STANFORD SCHOOL CLIMATE SURVEY

BY ANTHONY PISAPIA, ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL

In spring 2022, Tower Hill partnered with Stanford University’s Challenge Success program to issue a survey to Tower Hill students, parents, and faculty.

The survey asked research-based questions focused on health, sleep, academic integrity, support at school, engagement, homework load, extracurriculars, expectations, grades and time management. The survey served as a check-in, as the school emerged from the pandemic, and a diagnostic, helping us focus on areas that might need attention. We wanted to know how our students, parents and faculty were feeling and how they were experiencing Tower Hill.

In addition, participants created word associations. For example, “family or community” was the most common category faculty used to describe Tower Hill, followed by “caring and welcoming” and “challenging or rigorous.” For Middle School students, “fun” and “caring and welcoming” were used most often. Upper School students chose “challenging or rigorous” most often. These word associations helped us understand prevailing sentiment across segments of the school.

Some high-level findings include:

Sleep Time: Our Upper School students report getting 6.6 hours of sleep each weeknight, compared to 7.9 hours in Middle School. We know, through research, that appropriate amounts of sleep are critical for brain development and either impede or help our students’ ability to deal with stress.

Homework: Upper School students report doing an average of 2.8 hours of homework per weeknight and 3.3 hours per weekend. Middle School students report doing an average of 1.8 hours of homework per weeknight and 1.7 hours per weekend. How the school helps students manage time spent on homework is important in understanding the whole picture of a student’s day.

Connections: In Upper School, 80% of students say they have an adult they can go to if they have a personal problem, and, in Middle School, 79%. We know that connection and trust are necessary for students to do their best work.

This survey is part of a broader commitment Tower Hill has made to understand how the design of our program, at all ages and stages, impacts lives. This year, we used the survey’s results to inform planning for everything from class schedules to sports offerings. We also began a discussion about what future changes might have a positive impact.

The advantage of working with Stanford is that they allow us to benchmark our results against those from hundreds of high-performing peer schools that also took the survey. The one metric that all schools in the sample need to improve is “student engagement.” The Challenge Success Program defines a “fully engaged student” as one who “often” or “always” does their work, enjoys it and values it. According to research, engagement correlated with success in the classroom. Survey results suggest that 12% of Tower Hill students are “fully engaged” while 37% of students are “purposefully engaged,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, and value it, but “rarely” or “never” enjoy it. Tower Hill is committed to creating conditions where a larger percentage of students can feel “fully engaged,” and Stanford is committed to providing us with ongoing research and guidance to help us achieve that goal.

This survey and what it uncovered are not one-anddone. We will continue to ask questions about how we, as a community, can retain a healthy balance of rigor and wellness. We will continue to be curious about how our students are experiencing Tower Hill’s program and how our faculty and parents feel about how they, and our students, are supported. The experience we create together will be one in which students can be “fully engaged,” do their best work and find success in both learning and life. We have lofty aspirations, but they are well worth achieving for our students, faculty and all of the families Tower Hill serves.

Key Findings

Upper School Students

School Perception

“Challenging or rigorous” used by 36% of students is the most common category of words students use to describe Tower Hill high school. “Difficult or stressful” and “caring and welcoming” are the next most common, used by 34% and 15% of students, respectively.

80% of students say they have an adult they can go to if they have a personal problem. 91% of students have a peer they can go to.

The most common major source of stress students experience is “grades, tests, quizzes, finals or other assessments” (71% of students). Other sources reported by more than 50% of students are “overall workload and homework” (62%), “procrastination or time management” (56%) and “lack of sleep” (54%).

Workload and Engagement

Students report doing an average of 2.8 hours of homework per weeknight and 3.3 hours per weekend. 49% of students feel that half or less of their homework is useful.

42% of students are “doing school,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work but “rarely” or “never” value it or enjoy it. An additional 37% of students are “purposefully engaged,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, and value it, but “rarely” or “never” enjoy it. 12% of students are “fully engaged,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, enjoy it,and value it. 8% of students are “disengaged,” meaning they neither do, enjoy nor find value in their schoolwork.

Sleep

Students report getting an average of 6.6 hours of sleep per weeknight.

Key Findings

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

School Perception

“Fun” and “caring and welcoming,” used by 37% and 27% of students, respectively, are the most common categories of words students use to describe Tower Hill.

79% of students say they have an adult they can go to if they have a personal problem. 85% of students have a peer they can go to.

The most common major source of stress students experience is “grades, tests, quizzes, finals or other assessments” (70% of students). The next most common sources of stress are “overall workload and homework” (58%) and “a lack of time to play, relax or be with friends and family” (38%).

Workload and Engagement

Students report doing an average of 1.8 hours of homework per weeknight and 1.7 hours per weekend. 53% of students feel that the amount of homework is “just right,” while 47% feel like it is “too much.”

47% of students are “purposefully engaged,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, and value it, but “rarely” or “never” enjoy it. An additional 30% are “doing school,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, but “rarely” or “never” value it or enjoy it. 20% of students are “fully engaged,” meaning they “often” or “always” do their work, enjoy it and value it. 2% fall into other patterns of engagement.

Sleep

Students report getting an average of 7.9 hours of sleep per weeknight.

55% of students report keeping their phones in their bedrooms at night.

Key Findings

FACULTY AND STAFF School Climate

“Family or community” used by 30% of faculty/staff is the most common category of words used to describe Tower Hill. “Caring and welcoming” and “challenging or rigorous” is the next most common categories, used by 21% and 23% of faculty/staff, respectively.

The two social/emotional learning skills that are a formal part of the curriculum in most teachers’ classrooms are “developing positive learning mindsets” (53% of teachers) and “communicating thoughts and emotions clearly and appropriately” (52%).

78% of faculty/staff report “often” or “always” enjoying their job. 82% report “often” or “always” finding their job meaningful. 83% report “often” or “always” finding their job interesting.

Workload and Stress

The most common major source of stress faculty/staff experience is “overall workload” (41% of faculty/ staff). The next most common sources are “a lack of time to relax or be with friends and family” (37%) and “administrative work related to my job” (36%).

79% of faculty/staff feel that they are “often” or “always” “confident in their ability to cope with job-related stress.”

52% of faculty/staff report “often” or “always” having “too much to do and not enough time to do it.”

Faculty/staff report spending an average of 2.4 hours per weekday working outside of school hours.

Possible Changes

42% of faculty/staff feel that “having teachers coordinate due dates for major projects and assessments” and “reducing the homework load” would be “quite” or “very effective” at reducing students’ stress and improving their wellbeing.