How engaged are students and teachers in American schools?

Angela Brugioni

ET – New Trends
ET – Learning Styles

Kamenetz, A. (2014). How engaged are students and teachers in American schools? MindShift: How we will learn. Retrieved from: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/how-engaged-are-students-and-teachers-in-american-schools/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FnHAK+%28MindShift%29

The article describes the results of a very large Gallup poll that asked students, teachers, principals and administrators about their levels of hope, emotional engagement, and well being at school. The article evidences studies in which these factors correlate to academic achievement. For example, high “hope” scores are a more accurate predictor of grades in college than SATs or high school GPAs, and being “emotionally engaged” produces higher test scores. The challenge comes with the fact that in order to engage students, teachers must also be connected and involved, or engaged themselves and 70% of them report disengagement. Gallup recommends that principals should “adopt a more collaborative management style and help new teachers acclimate by putting them together to form partnerships with more experienced teachers.” By starting from the top (principal to teacher to student) the amount of overall engagement should rise.


The closing sentiment of the article is that “(s)urveys and polls aren’t perfect, of course. But overall, the message of this research is a powerful indicator that we need to do a better job at looking at the full range of factors that affect school performance.” Recognizing that multiple influences contribute to successful learning experiences is the fundamental message.