High Levels of Student Engagement Recorded at Mamaroneck High School

The following announcement from the Mamaroneck School District offers the results of its recent student engagement survey at the high school:

At Tuesday evening’s Board of Education meeting, Mamaroneck High School Principal Elizabeth Clain unveiled results of the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE) administered last spring to explore how students think and feel about their intellectual, social and emotional engagement at MHS. The results, collected from 1,264 of the 1,467 students, indicated that more than 90 percent of MHS students feel good about being at MHS (93%), safe in the high school (92%) and supported by teachers (91%) and fared favorably compared to other HSSSE sample schools. Identified areas of improvement include making more students “feel known” at the high school; applying school-based knowledge to everyday life (authentic learning), and connecting ideas or concepts from one class or subject area to another.

The survey was conducted as part of the Board’s goal to study and improve on student engagement, which, by all accounts is shown to have a direct correlation with a positive classroom environment, effective instruction and student achievement. The District and Board selected the HSSSE, administered by Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, over other survey tools because it is a well-established survey instrument used by secondary schools across the country to measure all domains of engagement (e.g., cognitive/ intellectual, social/behavioral, and emotional) The District is using the survey as a benchmark against other sample populations nationwide and as a way to benchmark student engagement over a period of time.

Administrators began analyzing results of the survey over the summer and then presented some preliminary findings to faculty in October. At the November Superintendent’s Conference Day, faculty together had the chance to dig further, make sense of the data and determine next steps/areas of focus related to strengthening student engagement.

“An ongoing goal is to continue to increase the amount of active learning, discussion and debate taking place across all subject areas and to help students understand why what they learn in the classroom will be important to them after high school,” Clain said. “Any time we get feedback from students it’s helpful, and we can use this feedback in helping to guide our future priorities.”

Clain talked about several new initiatives, including the Student-Teacher Council -- a group devoted to establishing high school policy – and the Tiger’s Den as an important staff-supervised lounge for high school students to visit during the day, relax and feel connected. She cited these and other examples that help meet the goal of “making a big school small.”

Photo: Mamaroneck High School. Photo credit: Michael Woyton