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As educators seek to combat diminishing attention spans, compete against digital distractions, and strive to deliver a quality education in the face of ever-growing standards, understanding and improving student engagement in school is more important than ever. Student engagement is the key to building a safe, positive, and creative school culture that increases achievement. And perhaps even more critical, the meaningful involvement students have with their learning environment and their perceptions of the school community have been shown to decrease boredom, alienation, and dropout rates.Given the serious consequences of disengagement, more school leaders are increasingly interested in measuring student behaviors to enhance student experiences and outcomes. A deeper investigation into high school student attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs is a necessary step.
In 2011, the NAIS Commission on Accreditation added a requirement to its Criteria for Effective Independent School Accreditation that asks schools undergoing the accreditation process to provide evidence of a thoughtful way to collect and use student-learning data. Because of the new requirement, NAIS partnered with Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) to conduct what began as a three-year study on the use of the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE) with independent school students.
Since the launch of the pilot, in 2013, 191 independent schools have participated in HSSSE to gather data on student behaviors along three dimensions of engagement: cognitive engagement, social engagement, and emotional engagement with school. NAIS has continued to work with CEEP to offer the survey for students in grades nine through 12 as well as the Middle Grades Survey of Student Engagement (MGSSE) for schools serving younger students.
As schools continue to increase their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to prioritize the health and well-being of all students, it’s imperative to review student engagement particularly among students of color.
Engagement and Inclusion
NAIS students consistently report high levels of connection with their schoolwork. In the most recent 2018 HSSSE data, 92 percent of HSSSE participants agreed or strongly agreed that teachers engage them in classroom discussions. However, in 2016, NAIS analyzed HSSSE data and concluded there were differences in several important measures of belonging among minority students. We explored the 2018 data, in the following categories, to find out whether these differences in engagement among students of different backgrounds continued, and we found that they do.Extracurricular Participation
The National Center on Effective Secondary Schools found that participation in extracurricular activities may increase students’ sense of engagement and attachment to their school, thereby decreasing the likelihood of dropout. If participation in extracurricular activities has the power to improve educational outcomes, then the availability of these activities to students of all backgrounds becomes an important question of equity.The 2018 HSSSE data we examined highlights a disparity in extracurricular participation among different groups of students. While 56 percent of white HSSSE participants reported spending four or more hours participating in school-sponsored activities during a typical week, only 45 percent of Hispanic participants reported spending as much time engaged in these activities, representing a drop of three percentage points from 2017. The number of Hispanic and African-American students who reported spending four or more hours engaged in nonschool activities also is lower than other groups. (See chart below.)
Sense of Belonging
According to research conducted through the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, students feel more connected to their school when they believe that the adults and other students care about who they are as individuals. A feeling of connectedness and belonging at school is an important protective factor for youth, as well as a predictor for better academic outcomes, such as higher rates of participation in classroom and extracurricular activities. Creating an environment where students feel comfortable to be themselves is an important step in increasing engagement.
However, the latest HSSSE results revealed key differences between racial/ethnicity groups on measures of belonging at school. The number of Hispanic students who reported feeling comfortable being themselves in school is lower than all other groups. Hispanic and multiracial students alike said they felt lower levels of importance in their school communities. Feeling unvalued in the classroom may lead to unhappiness at school, as multiracial students also said they would transfer out of their current school if given the choice. (See chart above.)
Support and Institutional Trust
One explanation for lower extracurricular participation and feelings of belonging among minority groups is that these students don’t feel supported by their school community and don’t feel that the rules in the school are consistently enforced. Though students of all backgrounds indicated feeling high levels of support from teachers at school, Hispanic students reported the lowest levels of support among all groups from school staff/faculty. Furthermore, only 58 percent of African-American and multiracial students agreed or strongly agreed that the rules are applied consistently in their school. This is compared with 67 percent of Asian-American students. Students who don’t feel supported and don’t believe that the rules are fairly enforced may be more likely to switch schools, as African-American and multiracial students were also the least likely to report wanting to remain enrolled in their current school, if given the option. (See charts below.)
As University of Texas researcher David S. Yeager and his co-authors report in “Loss of Institutional Trust Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Adolescents: A Consequence of Procedural Injustice and a Cause of Life-Span Outcomes,” in the February 2017 issue of Child Development, students belonging to minority groups reported feeling that the educational system was more biased against them than other students. Other studies support these findings and the student sentiment; the racial discrepancy in school discipline has been well-documented. A 2002 Urban Review study, “The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment,” found that students of color (particularly African-American boys) were more likely to be sent to the principal’s office for subjective offenses, such as disrespect, while white students were more likely to be sent to the office for objective infractions, such as vandalism. These differences persisted when researchers controlled for socioeconomic status. Worse yet, federal data compiled by the Civil Rights Data Collection also indicate that these disparities in school discipline are growing.
Student impressions of school support and fairness are important. The aforementioned study found that perceptions of unfair treatment contributed to lower levels of institutional trust in the education system, which ultimately had important implications for student outcomes, as students who lost more trust in education were less likely to attend a four-year college.
These findings are consistent with the results of the 2018 HSSSE data: Hispanic and multiracial students reported low levels of perceived fairness at school. These groups also reported engaging in behaviors related to college planning at lower rates than did other groups. For example, when asked, “During the past school year, how often have you talked with an adult in the school about how to apply to college?” only 48 percent of multiracial students had done so at least sometimes—9 percentage points lower than Asian-American students.
Next Steps
To help students of color feel more supported, fairly treated, and engaged, school administrators can use HSSSE and MGSSE to collect data about student behaviors such as efforts, investment, and strategies for learning. Schools can then dig into subgroup data to understand how groups of students perceive and interact with their learning environment, which will allow them to identify and target engagement gaps in their schools. In the past, participating schools have used the HSSSE and MGSSE survey results to modify classroom management and instruction techniques, increase student-counselor visits, and identify professional development needs among teachers and staff to better support engagement efforts.Another important resource is the NAIS Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM) Online Climate Survey. This assessment helps schools collect benchmarking data through a 15- to 20-minute online survey to evaluate the current school diversity climate from the perspective of students, alumni, parents, and teachers. AIM survey questions explore views and personal experiences with the school about feeling safe, accepted, and included, as well as perceptions of support and respect from school administration. Getting a clearer picture of inclusivity is the first step to increasing student engagement.