Research shows that feelings of belonging impact students’ success, but current measures of school climate do not capture the perspectives of immigrant-origin youth.

Why it matters

Feeling respected, valued, liked, and cared about by adults and peers is central to students’ engagement and motivation. Friendships, relationships, and connectedness that begin in school are drivers of economic mobility. For those relationships to develop, young people have to feel like they belong. Educators lack a culturally-informed measure of school climate that responds to the diversity of their student populations. Current tools fail to explore the way that the intersecting identities of first- and second-generation immigrant and refugee students relate to social belonging and bullying in schools.

What are we doing about it?

Carola Suárez-Orozco, Director of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, has partnered with Re-Imagining Migration, and YouthTruth to create a carefully designed survey for middle and high schools to ensure educators are able to learn from the experiences of all of their students.  Using new demographic markers and culturally-informed questions, this school climate assessment will reveal how those experiences are shaped by their intersecting identities within their schools.

How can your school(s) participate?

We invite your district/school to be part of this important survey. You can find more detailed information about the survey below.

What will schools receive?

Educators will receive free resources to help them understand the experiences of all of their students at school. Including:

  • Assistance in administering the survey
  • A FREE report on their school climate and an interactive dashboard to drill into their results.
  • Data aggregated across student identities, to help educators understand who feels a sense of connection and who feels less connected.
  • Analysis and data revealing how your school compares to others across the country
  • Opportunities to participate in Re-Imagining Migration online training
  • Access to free self-paced professional development webinars and exercises

The details

  • We will make selections on a rolling basis until we reach capacity for this round
  • Scholarships are available to cover the survey costs for the first 50 schools that register to participate.
  • The survey will take 45 minutes of class time.
  • All student data will be anonymously collected, and all school data will be disaggregated.
 

We are grateful to the following campaign outreach partners. Reach out if you want to join the campaign.