Understanding Data
Student Achievement › SurveyWorks
Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE),
Goff Junior High School.
2010 SurveyWorks: Students report varying degrees of feeling supported in their academic efforts, by high expectations and personal attention from the adults in their lives.
Research is clear that among the strongest influences on students' academic success are the expectations of their teachers, families and communities. In fact, the extensive research conducted on behavior in the commercial-business world shows that at any age, the expectations of the other people around a worker (or student) exert a powerful effect on their behavior. Some of the expectations come from without — teacher objectives, test scores, job performance reviews — and others from within — "self-talk," personal goals, or a sense of "drive" or ambition. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, improving academic success requires "a system-wide effort to raise institutional, faculty, student, and other stakeholder expectations..."
The survey questions about student achievement were selected to begin a conversation about informing and shaping the context of expectations that each child experiences. School and home are both vitally important to supporting the hopes and dreams of students. School and home can help each other.