Student Perception Surveys

Whether you are trying to improve student outcomes, retain your staff, build community trust and engagement, or develop a strategic plan for your district, you will make better decisions if you understand the diverse experiences of your school community.

At the heart of any district, school, and classrooms are a key set of individuals, students. School districts often rely on surveys to make informed decisions, however, the data collected does not always directly include the specific voice and feedback of students. To collect this data, districts administer Student Perception surveys. 

Definition of a Student Perception Survey

Student perception surveys exist to collect valuable feedback on how students interact within their school environment and their overall interpretation of their school experiences. Student perception surveys are a student level survey that collects students’ feedback on their experience overall in school, in a particular classroom, and with a particular teacher.

Why Districts Use Student Perception Surveys

When collecting student perceptions, informed decisions can be made at a district, school, and classroom level. If your district is looking for ways to collect data on and track teacher effectiveness, improve student achievement and learning through instruction, or you are wanting to add student voice as a component to surveys, then Student Perceptions Surveys may be a powerful tool for you.

The MET project finds student surveys produce more consistent results than classroom observations or achievement gain measures.

Types of Student Perception Surveys

By collecting student voice, school systems are able to gather specific feedback to:

• Measure and improve teacher effectiveness based on feedback around teaching practices and classroom learning conditions 
• Measure and improve student achievement through instructional practice
• Inform or track progress against a strategic plan
• Implement a component of a teacher evaluation system
• Use data to drive and inform professional development
• Gain a pulse check on school climate: Students’ feelings of safety and security as well as teacher-student and student-student relationships

How to implement a student perception surveY

The first step to implementing a student perception survey is choosing the right tool. You’ll want to choose one that provides you with high quality data that is actionable. 

Tripods 7Cs Survey for Teacher Excellence, provides research-validated insights that have been shown to be highly effective in improving school climate, student outcomes, and professional learning. Student survey results aligned with the 7Cs framework offer a streamlined way to provide actionable feedback for teachers and school leaders. Better survey results on the 7Cs components predict higher student achievement, engagement and motivation, as well as success skills and mindsets.  Over the past decade, many research studies have highlighted the reliability and validity of our Tripod data, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, which used Tripod surveys as one of its key measures. 

HOW TO USE YOUR SCHOOL SURVEY RESULTS

High quality data integrated with our partner company, Education Elements', advisory services can also help your district answer those big question that arise such as:

• What do the results mean in context?
• Where do you go from here?
• How do you build on your prior work?
• How do you engage and motivate your stakeholders?

Unlike other surveys, the 7Cs provides aggregated data across many classrooms and at the classroom level, enabling leaders to provide personalized support for their entire staff.

Survey responses are analyzed at the classroom-level and presented in user-friendly, online reports designed for teachers, school leaders, and district personnel. Reports highlight areas of strength and opportunities for improvement for each teacher, so teachers and leaders can quickly gauge where to focus attention.

Are you interested in learning more about how we can help you collect high quality data paired with integrated advisory services that will help you drive tangible change? We would love to learn about your priorities and how high quality survey data and integrated advisory services can address your most pressing district goals. Please fill out this form to speak to one of our survey and action-planning experts.