voice through YouthTruth.”

Crook County School District

Addressing bullying and harassment to boost attendance

The Oregon Department of Education defines chronically absent as missing 10 percent or more of school days during the school year — for excused or unexcused absences, as well as suspensions. While CCSD’s rate of absenteeism is slightly lower than the state’s average of 20 percent, the district takes students missing any unnecessary class time seriously. Here’s how they are incorporating student voice into solutions:

    Lead with inquiry

The district team began by asking questions about the potential link between school culture and attendance. For example, could the high rates of bullying and harassment in the data influence whether or not students enjoy coming to school?

    Seek specific clues

Indeed, students’ open-ended comments about obstacles to learning and bullying provided qualitative nuance that complemented the quantitative findings. The student sentiments also indicated that relationships with peers and factors outside of school sometimes interfered with attendance.

     Put anti-bullying curriculum to work

The district is working to reduce bullying with targeted curriculum focused on building empathy including The Great Body Shop. They hope to address stigmas around different identities and students’ struggles outside of schools to make sure students feel supported when they come to school.

“YouthTruth helps reveal some of those core issues and makes you aware of what kids are dealing with. Really going to the heart of why kids would be chronically absent keeps you empathetic,” says Johnson. The district team is hopeful to see the impact of interventions as they plan to survey next year.

Resources to help educators move from data to action

Character Lab
Explore a range of free playbooks spanning emotional intelligence, gratitude, growth mindsets, and more with Character Lab. Each playbook includes strategies and actionable advice based on science for adults looking to build character in students. Start exploring by visiting www.characterlab.com.

SARAH E. JOHNSON
Superintendent
Dr. Sara E has served as a teacher, principal, Director of School Improvement, Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent. She was a teacher and principal in Burns for six years and completed a Doctorate in Educational Leadership at George Fox University. She then served as a principal in McMinnville until moving to Prineville with her husband to serve as CCSD superintendent.

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MEDFORD uses student feedback for college and career readiness

Medford School District (MSD), nestled in Southern Oregon, serves over 13,000 students and has gathered school climate data through YouthTruth surveys since 2016. The district’s data show that three quarters of seniors plan to attend a four-year college — a number MSD aims to increase. Here are the district-wide changes that MSD is considering to increase students’ perceptions of how prepared they are for the future.

Medford School District - Live. Learn. Lead.

College and career readiness action steps

    Allocate funding

Dedicate budget to add more support staff who specialize in college and career advisory counseling.

   Streamline messaging

Modify relevant course titles to include “college” and “career” in the 9th, 11th, and 12th grade catalogue to boost students’ awareness of the relevance of current course offerings to college and career readiness.

     Partner with local college

Create a dual enrollment program for a career and technical college class with Southern Oregon University with free tuition and public transportation for high school students.

    Get the word out

Communicate college and career counseling opportunities more proactively by displaying posters throughout school campuses. Posters share information about regional and national colleges as well as how to access admission support

MSD hopes that future student survey data will show an increase in students’ perceptions about school staff support for students’ future goals. The district team will watch carefully to monitor the extent to which students use available programs and services more actively due to increased visibility, in addition to tracking the proportion of seniors who are planning to pursue a four-year degree.

Resources to help educators move from data to action

Edutopia’s College and Career Readiness Strategies
Check out Edutopia: College & Career Readiness at www.edutopia.org/topic/college-readiness

American Institute for Research College & Career Readiness Toolkits
Take a look at the American Institute for Research’s College & Career readiness toolkits at
www.air.org/topic/education/college-and-career-readiness

Brett Champion HeadshotBRET CHAMPION
Superintendent
Dr. Bret Champion became superintendent in 2019. Before his arrival in Medford, Bret was Superintendent of Schools for Klein ISD in Klein, Texas, and for Leander ISD outside of Austin, Texas. Earlier in his career, Bret taught elementary school in Houston ISD and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He received his Doctorate in Education from the University of Texas, a Master’s in Education from Texas State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Houston.

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NORTH CLACKAMAS uses student feedback for racial and gender equity

North Clackamas School District (NCSD) uses the YouthTruth survey to learn about the experiences of groups with shared identities and demographic characteristics, make adjustments, and track progress over time. “There is no other way to get outside of ourselves and ask students on a grand scale across the system about their experiences and measure the health of our school through the student lens,” says Shelly Reggiani, executive director of equity and instructional services.

Since their first year of surveying, the district has applied their climate survey data to both their equity work and chronic absenteeism initiatives. In year two of surveying, NCSD added staff and family surveys to their practice to hear from more voices in the community.

North Clackamas Schools

Asking the right questions about academic challenge and equity

While unpacking results in the first year of surveying, the team observed that students experience academic rigor differently based on their gender identity. With an equity lens, the district explores this difference further:

    Look for trends

The district team looked deeper into the data to see if they could identify any other trends relating to students’ gender identities. They noticed that students who identified as female also feel less positively about relationships.

    Ask nuanced questions

The dissonance between male and female students’ feelings about academic challenge and relationships prompted NCSD to ask more detailed questions. For instance, does the fact that the math teaching team is majority male play a role? Do female students feel they have to work harder than male students in their classes? What stereotypes and preconceived notions could teachers and school staff have that might impact this?

     Implement interventions

As an intervention, a series of professional development workshops are in motion across the district to address biases that may cause school staff to treat students differently based on gender.

The district team is also exploring the experiences of students who are both Black or African-American and female. Additionally, they will also look more closely at the experiences of students who identify as LGBTQ — whose ratings of the YouthTruth survey question “I try to do my best in school” were lower when compared to their peers.

Shelly Reggiani HeadshotSHELLY REGGIANI
Executive Director, Equity & Instructional Services
Shelly Reggiani, Ed.D., has served as Executive Director of Equity and Instruction since 2010, leading North Clackamas School District’s equity-focused programs. She has led work spanning educational professional development, instructional design, community engagement and outreach, and English Learners and Emergent Bilingual student advocacy and programming throughout her career. She was awarded her Ed.D. in Education from George Fox University.

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