Preparing for growth with infrastructure and the stress caused by grades and class rank rose to the top of the thoughts from the Vandegrift High School community conversation on student experience, which launched on Thoughtexchange after the Feb. 17 meeting with families, students and staff in VHS feeder schools.
“Another access road to Vandegrift. It’s dangerous that a school this size does not have another exit road,” wrote one of the commenters.
VHS and its feeder schools had an opportunity to share feedback, ideas and thoughts about how students experience school from Feb. 17 – March 2 as part of a Thoughtexchange.
Review the entire report, including all of the submissions here. We will release the final report in June, which will also include submissions from the entire district.
“After visiting with students at Vandegrift and meeting with families in that community, we know this is a caring community focused on providing support for the whole child,” Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D. said. “I want to thank our participants for weighing in. We look forward to disseminating this data and bringing forth continuous improvement to these schools.”
After the submission window closed, we worked with Thoughtexchange data experts to categorize or theme all of the submissions. In looking at the themes, we can review the data based on total submissions and how respondents rated those thoughts.
While these themes may be adjusted as we hear from other communities for comparison purposes, you can review the methodology in the following table:
| Rating | Thoughts | Themes | Description (ideas and concepts included in the theme) |
| 1 | 13 | Classroom or School Size | Focusing on class size or student-teacher ratios. |
| 2 | 10 | Traffic & Parking | Addressing issues of infrastructure, roads, and parking around the school. |
| 3 | 9 | Post-Graduation Prep | Preparing students for post-graduate life, including college prep, trade schools, and social and soft skills for a changing world. |
| 4 | 6 | Safety | Relating to the safety and security of the school facilities. |
| 5 | 3 | Social or Emotional Learning | Supporting students through social-emotional skills, relationships, with a ‘whole child’ approach, and/or through an inclusive and bully-free learning environment. |
| 6 | 5 | Teachers | Ensuring we support high-quality teachers and staff for student learning through resources, professional development, and leadership. |
| 7 | 1 | Grades or Class Rank | Relating to homework, testing, and teaching to a test. |
| 8 | 4 | New or Improved Programs | Improving current course offerings or new programs to introduce, including a more robust foreign language program, critical thinking courses, and financial literacy. |
| 9 | 15 | Resources | Investing in resources and facilities, including technology and textbooks. |
| 10 | 11 | Communication | Prioritizing regular updates and communication from staff to parents. |
| 11 | 2 | Individualized Learning | Offering diverse learning opportunities and instruction that account for individual student needs and capacities. |
| 12 | 7 | Clubs, Sports, or Activities | Offering more variety of clubs and other ways to help students be engaged. |
| 13 | 12 | Planning or Policy | Relating to issues of feeder schools, zoning, bussing and other district-level planning. |
| 14 | 8 | Miscellaneous | Included general thoughts about providing quality education. |
| 15 | 14 | Schedule or Calendar | Including a variety of topics related to scheduling and the school calendar. |
We released VHS as our third feeder pattern report, with Vista Ridge High School and Leander High School released earlier this month. Ultimately, we will have a report in June that considers all feeder patterns as a whole district, as well as data collected in our Equity and Diversity meetings, our Employee Engagement Survey, and our School Climate Surveys.
