Acting on Students’ Unfiltered Views of Their Schooling

Students have so much to teach us.

Two years ago, when Long Beach Unified School District began administering a survey to assess students’ social-emotional development and well-being, I knew we would learn a lot about their experiences in our schools and the world around them. Building on a past practice of administering an annual school culture and climate survey, we launched a pulse survey (a short questionnaire to continuously measure feedback as part of a listening program), to be conducted three times a year.

This aligned with my superintendent goals, elevating social-emotional development to a status previously reserved for academic achievement. While the evidence supporting this approach is not new, our use of data for districtwide improvement was a new undertaking.

The school district’s pulse survey provides teachers and administrators with a better understanding of students’ sense of identity, belonging and agency. This understanding aims to improve classroom and school experiences and positively impact student outcomes with student voice as the driver of change.