Questions Arise About Efficacy of Surveys to Assess School Quality
January 13, 2020
According to this piece in The 74, school climate and student engagement surveys are becoming more popular in helping learn more about “important contributors to student success”—including “students’ sense of belonging at school and their sense of themselves as learners…bullying among students, relationships with teachers and the respect a school shows for cultural and racial diversity.” However, many researchers are voicing concerns about states using these kinds of surveys as a measure of school accountability. With about a dozen states factoring survey results into their rating under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), researchers are now saying these tools “are not intended for accountability purposes and are not yet reliable enough for comparing school quality.”