MISSION SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL
VOL. 57, NO. 6
In October 2021, MSJ students participated in the Challenge Success-Stanford Survey of School Experiences, also known as the Student Survey, an online survey with the goal of improving student well-being, belonging, and engagement with learning by helping schools gather data and suggesting actionable changes. Taking this survey every 3-4 years has become regular practice at MSJ since 2007. With the 2021 survey data, which includes more than 1,600 student responses, the Smoke Signal has highlighted the notable results to shed light on the everyday experiences of MSJ students.
BY THE NUMBERS:
CHALLENGE SUCCESS
STUDENT SURVEY ANALYZES STUDENT EXPERIENCES AT MSJ
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
By Christy Huang, Daphne Senecal, Nessa Tong & Kaitlyn Wang Staff Writers
SLEEP According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teenagers must get 8-10 hours of sleep every night to be well-rested, a number that only 16% of MSJ students reach. Despite the improvement from 13.6% of the students getting eight or more hours of sleep in 2017, the average amount of sleep every school night has increased from 6.5 hours to 6.6 hours, in which freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors reported 7.1, 6.8, 6.2, and 6.3 hours of sleep per school night respectively. Regularly losing sleep, as stated by the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, is linked to a range of health risks, including heart disease, obesity, depression and even lower life expectancy. “We actually need time to let our brains turn off, and if we just go from thing to thing ... all day long, we’ll be so exhausted that we don’t do any of those things well,” Challenge Success School Program Manager Laura Easley said to the Smoke Signal, encouraging students to place importance on their sleep schedules. HOURS OF SLEEP STUDENTS USUALLY GET EACH SCHOOL NIGHT
>3
February 25, 2022
41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539 41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539
16.4%
14.9%
19.3%
11.9%
6
6.5
7
7.5
Hours
HEALTH AND STRESS
9
Of the 1,614 responses, 74.7% of students reported engaging in academically dishonest behavior in the previous month. The most common behaviors included working on individual assignments with others, copying homework, copying material without proper citation, and getting questions or answers from students who already took an assessment. Although the 2021 survey showed a
15% improvement from 2017, in which 89.7% of students reported participating in academically dishonest behavior within the past month of taking the survey, cheating continues to be a significant issue at MSJ. “I know cheating has been an issue since even when I was [a student] at MSJ,” MSJ Alumnus and Math Teacher Bellamy Liu said. “For the last 20 years, it’s an issue that has not really been addressed.”
Percentage of students who report engaging in at least one academically dishonest behavior in the past month by grade 100% 90%
2017 2021
80% 70% 60%
9
10
Grade Level
11
12
EXTRACURRICULARS AND FREE TIME On average, students reported spending 6.2 hours weekly, excluding weekends, on extracurriculars. The activity with the highest participation rate of 47.8% is community service, followed by 43.3% of students who spend their time in school clubs and 35.8% in school sports. When students were asked why they participate in extracurricular activities, more than 32% answered that they did it for fun, 25.5% to put on their college applications, and 24% hoped to learn or build their skills. With stu-
dents spending an average of 21.8 hours on homework and 6.2 hours on extracurriculars per week, less than 25% of students report spending their free time with their family. Easley stresses the importance of spending time with family as a way of coping with everyday stressors. “We actually know that [family time is] one of the most important protective factors ... [it helps] you to be able to respond in times of stress. It guards against a lack of resilience and fuel,” Easley said.
PARENT EXPECTATIONS 44.7% of students expressed that their perception of parents’ expectations was that their parents somewhat expect excellence from their children in school, whereas 27.8% strongly believe their parents do. Despite these high academic standards, 40% of students feel that they are able to meet these expectations only sometimes. On the other hand 34% believe they can meet them most of the time. Results indicate that the academic pressures that students receive from parents can be a source of anxiety, making students push themselves far past what they can handle. It causes students to be more prone to taking extracurriculars that they are not interested in and more AP classes than they can properly study for.
At the time of the survey, 81.2% of MSJ students reported at least one stress-related health symptom in the “YOUR VOICES ARE HEARD ... Major Sources of Stress for Students past month, with the most common health symptoms being YOU MAY NOT SEE THE THINGS exhaustion, sleeping difficulties, and headaches, at 70%, 55%, and Grades, tests, quizzes, fiTHAT ARE HAPPENING BUT THEY College/University nals, or other assessments 55% of students, respectively. Only 31% of students considered themARE HAPPENING BEHIND THE selves quite confident or very confident in their ability to cope with stress. Overall workload and SCENES. WE’RE GOING TO DO MORE A specific class or classes For students unable to cope with stress, research by the American Psyhomework PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON THIS chological Association has shown a connection between chronic stress Procrastination or time A lack of time to play, relax, IN THE SUMMERTIME. WE’VE ALREADY and problems like depression, obesity, and more. “[Mental health] is management or be with friends and family GOT GUEST SPEAKERS LINED UP FOR HOW important because it affects everything. When you are not feeling well, Family pressure to TO DO A BETTER JOB AT HOMEWORK AND you’re not going to be engaged at school, you’re not going to be enLack of sleep achieve academically ASSESSMENTS.” gaged in activities, you can withdraw from the people you really love,” Mental health — PRINCIPAL JEFF EVANS Counselor Lindsay Rotter said. “And so your overall quality of life is not Future plans issues great.” To combat this, FUSD partnered with Care Solace, an organization that matches students to mental health services. Similar to 2017, the most common words that students used to deHOURS SPENT ON HOMEWORK ON A scribe MSJ were “stressful” and “challenging,” though a popular TYPICAL WEEKDAY word that newly appeared this year is “fun.” ASB has been working According to the rather than educational enrichment. “We 2021 2017 to make school more enjoyable over the past few years and 0 FUSD homework policy, know that the more students are engaged, hopes to continue doing so going forward. “[In response to] high school students should the more likely they are to have a better time this year’s survey, we’re planning to have random acts be spending 280-480 minutes, at school,” Principal Jeff Evans said. “They’re of kindness days and stress-free days. So that’ll be a or roughly 4.7-8 hours, per week on less likely to cheat, because they feel like day with no tests guaranteed for every student ... 2 homework. However, MSJ students re- there is some value in their work.” We’re hoping to make progress.” ASB Vice Presported spending an average of 21.8 hours To help overworked students, MSJ follows ident and Inclusion Council Member Junior per week. The results showed little distinction the FUSD homework policy, which includes Amulya Harish said. between weekend and weekday workloads, teachers being mindful about assigning 4 with weekends reporting an average of 2.9 weekend and vacation homework, as well Words students used to hours per day compared to the weekday aver- as implementing a testing schedule that asdescribe MSJ in 2021: age of 3.2 hours per day. Additionally, 57% of signs test days to each department. According Stressful students described having to drop an activity to Evans, in the future, teachers will also be 6 they enjoy because of schoolwork, and 50.9% voting on whether to implement a modified Challenging believe they have too much homework. block schedule to give students block days, or HRS 5% 10% 15% Furthermore, 55% of students find less than three-period days for two days of the week, 15% 10% 5% PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS half of their homework useful, becoming a chore with the aim to lower students’ workloads.
76.1% 60.5% 58.1% 51.9% 51.7%
50.4% 49.0% 42.5% 38.3% 33.0%
HOMEWORK LOAD
Fun