ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCS)

Measuring school climate is critical for improving school climate because high quality school climate data allow you to understand the perceptions of the students, staff, and parents in your school or district; monitor progress; make data-driven decisions; involve stakeholders; and adapt to shifting needs related to school climate.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is dedicated to helping keep students safe and improving their learning environments. In particular, ED developed the new, high-quality, adaptable ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) and associated web-based platform. The EDSCLS allows states, local districts, and schools to collect and act on reliable, nationally-validated school climate data in real-time.

• The EDSCLS web-based administration platform, including a suite of school climate surveys for middle and high school students, instructional staff, non-instructional staff, and parents/guardians, can now be downloaded free of charge.
• The platform processes data and provides user-friendly reports in real-time.
• Education agencies administering the survey can store the data locally on their own data systems. The U.S. Department of Education will not have access to the data.
• In 2017, ED will survey a nationally-representative sample of schools to create school climate benchmark scores. These benchmark scores will be added to the platform's reporting functionality to enable comparisons between local and national scores.