Better Together - Positive School Culture and Climate Research
AUSD has partnered with the University of California San Diego, to reflect our emphasis on a healthy culture. We continue to celebrate our strengths and to identify areas of needed growth. We are extremely excited about this collaborative work and data collection that we will use to continue our excellent growth as a community. The surveys include measures related to our purpose and values and will provide us with actionable data. Each of the surveys has been carefully crafted based on academic research with questions that have been tested for validity and reliability and have been successfully used in other educational settings.
Survey responses will continue to go directly to the researchers from UC San Diego and they will prepare summaries of the data for each school and also for the entire district as they have done before. Arcadia Unified employees, including members of the management team, will not have access to the source data, including individual responses. We have organized this process to promote genuine, authentic, and anonymous feedback; we believe this level of security will allow staff, parents, students, and community members to answer in a respectful and open manner. This process has worked well in other locations.
The survey distribution will be organized by grade levels and the various stakeholders will receive communication from the research partners at UC San Diego and AUSD with additional details. This year, students in 5th, 8th, 11th, and 12th grades, and their parents, will receive a link to the survey. The window for students and parents extends from May 20th to June 3. Due to the fact that this is a research partnership, your informed consent and participation are strictly voluntary. Fifth-grade parents will be asked to submit a consent form via Google Forms. Students in 8th, 11th, and 12th grade should discuss consent at home and make their decision as a family. As with this type of research, participants can decline participation before or during the survey. However, your participation will inform meaningful steps to better serve our students and the community. We strongly encourage your participation in this important process.