
One of our core beliefs in the Sunnyvale School District is that an effective school provides an environment that is positive, purposeful, and safe. To help accomplish this, the Sunnyvale School District administered the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) to fourth through eighth graders during the months of November and December.
Additionally, two partner surveys of CHKS were administered to all staff and the to all district parents. The California School Climate Survey and the California School Parent Survey work hand-in-hand with the California Healthy Kids Survey to provide comparison of staff, parent and student data. The district received the results this spring.
The survey serves as a powerful tool that provides our schools with relevant and useful knowledge, tailored to their needs, to promote healthy choices for our students.
The CHKS is the largest statewide survey of resiliency, protective factors and risk behaviors in the nation and has led to a better understanding of the relationship between students’ health behaviors and academic performances. Sunnyvale School District utilizes CHKS to address the needs of students that may be barriers to learning and overall well-being, and to improve school safety, attendance, and academic performance.
For the 2015-16 school year, Sunnyvale School District saw 1,094 parents, 321 staff and 2,584 students respond to the survey.
Some key take aways from the survey were that 97 percent of students and staff, and 85 percent of elementary parents and 77 percent of parents in middle school perceived district schools to be safe.
When asked if they felt our schools promote the academic success for all students, 94 percent of students and staff agreed. About 86 percent of parents in elementary and 88 percent in middle felt schools provide academic motivation for students.
Ninety-six percent of students and staff feel their schools set high standards for all students. Eighty-six percent of elementary parents and 78 percent of middle school parents felt there is meaningful participation at school.
The district is pleased with the overall results of the survey, but the data did point to areas of improvement:
- Increase positive percentage for Agree to Strongly Agree.
- Increase student response rate to 90 percent in each grade.
- Increase teaching staff response rate to 90 percent at each at each school
- Increase parent response rate to 60 percent at each school site
- Increase training and support to teachers to support behavior and students with special needs.
The data will allow the district to go from good to great! We are excited to see continued growth for our students, families, and staff.
To view the full reports go to http://sesd.schoolwires.net/Page/3383