CASPER, Wyo. The Natrona County School District conducts a “climate survey” on an annual basis as the primary means to measure whether it is meeting its goal of providing environments that are “safe, orderly, supportive, and conducive to a climate of high expectations for students, staff, and the community.”
Results of the district’s 2021-2022 climate survey show declining ratings in all categories compared with the previous school year from feedback provided by staff while ratings based on feedback from parents climbed in all categories. Three of the four categories saw a decline in ratings from students.
Charlotte Gilbar, NCSD Executive director of School Improvement, described the ratings from the 2021-2022 climate feedback as being relatively stable when compared to the 2020-2021 survey results.
The survey uses a Likert Scale to collect feedback in four main categories: environment, safety, responsibility, and engagement. These areas are further divided into subcategories.
“Engagement describes the strong relationships between students, teachers, families, and schools and strong connections between schools and the broader community,” Gilbar explained the results of climate survey 2021-2022 by writing a memo. “The subtopics for engagement are cultural and linguistic competence,
relationships, and school participation.”
“Environment is described as the appropriate facilities, well-managed classrooms, available school-based health supports, and a clear, fair disciplinary policy. The subtopics for environment are discipline, instructional environment, mental health, and physical environment.”
The safety measure can be sub-topiced as follows:
- Consistent school-wide behavior system
- Team Crisis Management
- Facility/physical preventative steps
- Personnel
- Review of policies and regulations.
- Safety instructional program
- Training for staff and students
- Threat/potential danger
The survey only asked one question about the responsibility measure.
The 2021-2022 survey saw NCSD receive 901 fewer responses than 2020-2021. Gilbar’s memo includes the following table showing the number of responses received on the climate survey over the past three school years.
The district considers a score of 3 out of 4 in any category to be “meeting expectations.” With overall ratings combining results from staff, parents and students all under a score of three, the district is “partially meeting expectations” in all four categories based on results of the climate survey.
Although ratings from parents and staff were more reliable than those from students, ratings from staff feedback showed a decline in all four categories when compared to the 2020-2021 school years. “Engagement” and “Safety” scores based on staff feedback have declined in each of the past two years.
Ratings from NCSD staff over the past three years of the district’s climate survey are shown in the following table:
All categories saw an increase in ratings from parents and guardians in the 2021-2022 Climate Survey compared to the 2020-2021 survey.
Student ratings in the “engagement,” “environment” and “responsibility” categories declined for the second year in a row, though students’ rating of school safety increased in the 2021-2022 survey compared with the previous school year. The district surveys students in grades 4-12. The following table summarizes ratings from students:
Trustee Dave Applegate questioned Gilbar on Monday at the school board meeting about how Gilbar uses the climate survey data to inform staff and schools.
Gilbar said that schools are provided with more detailed data to allow them to identify trends at specific grade level. If there are big increases or decreases in ratings, that information helps inform a specific school’s improvement planning. As an example, she said that if student scores indicate there is something unfair about a school’s disciplinary system, the school may review how it handled discipline during the year and look to address any potential issues with staff and students.
Applegate said Monday that he felt it was positive to see climate scores that were consistent with previous school years.
