Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) has administered Tripod student surveys district-wide since 2011. While survey results have been primarily used to inform teacher practice, and beginning last year, summative evaluations, we have recently become interested in using Tripod data to understand and improve the climate and culture of our schools.
Educators know that school climate matters. If we expect students to learn and teachers to teach, we must provide them with safe and supportive school environments. Tripod is therefore excited to offer leaders a new tool for assessing school-wide teaching and learning conditions. In just seven items, the survey captures students’ feelings of safety and security in school as well as their perceptions of teacher-student and student-student relationships.
