The voices of over 600 respondents in the Vista Ridge feeder schools outlined three priorities for enhancing Student Experience: support teachers, ensure security and improve social-emotional learning for students, as part of the Thoughtexchange survey for Student Experience, which started on Feb. 3 with a community meeting and ended Feb. 17.
“Be accessible for every student,” wrote one respondent of a top-rated thought. “Focus on the whole child, not just academics.”
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.
“We want to thank our Rangers and future Ranger families for providing feedback in our community meetings and on Thoughtexchange,” Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D. said. “We are here to listen as we continue this conversation because we know the voices of our students, teachers, staff, families, and partners can only make us better.”
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 | 8 | Teachers | Ensuring we support high-quality teachers and staff for student learning through resources, professional development, and leadership. |
| 2 | 5 | Safety | Relating to the safety and security of the school facilities. |
| 3 | 1 | 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. |
| 4 | 13 | Communication | Prioritizing regular updates and communication from staff to parents. |
| 5 | 6 | Post-Graduation Prep | Preparing students for post-graduate life, including college prep, trade schools, and social and soft skills for a changing world. |
| 6 | 12 | Classroom or School Size | Focusing on class size or student-teacher ratios. |
| 7 | 3 | Individualized Learning | Offering diverse learning opportunities and instruction that account for individual student needs and capacities. |
| 8 | 4 | Grades or Class Rank | Relating to homework, testing, and teaching to a test. |
| 9 | 2 | 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. |
| 10 | 9 | Resources | Investing in resources and facilities, including technology and textbooks. |
| 11 | 14 | Miscellaneous | Included general thoughts about providing quality education. |
| 12 | 11 | Clubs, Sports, or Activities | Offering more variety of clubs and other ways to help students be engaged. |
| 13 | 7 | Planning or Policy | Relating to issues of feeder schools, zoning, bussing and other district-level planning. |
| 14 | 10 | Schedule or Calendar | Including a variety of topics related to scheduling and the school calendar. |
