1. To what extent does Cultivate accurately and reliably measure students’ experiences of learning conditions in CPS?
2. To what extent do changes in students’ experiences of learning conditions predict changes in students reporting I am Valued (that is, a composite of the Belonging and Identity Safety measures)?
Students’ experiences of their learning conditions are critical levers for shaping their learning-related beliefs, which drive their long-run social and academic development. To this end, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has administered Cultivate, a rigorously developed student voice survey that captures students’ experiences of their learning conditions, twice annually (fall and spring) since the 2022-23 academic year. The Cultivate Survey is grounded in extensive research on youth development, finding that: 1) young people are expert reporters of their own experiences, and 2) leveraging student insights and partnership is important for creating spaces where they can thrive.
Cultivate is designed to enhance the work that is being done in schools to strengthen adult-student relationships and promote student learning and well-being. It equips educators and students with a tool to help them work together to improve classroom learning conditions. The survey gathers students’ experiences of nine dimensions of classroom instructional environments: Meaningful Work, Learning Goals, Well-Organized Classroom, Supportive Teaching, Feedback for Growth, Classroom Community, Student Voice, Teacher Caring, and Affirming Identities. It also gathers students’ learning-related beliefs about themselves—including their beliefs about being valued—which are shaped by these learning conditions.
This research summary shares preliminary findings from the first two years of the administration of the Cultivate Survey in CPS.
Key Findings
- The Cultivate Survey reliably captures the learning conditions it was designed to measure for all students. There is no evidence of bias in how the survey functions across student groups.
- Within an academic year, improving students’ experiences of their learning conditions from fall to spring predicts substantial and positive changes in how valued students feel. Prior research has demonstrated that feeling valued in school is strongly tied to students’ future attendance, high school graduation, and college-going.
- These findings mean that incremental within-year shifts in students’ experiences of learning conditions are measurable using Cultivate. And these within year shifts positively shape critical student beliefs that have long-run returns to academic and social development.
