School Climate

School climate refers to the collective social and educational environment in a school and whether all members of the school community (students, families, and staff) feel welcome, safe, and valued. School climate reflects the range of experiences that students, families and staff have in their school building. Every school has a unique climate based on the norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching, learning and leadership practices, and organizational structures within the building.

School climate affects every aspect of the school experience. Research has shown that a positive school climate correlates to higher attendance rates, test scores, promotion rates, and graduation rates. When everyone feels welcome, safe, and valued in school, it positively impacts both teaching and learning. 

The SPS Board of Education Regulation 1316.1 states: “Each school…shall administer, on an annual basis, at the same time of year each year, the School Climate Survey in order to assess a school’s strengths and challenges.”  The survey data is used to determine priority areas for improvement, which will be incorporated into a school’s improvement plan.
 

Each year, SPS conducts a School Climate Survey to measure the degree to which all members of the school community (students, families, and staff) feel welcome, safe, and valued within their school building.

The link for the family survey is available at the top of this webpage. All SPS staff members will receive an email with a link to the survey. Students will receive the link the student survey at school and be given time to complete the survey during the school day.

The School Climate Survey takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.

No. Students will complete the School Climate Survey at school. 

We are asking parents and caregivers to complete a single School Climate Survey for each child you have enrolled in Stamford Public Schools.  We are asking you to complete separate responses because your experience with school climate will differ based on your child’s individual experience. The survey will be open from March 18 to April 3 so parents/caregivers have ample time to complete multiple surveys.  If you need assistance completing the School Climate Survey, or if you have questions, please contact your child's school.

The Climate Survey will be available in English, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

SPS has partnered with Panorama Education for the School Climate Survey. Survey questions are multiple-choice and are pulled from Panorama’s question bank. The questions on the survey will reflect topics and issues that are of the greatest importance to SPS.

Using Panorama’s questions allows us to measure our progress over time and to compare our School Climate Survey results from year to year. We also can compare our progress against Panorama’s national results database. 

Respondents may skip any question that isn’t relevant or that they prefer not to answer.

Stamford Public Schools uses the results of the School Climate Survey to identify areas for growth or improvement within each building. School personnel then develop and implement policies, procedures, or activities to drive the desired changes. The School Climate Survey also enables us to identify best practices that can be expanded to all schools.

For families, the survey is fully anonymous and all findings will be anonymous. We will only ask some general demographic questions to help us understand better if there are differences in survey responses based on grade, language spoken at home, and race or ethnicity.  SPS does not track which families completed a survey. We use school enrollment data to estimate completion rates for families.

Staff and student responses are confidential. SPS email account information is only used to track whether or not someone has submitted a survey and will never be able to see or identify individual responses.