Achieving District-Wide Adoption of a New Measure of Student Well-Being

• In Event: Use Your Voice: Harnessing Student Voice Data in a Large Urban District

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes:
Discuss the process of supporting district-wide implementation of the Student Well-Being Survey and achieving the goal of 70% student participation each quarter;
Describe how the team incorporated the survey and its data into key district- and school-level processes and data tools; and
Share challenges the team encountered and strategies used to address barriers to implementation.

Perspectives or theoretical frameworks: Implementation Science (Lyon, 2016; Proctor et al., 2014); democratization of data (Toldson, 2019).

Methods, techniques or modes of inquiry:
The approaches used in this implementation process are informed and guided by implementation science. This includes our approaches to anticipating barriers in the implementation planning process; identifying barriers and facilitators of implementation during the process through mixed-methods research; sensemaking around the nature of implementation barriers; and design of strategies to improve stakeholder uptake and adoption (Proctor et al., 2014).

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials:
The paper will include presentation of representative artifacts from the implementation process that demonstrate our identification of barriers and facilitators and the implementation strategies used to address them. These artifacts include experience data from implementers (i.e., feedback from students and school staff); district data tools; and resources and supports designed by the team to support school-level adoption.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/points of view: The teams’ strategies for supporting district-wide adoption have been highly successful. The Student Well-Being Survey is now integrated into all key district processes and data tools, and in 2022-23 we achieved the goal of 70% student participation. The project team has continued to build infrastructure to support district-wide adoption of this tool. For example, the tool has been integrated into the annual school planning process; an internal application was created in our district's performance monitoring dashboard to allow schools to have access to their data; and schools can disaggregate this data to ensure equity in responding to student voice. Student Well-being Survey data is now a key data point in Tier 1 universal problem-solving meetings. Recognizing the importance of democratizing the data, Student Well-being Survey Data is made available for families to see as well.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work: This paper is a contribution to the literature on implementation science generally, and specifically within the education context. It demonstrates how implementation science methods and frameworks can successfully support the large-scale implementation of new processes and the use of a new data source in a large urban district.

Authors

• Shannon Ellis, The School District of Philadelphia

• Abigail Gray, TRAILS