What We Do
KSVT Research
As innovators of youth-led education research, we collect, analyze, and share data about a range of student experiences with policymakers and the public. Our studies include examinations of the effects of racial and ethnic identity on learning; the social, emotional, and academic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what students need to feel safe, engaged, and included in their school communities.
Research Reports
School Climate Audits
School climate is the quality and character of school life. It has to do largely with whether people feel safe, included, and engaged in school and involves a lot of different elements including things like: relationships between students and peers and students and each other, the physical and social feeling of a school, the level of emotional support, and shared values and norms.KSVT’s student-led school climate audits are an examination of what makes a school a community conducted by the primary stakeholders: students themselves.
Our model, co-designed and tested with young people over several years in schools across Kentucky, supports students within a given school to act as researchers to evaluate the extent to which their school is safe, inclusive, and engaging for all learners. As part of this work, KSVT coaches student research teams to design, disseminate, and analyze a school-wide survey; facilitate interviews; produce a readable, graphic report; and lead an interactive share-back event that can inspire young people to consider their unique role in ensuring a positive school climate that works for all students.
