Collingswood releases first New Jersey School Climate Improvement Survey: students report high safety but flag behavior and academic-culture concerns

Collingswood Public School District officials presented results of the district's first New Jersey School Climate Improvement Survey at the board's December meeting, saying students largely feel safe while identifying academic culture and student behavior as areas needing attention.

"School climate is the character and quality of school life," said Zach Wright, MTSS coordinator for the district's secondary campus, as he described how students, staff and families answered a set of developmentally appropriate questions administered by the NJ School Climate Improvement Survey (NJ Sky) platform and developed in partnership with Rutgers University. Wright said the survey uses a 1-to-4 scale, with 2.5 identified by NJ Sky as the benchmark above which domains are considered "solid." "It's how we feel in these buildings," Wright said.

Wright told the board that participation was strong in several buildings: the high school had 493 student responses (about 70% of the student body), 36 staff and 47 families, for a total of 576 respondents. Across the district, the highest-rated domains included physical safety, supportive staff-student relationships and student sense of belonging. He said some campuses reported more than 90% of students "agree" or "strongly agree" that they feel safe in school and to-and-from school.

At the same time, Wright said, the lowest-rated domains districtwide were academic culture and classroom practices, organizational resources and supports, and negative student behaviors. "What a lot of folks have seen across is negative student behavior," Wright said during questions, noting that many districts report similar patterns.

Board members asked about funding and frequency. Wright said the district did voluntary outreach and trainings with NJ Sky; board members and administrators indicated the survey has been state-sponsored in recent years and that some neighboring districts administer similar surveys annually. Dr. McDowell, speaking during the superintendent's report, thanked the MTSS team and emphasized that the district will use the data to inform school improvement plans and budgeting.

Wright said the platform permits subgroup analysis by grade, gender, race and language to surface disparities and that building leaders will convene action teams after the winter break to develop targeted interventions. "After the break in January, every school will have their own action team to use this data to create next steps," Wright said.

Board members urged the administration to release as much of the data as privacy allows so the community can see what the survey shows and how the district plans to respond. The MTSS team and building leaders will review individual school results with staff and parents and report back in subsequent meetings. The board also discussed applying for a state program intended to support districts new to the NJ School Climate Improvement Survey.

The board approved routine agenda items and noted the next board meeting will be the reorganization meeting on Jan. 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium.