Revamped survey effort aims to capture Sonoma County student experience, target support services

The clearest snapshot that Sonoma County officials have of local students’ mental health and well-being has shown depression and anxiety are frequent and likely widespread obstacles to kids’ ability to learn and thrive.

Up to 70% of high school respondents and 50% of middle-schoolers reported “feeling depressed, stressed or anxious” as their primary barrier to learning, according to a survey last year of more than 18,000 local students in grades 3-12.

“That one piece of data was a wake-up call to the community,” said Karin Demarest, vice president for community impact with the Community Foundation of Sonoma County. “And that’s why this survey is so essential.”

Still, the 2021 YouthTruth captured responses from only about a quarter of Sonoma County public school students.

Now, to generate a more complete assessment of students’ experiences, a partnership of Sonoma County agencies, foundations and schools is expanding the use of the YouthTruth survey locally. while seeking to improve how the coalition addresses and acts on feedback.

Launched this month, the three-year effort aims to give schools and community partners a deeper and wider understanding that can spur new action to aid students and help funnel resources to groups doing that work

With more than 130 elementary, middle and high schools participating, officials at the Sonoma County Office of Education, the Community Foundation of Sonoma County and the Career Technical Education (CTE) Foundation of Sonoma County are hoping to see a higher level of response than in any year since the survey was first used five years ago. Schools distributed links to surveys for students, parents and staff at the beginning of the year. Responses will be received through Friday, Jan. 28.

Jessica Progulske, who works as a college and career readiness official in SCOE’s educational support services department, said she knows it’s far from an easy year to ask students, staff or families to take time to fill out the surveys.

But, “my plea is, we do it because of everything, not in spite of everything,” she said. “It matters more now because of what we’re facing. It’s even more helpful and important that we pay attention to community voice now.”

Schools across the nation have relied on the YouthTruth survey, developed by a San-Francisco-based nonprofit, since it was launched in 2008. Locally, use began in 2017, spurred by a partnership between the Community Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The two foundations reached out to other funders and investors, including the CTE Foundation, with the idea of implementing more student voices into local efforts to support education.

“When we have the data directly from those we’re wanting to impact … then we can target our resources and support,” said Karin Demarest, the Community Foundation’s vice president for community impact.

Only two high schools participated in 2017. Several months later, the October firestorm ravaged Sonoma County and disrupted the lives and schooling of tens of thousands of students.

The foundations worked with YouthTruth to adjust parts of the survey in response.

“It made sense to also ask questions about experiences and needs related to local fires,” a 2021 YouthTruth report said about that time period. Additional questions were added in the years that followed, as wildfires continued to affect school communities.

In addition to assessing student self-perception of emotional and mental well-being, the YouthTruth survey also has offered local schools and foundations insight into students’ levels of engagement at school, and how interested they are in what they are learning.

And Sonoma County has some room for improvement, the data show.

In 2021, for example, the percentage of elementary-age students who responded affirmatively to the statement “The work I do for my classes really makes me think” placed Sonoma County in the 47th percentile nationwide among respondents. At the middle school level, Sonoma County was in the 22nd percentile, and at the high school level, the 24th percentile.

Relevancy and engagement at school are key priorities for the CTE Foundation, which since 2013 has been working to partner with local schools, businesses and nonprofits to strengthen students’ college and career readiness.

“What a great way for us to really learn about from a student perspective how engaged do they feel in school?” said Kathy Goodacre, CEO of the CTE Foundation. “Because we know relevancy and engagement is critical to students’ overall success.”

Seeing the ongoing effects in the YouthTruth data and the barriers schools face in tackling the results of their site or district-specific data alone, spurred the two local foundations and SCOE to pursue a more collaborative, unified approach.

This winter, all 130 school sites are having students and staff fill out surveys at school. Those districts collecting family data, including Windsor and Santa Rosa, have circulated links for parents to take the survey, as well.

In past years, school districts deployed the surveys at different points throughout the year, and the questions each asked were not aligned.

Most of the questions and content dealt with in the surveys this year, though, will be generally uniform, though schools may include additional questions specific to their sites.

Even in its first years of use in Sonoma County, YouthTruth data has been used to bring in additional resources.

When Santa Rosa Community Health applied for a federal grant for school-based mental health centers in 2021, the organization made its case for the award using data from two sources: its own clients and the 2021 YouthTruth survey, showing local students were dealing with high levels of anxiety, depression and stress.

Annemarie Brown, senior director of communications and development for Santa Rosa Community Health, said the information from YouthTruth strengthened the organization’s grant application, which centered on maintaining long-running mental health services offered to students at Elsie Allen High School.

“This was an important opportunity for us … to keep these mental health resources sustainable,” Brown said. YouthTruth data, she said, “made it so clear that the need was there.”

In September, Santa Rosa Community Health was awarded a renewable $400,000 two-year grant.

In addition to the new survey approach, Sonoma County’s YouthTruth partnership also includes a new strategy to address the results. It’s called the YouthTruth Cohort.

The cohorts are small teams composed of schools, nonprofits and foundations, who will examine the YouthTruth data and make actionable plans to improve student, family and staff experiences.

“It will be a consistent group of folks digging into this data and moving the needle,” said Chuck Wade, another college and career readiness lead with SCOE.

With this new chapter of the survey in progress, partners are urging families in participating districts to give feedback before the Jan. 28 deadline.

“Staff and students are a pretty captive audience,” said Progulske. “Families aren’t. So we’re going to have to work a little harder to ensure we hear from those voices.”

She and Wade emphasized that data families provide to YouthTruth is kept anonymous. A participant also does not need to complete all the questions to submit a response; they can opt out of any questions they choose. The survey is offered in eight languages.

The partners in this effort stressed that the data families help provide can contribute to organizations securing grant funding, and schools knowing how to better engage with families around their children’s education.

“Everyone’s voice matters,” Demarest said. “With each person taking a few minutes of their time, it could have lasting implications for our community.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ka_tornay.