01/06/2025 -
The Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) and more than 140 participating schools want to hear the opinions of Sonoma County school families and students in this year’s YouthTruth surveys. The surveys, which are open through Friday, Jan. 31, are an important tool for schools and community partners to hear directly from students, school families, and employees about their needs.
The 10-minute family survey and 20-minute student survey explore topics related to student wellness and success, including college and career readiness, school culture, safety, communications, and mental health. Schools across 31 Sonoma County school districts are participating in this year’s survey.
Parents, family members, or guardians of Sonoma County students at participating schools should be receiving a link to the survey from their students’ school or schools. The survey is anonymous and available in eight languages.
Research, both nationally and at SCOE, has found a strong relationship between school culture and important student outcomes such as student achievement, a feeling of belonging, and a sense of safety. Last year, SCOE’s School Culture and Partnerships team created customized reports for each of the 15 comprehensive Sonoma County high schools. By diving into the data and conducting student interviews, the team made recommendations for local schools to build on in pursuit of positive, safe, and supportive school cultures that promote academic success. For this year’s survey, SCOE plans to build schools’ capacity to understand and act on their data.
“By capturing their direct experiences, the YouthTruth surveys are a powerful, countywide tool we are using to evaluate how effectively our schools serve students and families,” said Monique Luke, the School Culture and Partnerships director who leads the survey effort. “The fact that this effort has been in place for seven years at some schools gives us the ability to measure changes and impact over a number of years. “That’s why we are expanding our capacity and efforts to support districts and schools in analyzing and taking meaningful action in response to the survey results.”
This spring, Luke will host a series of workshops to help districts and schools understand their data and develop and test hypotheses. The workshops will also help identify areas for improvement and share strategies to empower staff and students to take action in response to the survey’s findings.
Schools that administer the surveys use the results for program planning, professional development, and school improvement processes. While SCOE shares countywide data with the public, individual district and site data cannot be shared without the explicit written permission of school and district leaders. Prior years’ survey results can be found online at sonomacf.org/youthtruth.
Students and families who wish to complete the survey should check for messages this week from their school or contact their school’s principal. Michelle Johnson, a division support assistant at SCOE, is available to help families access their school’s survey links via email. She can be reached at mjohnson@scoe.org or 707-524-2733.
To learn more about this year’s survey effort, click the following links. [English] [español]
