Panorama School Climate Survey Results 2023

In February of 2023, the Ames Community School District surveyed students, staff, and families using the Panorama Culture and Climate Survey. The survey included questions around school fit, school satisfaction, and staff and family engagement, among others. This year, the district underwent a process involving building stakeholders to shorten the length of the surveys and focus questions more specifically on sense of belonging and school climate. This was the fifth consecutive year that the district has utilized this survey.  

In early March, building and District administrators had a first look at the results. On Monday, March 27th, District results were presented to the school board. We are now sharing a direct link with our families and community to District level results to the following surveys:

• Student Survey (Classroom Level) – grades 3-5
• Student Supports and Environment (Equity) – grades 6-12
• Teacher and Staff Feedback Survey
• Family-School Relationship Survey

The Ames CSD Panorama Survey results can be found on the Panorama website.

In the results, each survey has a summary section that illustrates the percentage of respondents who surveyed “favorable” to the questions and topics. Panorama also compares to how those scores benchmark nationally.

Response rate – The Panorama survey was opened on February 6th for all stakeholders. More than 1,000 families responded to the survey, followed by more than 440 teachers and staff members, and almost 3,000 students. This response rate is slightly higher overall than last year, with the exception of elementary students which saw a small dip in response rate. 

Purpose of this survey – The purpose of the survey is to gather perception data from key stakeholders as a way to set and continue the evaluation of specific goal areas around the District’s Purpose and Priorities. 

District Insights

Insight #1 – School Climate (teachers and staff) – Teachers and staff were asked questions about the overall social and learning climate of their schools. 62% of staff (non-teachers) and 51% of teachers responded favorably to questions in this category; marking a 2% increase and 0% change for each respective group from last year’s responses. Questions included prompts such as: “On most days, how enthusiastic are the students about being at school?”, “How positive are the attitudes of your colleagues?” and “How often do you see students helping each other without being prompted?”

Insight #2 – Feedback and Coaching (teachers) – 24% of Ames CSD teachers responded favorably to survey questions about feedback and coaching, a 5% decrease from the previous year. Questions such as “How often do you receive feedback on your teaching?” saw a 11% decrease in favorability from last year and questions such as “At your school, how thorough is the feedback you receive in covering all aspects of your role as a teacher?” and “How much feedback do you receive on your teaching?” saw a slight decrease from the previous year. This is an area we will continue to improve moving forward. 

Insight #3 – School Climate (students) – Elementary students responded to questions regarding school and classroom climate with a 64% favorability rating (a 1 point drop from last year), which compared to other schools of similar demographics nationwide, places us in the 40th percentile on this topic for elementary students. Secondary students responded to questions about school climate with a 46% favorability rating, showing an 11% increase from the previous year, and was the area of greatest growth for secondary students from last year. 

Insight #4 – Classroom Teacher-Student Relationships (students) – Favorable responses to questions about teacher and student relationships have decreased slightly at the elementary level this year compared to last year. Elementary students responded to these questions with a 77% favorability rating, showing a 2% decrease from the previous year and placing Ames in the 60th percentile compared to similar elementary systems nationwide. 

Insight #5 – Sense of Belonging (students) – Increasing students’ sense of belonging was a goal across all buildings within the Ames Community School District this year. Elementary schools responded to these questions (such as: “How connected do you feel to the teacher in this class?”) with an overall 60% favorability rating, showing a 3% increase from the previous year and placing Ames elementary schools in the 20th percentile nationally. Secondary students responded to these questions (such as: “Overall, how much do you feel like you belong at your school?”) with an overall 40% favorability rating, showing an 8% increase from the previous year and placing both Ames Middle School and  Ames High School in the 30th percentile nationally on this topic. 

Insight #6 – Diversity and Inclusion (students) – Secondary students answer questions about diversity and inclusion in their annual climate and culture survey; this year, these questions had the highest favorability rating of any question set for Ames middle and high school students with 75% favorable overall. This is an increase of 3% since last year. Questions such as “How fairly do students at your school treat people from different races, ethnicities, or cultures” (70% favorable) and “How fairly do adults at your school treat people from different races, ethnicities, or cultures” (78% favorable) saw increases from last year while questions such as “How often do you have classes with students from different racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds?” (83% favorable) saw a slight decrease from last year. 

Insight #7 – School Climate (families) – Families responded to questions about school climate with an overall 64% favorability rating, which shows a 7% increase from the previous Spring, placing Ames community school in the 40% percentile nationally. All questions in this category saw increases in positive responses to the previous year. The question from this topic with the highest favorability rating was “Overall, how much respect do you think the teachers at your child’s school have for the children?” with 73% responding positively, and the question with the lowest favorability was “How motivating are the classroom lessons at your child’s school?” with a 50% favorability rating. 

Insight #8 – School Fit (families) – While we saw increases in favorability year over year in each section of the family survey, the area of greatest growth was in questions related to school fit and perceptions of how well Ames Community School District schools match children’s developmental needs. Questions in this section of the family survey saw 62% overall favorable responses, an 8% increase from last Spring. This places our district in the 40th percentile compared to similar districts nationwide. The questions with the highest favorability rating at 77% was “Given your child’s cultural background, how good a fit is his/her school?” and the question with the lowest favorability rating at 50% was “How comfortable is your child in asking for help from school adults?” This is an area we will continue to improve moving forward.