School Board Members See Improvement in Student Well-Being

Students in Palo Alto have been faring better in the years since the , according to a report presented to PAUSD Board Members Tuesday night.

Amy Drolette, Coordinator of Student Services, presented an update at the PAUSD Board Meeting on various programs designed to improve student connectedness and well-being.

One of programs at has offered students the weekly opportunity to voice (anonymously or not) any difficulties or sources of stress they might be feeling. Students write their personal concerns on cards for the teacher to read out before opening the floor to peer-to-peer advice and discussion.

A 7th-grade Jordan student present at the board meeting called the open sessions a success: As soon as one student made use of the anonymous cards, she explained, the flood gates effectively opened to wider discussion. Project Safety Net holds monthly meetings for the general public at Lucie Stern Community Center.

Elsewhere, staff members and coaches at PAUSD schools have received training in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), a method in which supervising adults take initiative in recognizing signs of distress, addressing those signs with the student and referring them to a counselor.

Melissa Baten Caswell, one of the presiding board members, tabled one concern raised by a member of the public regarding the well-being of students in the district: "How do you measure something as amorphous as social health?"

There are three survey instruments being used across PAUSD schools, each of which report increasing scores in recent years. The California Healthy Kids Survey (written by WestED) shows an increase in the proportion of students scoring high on the "School Connectedness Scale," pushing scores still higher over the statewide average. Amy Drolette presented the goal of increasing that proportion across all grades by 3 percent in 2013 (when the survey will be issued next).

The Palo Alto Reality Check Survey (issued to middle schools only) has students answer yes or no to sentences such as "I have a good number of adults I can talk to when I have a problem." It, too, has seen a rise in scores recently, and the goal is again to yield an increase of 3 percent in 2013. 

Finally, the was first issued last year and will be reissued every five. The goal is to increase scores in several categories—caring school climate, other adult relationships, bonding to school—by 5 percent.

Whether these surveys succeed in measuring the health of Palo Alto's elementary, middle, and high school students—and whether the tragedy of suicide can better be avoided through them—remains to be determined. Compared to past scores on the same surveys, however, numbers have gone up, which staff say, and parents hope, is a move in the right direction.