Using Results

Several tools are available to help schools understand, disseminate, and use their data effectively to improve their school climates. Information about data use and dissemination in general can be found in the California Healthy Kids Survey Guidebook Parts I & II.

One of the first steps is to compare staff perceptions with student self-reports of their behavior and perceptions on the Healthy Kids Survey.

Fostering Developmental Supports & Creating Engaging School Climates

Both the California School Climate Survey (CSCS) and the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) assess the three fundamental developmental supports that research has shown are critical for promoting positive academic, social, and health outcomes among youth as well as for creating positive working environments—caring relationships, high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful participation. These developmental supports are protective factors that promote resilience even among youth in high-risk environments. How these protective factors positively influence student and staff outcomes is discussed in the CSCS Technical Report. Further information is available in the following documents.

Youth Development Strategies, Concepts, and Research (PDF)

This supplement to the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM) report expands on the strategies, concepts, and research identified in the report, and provides specific resources and references for each. It is designed to assist practitioners in broadening their knowledge base about resilience/youth development research and strategies. It provides a quick resource to the many approaches to providing youth with supports and opportunities at school and in the community. It serves as a guide for determining what course of action should be taken to meet the needs identified through the CHKS and the California School Climate Survey (CSCS).

Resilience & Youth Development PowerPoint (PDF)

Learn more about the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM) with this PowerPoint presentation. Forty-three slides will take you through the theoretical framework behind the RYDM, the meaning of the RYDM scores, and the relationships between risk, resilience, and achievement. Understanding these critical relationships will further help you interpret and apply your California School Climate Survey (CSCS) results.

Measuring Resilience and Youth Development: The Psychometric Properties of the California Healthy Kids Survey

This report summarizes findings from a study of the psychometric properties of the Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM), a key component of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS). The study aims to improve resilience assessment and research so that educators can shape the school environment to promote academic resilience.

The California School Climate Survey was developed under contract for the California Department of Education, Safe and Healthy Kids Program Office by WestEd. For more information, go to Contact Us.

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"The information the California School Climate Survey and Healthy Kids Survey provide is critical to improving the school climate and the learning environment for all students. In Culver City, we use all available data to make important decisions that affect our students. We review CHKS and CSCS data as carefully as we review our standardized test scores, for we know that the results reflect the school environment in which our students learn. We also acknowledge that our students must have safe schools as well as a supportive school climate to do the best job they can in the classroom."

Myrna Rivera Cote, EdD

Superintendent

Culver City Unified School District