Measuring Student Experience

This policy brief, developed by Gina Ann Garcia through the SERN Midcareer Fellows Program, considers how measurement of institutional success at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) could be reimagined to provide students with liberatory experiences and outcomes.

This professional learning presentation provides a high-level overview of the research on belonging-supportive learning environments; includes examples of what belonging-supportive learning environments look like in practice; and connects participants with existing resources for applying insights from the research. The presentation is customizable and is designed to be relevant for a range of audiences in K-12 education in the United States, including teachers, school and district leaders, teacher educators, and intermediary organization staff. The presentation contains up to three hours of presentation and activity time.

This research snapshot provides an overview of a project led by Sidney D'Mello, funded through the SERN K-12 Teachers and Classrooms Research Portfolio. Using video recordings of 6th to 8th grade mathematics classes from the Measures of Effective Teaching project, the researchers identify a set of prevalent teacher discourse practices likely to affect students’ psychological and academic outcomes, using methods that have the potential to inform fine-grained and lesson-specific feedback to teachers on their instruction.

This research snapshot provides an overview of a project led by Jamaal Matthews and DeLeon Gray, funded through the SERN K-12 Teachers and Classrooms Research Portfolio. The researchers describe the development and validation of their Belonging-Centered Instruction Observation Protocol, which evaluates the multiple ways mathematics teachers can provide opportunities for active inclusion, learning equity, and empowerment through their instruction and in the social climate they create in their classrooms. They discuss the connections between the protocol and student engagement, mathematical agency, and achievement, as well as how teachers enact the various dimensions of the protocol within lessons.

This one-pager draws on research from the Inclusive Mathematics Environments Early Career Fellowship to illustrate how the learning environment can shape student experience in the context of mathematics. It is designed to serve as a starting point for learning about the research that was completed through the fellowship.

This research snapshot provides an overview of a SERN-funded project led by Sidney D'Mello, Angela Duckworth, Margo Gardner, and Donald Kamentz. The project analyzed language used by students in their college applications to explore the connections between extra-curricular/work experiences, psychological factors, and college success (as measured by graduating within four or six years). The snapshot shares key findings, insights, and future directions for the project.

This research snapshot provides an overview of a SERN-funded project led by Camille Farrington and Shanette Porter. The project leveraged a rich dataset that was designed to compare individual students to themselves across two different classroom environments. The research team completed a detailed analysis of classroom learning environments, identifying aspects of teacher practice, teacher mindsets, and classroom composition factors that were related to students’ perceptions of the environment. The snapshot shares key findings, insights, and future directions for the project.

This research snapshot summarizes a project led by Manyu Li as part of the National Study of Learning Mindsets Early Career Fellowship. The study analyzed the emotions that students displayed in writing exercises as part of the growth mindset intervention used in the NSLM, and how these emotions related to the impact of the program on students' GPA.