Tripod Student Engagement Survey

Want to better understand your students experience in your classroom? Ask them! Give your students our version of the research-backed Tripod survey. Join thousands of teachers around the country (and many BTR grads) who have used this tool to help improve their practice. NOTE: this is meant for individual classroom teacher use (formative data!) NOT for whole-school or district use. If you're interested in a system-wide approach, see the full survey at tripoded.com.

Students’ perspectives provide valuable insights on your teaching. Teachers often think they know how students experience their classroom (“Of course students know I care about them!”), and sometimes these hunches are right on. Often, however, teachers misinterpret (or just miss) the many cues students provide to let teachers know how they’re feeling.

That’s where the Tripod study comes in. Harvard University researchers have spent years formulating a survey designed to capture students’ perception of the “Seven C’s.” These are areas of teaching that have been shown to impact students’ agency and engagement. And, studies show that when students are engaged, they are more likely to learn.

Some schools and districts have contracts with Tripod Education Partners to use the survey systematically. BTR has worked with Tripod to make the survey accessible to individual teachers for informal use--get the feedback you want from your kids, when you need it. We have an elementary (grades 3-5) and a secondary version of the survey, available in both English and Spanish.

You can read more about the Student Engagement Survey inspired by the Tripod survey here:

• For a short EdWeek article, “Study Measures Which Teaching Traits Boost Student Agency, Mindsets” click here.
• For a slightly-longer article about BTR’s use of Tripod surveys, click here.
• For a longer, very informative research brief about the Tripod survey, click here.
• For a short video and lots of other information, go to Tripod’s website.

Suggestions for use:

• This helps you put your students’ feedback in perspective (yes, many teachers score lower on classroom management/control). The BTR data team can make a dashboard for you if you send us links to your response sheet/s. Contact your BTR coach (or induction.btr@gmail.com) for help with this. It is really easy to do.
  • Describe and interpret data: Because these are google forms, you can see the data right away. We suggest reviewing your data with colleagues or a BTR Induction Coach. Use the Atlas Looking at Data Protocol.
  • Share data with students: This could sound like: Wow, I learned so much from those surveys. One thing I learned is that a majority of students think…. Or, you could share the actual data and have students interpret it alongside you. Teachers have used the Atlas Looking at Data Protocol to help structure students’ conversations about the data.
  • Identify and communicate next steps: The data is only helpful if you use it to inform your teaching. Don’t do this in isolation. Share your data with colleagues, a coach and even your students, and let them help you determine a few actionable next steps. Select 1 or 2 key areas to focus on. The Tripod website Teacher Toolkit suggests several next steps for each of the 7 C’s, so this could be a good place to start. Remember to let students know what you are doing differently as a result of the survey data.
  • Re-assess: Once you have isolated 1 or 2 areas, you can create your own mini-surveys to formatively assess progress in this area. See Student Feedback Surveys for ideas. In a few months, give students the Tripod survey again to track how their responses may have changed.

Thank you to Lynn Tran, Ed Liu, Alex Soto and Tripod.