New product
Sound Perspectives, a new school climate assessment for Connecticut schools
The team behind the Youth Voices Count Survey now offers a school climate assessment that asks students, staff and families how safe, supported and connected their school feels.
WETHERSFIELD, Conn. B. Weyland Smith Consulting has launched Sound Perspectives, a school climate assessment for Connecticut schools. It comes from the same evaluation team that runs the Youth Voices Count Survey, with more than 90,000 youth surveys completed across 45 school districts.
Last fall we told our partners a new survey product was on the way. Sound Perspectives is the result. It gives school leaders a clear picture of how their school community experiences the building every day: whether people feel safe, whether students feel someone is looking out for them, and whether families feel welcome.
Why school climate, and why now
Youth survey data shows what students are dealing with. It does not always show how the school itself feels to the people inside it. Climate is where many of the protective factors we measure actually live, in relationships with adults, a sense of belonging and fair treatment.
Connecticut schools are also expected to assess climate as part of their improvement planning. We wanted a tool that meets that need without becoming one more form to fill out and file away.
How it works
Sound Perspectives surveys three groups: students, staff and families. Seeing those views side by side is often where the useful conversations start. When staff rate a school as safer than students do, for example, that gap is worth a closer look.
As with every survey we run, results are reported for groups only. No one's individual answers are shared with the school.
Be one of the first
We are looking for early partner schools. If you would like to see how it works, or how it could fit with a Youth Voices Count survey you already run, get in touch and we will walk you through it.
“I felt that this was the first survey that we have done in the school that really connects to what we are going through and what is actually happening.”
What schools get
- One assessment that hears from students, staff and families, so leaders can see where views line up and where they do not.
- Questions written by public health and prevention evaluators, in plain language people can answer quickly.
- Reporting a leadership team can actually use at a planning meeting, not a stack of raw tables.
- Results that sit well next to Youth Voices Count data for districts that already survey their students.
Connecticut requires schools to assess school climate as part of their improvement planning under C.G.S. ยง 10-222gg. Sound Perspectives was built with that requirement in mind. Districts should confirm current state guidance with their own counsel or the Connecticut State Department of Education.
About B. Weyland Smith Consulting
B. Weyland Smith Consulting, LLC is a public health consulting team based in Wethersfield, Connecticut. It provides program evaluation, needs assessment, survey services and grant preparation for school districts, prevention coalitions, health departments, behavioral health providers, towns and nonprofits, and runs the Youth Voices Count Survey and the Sound Perspectives school climate assessment. Learn more at bwsmithconsulting.com.