California Safe and Supportive Schools

Making Data Meaningful in Educator-to-Family Communication

Data Use

Making Data Meaningful in Educator-to-Family Communication

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Schools collect vast amounts of data about students—the sources range from attendance records, classroom activities, and standardized assessment scores to homework completion, behavior, and local school climate surveys. School leaders and educators are becoming increasingly skilled in sharing and using data to make important decisions about programs, interventions, resources, and policies.

This document describes strategies for sharing data and engaging in data-driven discussions with families to improve student and school outcomes. It includes tips for considering how to invite families into data conversations, effectively engaging with families around student and school data, and determining which data to share with families. A vignette from Azusa Unified School District in California illustrates how collaborating with families to make data-informed decisions can build trust and draw on community assets to improve school outcomes.

Workbook for Improving School Climate: Using Your California School Climate Health and Learning Surveys Data

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The Workbook for Improving School Climate, 2nd Edition, is meant to help school communities interpret and use data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, the California School Climate Survey for staff, and the California School Parent Survey.

This workbook walks users through their school or district survey findings to create supportive school climates that enhance professional outcomes for staff, academic and social and emotional outcomes for students, and involvement outcomes for parents. It is designed to assist local school community members in their efforts to close the racial/ethnic achievement gap and to strengthen special education, migrant education, and other educational services for culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse students.

Learn more about the surveys on the CalSCHLS website.

Making Sense of School Climate

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CalSCHLS grew out of the California Department of Educations’s commitment to promote the successful cognitive, social, and emotional development of all the state’s youth, close the achievement gap for students who are part of historically underserved communities, foster positive school working environments for staff, and improve school accountability and data-driven reform. Together, these surveys provide schools and districts with critical information about their learning and teaching environments, the health and well-being of students, and the quality and availability of supports for parents, school staff, and students. When used together, data from these three surveys help schools assess and target the strengths, needs, and concerns of all members of the school community, including teachers and other staff members, students, and parents.

This reference guide provides an overview to the questions related to school climate assessed by the three CalSCHLS surveys. It is designed as a reference tool to help survey users consider the connections across the surveys and illuminate the relevance of all the survey items to school improvement.

Visit the CalSCHLS website to learn more.