Survey Says...

What three words would you use to describe St. Andrew’s?

 

This is the question that was posed to the community in January, when the school surveyed parents and caregivers, students in grades 5-12, and faculty and staff. The question was open-ended — no list of words to choose from, just any three words. And the responses were some of the most affirming words a school community could hope for.

 

For context, St. Andrew’s spent the 2024-2025 school year working on a self-study as part of its reaccreditation process for the Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS). As part of the self-study, school climate surveys were conducted of the aforementioned groups — employees, parents and guardians, and fifth- through twelfth-grade students. To conduct the surveys, St. Andrew’s partnered with Challenge Success, an organization associated with Stanford University founded by legendary senior lecturer Denise Pope. Challenge Success has been conducting surveys for hundreds of schools over the past two decades and have an enormous dataset for comparison.

 

So what words did the 223 parents and guardians who completed the survey, representing 50% of the parents in the community, use to describe St. Andrew’s?

 

Supportive. Welcoming. Inclusive. Community. Caring. Challenging, Nurturing, Engaging.

 

In total, 74% of St. Andrew’s parents and guardians used words that can be categorized as welcoming and caring. Compare that with just 15% of the 22,000 parents and guardians who have taken the survey at other schools since 2019 and it becomes clear that St. Andrew’s is living its mission to know and inspire each student in an inclusive community dedicated to exceptional teaching, learning, and service.

 

The Challenge Success surveys did more than just provide St. Andrew’s with insight into the experiences of students, faculty and staff, and parents and guardians, but also a roadmap for how the school can continue to move forward and accomplish even more for its community.

 

One of the most distinguishing claims St. Andrew’s makes as a school is that students and families do not have to make a choice between joy and academic rigor. That when a child comes here, they feel genuinely welcomed, cared for, and happy while also being academically challenged. Because building a culture of well-being, happiness, and support helps students flourish and realize their potential.

 

This emerging picture from the data aligns with the work of Stanford professors Carol Dweck, Greg Walton, and Geoffrey Cohen who end their highly influential, landmark report on “Academic Tenacity: Mindsets and Skills that Promote Long-Term Learning” by saying student outcomes are most improved when a caring and supportive environment is combined with “academic press,” or a focus on learning and high expectations for student achievement.^[1]

In total, 50% of all respondents in the St. Andrew’s community, across constituencies, chose at least one word that aligned with caring and welcoming to describe the school. This compares with 23% in Challenge Success’ average data set of more than 34,000 individuals in similar schools in the 2024-2025 school year. This is all the more impressive when you realize that schools who choose to work with Challenge Success are not typical of all schools, but rather those who explicitly value this combination of academic challenge and supportive environment. Even among this subset of schools, St. Andrew’s stands out.

The robust environment for learning at St. Andrew’s reflects the schools belief that factors such as belonging, homework, stress, engagement, instruction, assessment, and student agency are vital in supporting student success.

One of the insights we hear most often from our alumni is that their teachers at St. Andrew’s were amazing — some of the best they have ever had, including college and graduate programs. When we think about what makes St. Andrew’s special, our thoughts immediately turn to the astonishingly talented and dedicated faculty and administrators and the school climate that is set by how the adults treat each other. The data supports the notion that St. Andrew’s faculty and staff, and the culture they create, are indeed extraordinary.

Faculty and staff at St. Andrew's, including those in their first years at the school, report exceptionally high levels of belonging, connection, and engagement. The overwhelming majority of employees find their work enjoyable, meaningful, and interesting. These values significantly exceed the averages at similar schools. In the accompanying chart, you can see that the percentage of St. Andrew’s faculty who feel a high level of engagement, who always or often enjoy doing their job, who feel a high level of belonging, and who have a colleague they can talk to if they have a personal or professional problem is substantially higher than at peer schools.

This is all the more impressive if we remember, again, that the schools in the average data set are not representative of all schools, but rather those that value a supportive environment as well as an academically challenging one.

“As a parent, what makes St. Andrew’s so special to me is how genuinely caring and connected the community is,” said Loryn Blum P’27, President of the St. Andrew’s Parents Association (SAPA). “From the very beginning, our family felt welcomed — not just by the teachers and staff, but by other families too. The teachers really know my children — their strengths, quirks, and what motivates them — and they care deeply about helping them grow both academically and as kind, confident people. There’s a warmth here that’s hard to describe until you experience it. You feel it in the way people greet each other in the halls, how teachers go the extra mile, and how students look out for one another. It truly feels like a community that values every child and every family.”

All across the country, schools’ ability to attract and retain a highly skilled faculty committed to excellence and continued growth is increasingly a major challenge — top of the current list of concerns that keep Heads of School up at night. The exceedingly positive adult culture, therefore, is a tremendous asset, and may be part of the reason why St. Andrew’s maintains an impressive 95% employee retention rate.

St. Andrew’s is a healthy school with moderate stress and homework levels, where the majority of students are engaged, feel connected, have a sense of belonging, and have a high degree of agency. This is another way in which St. Andrew’s is really noteworthy - it does not have any of the typical concerns that many schools have.

 

For example, compared with other schools, 21% more students at St. Andrew’s think the amount of homework is just right and 10% more students find at least three-quarters of their homework useful. Perhaps most critically, only 8% of St. Andrew’s students report doing more than three hours of homework a night, compared with 23% of students at similar schools. This is particularly meaningful as Challenge Success’ data from half a million students suggests that three hours of homework a night might be a tipping point beyond which there appears to be a higher prevalence of mental and physical issues.

 

Research suggests that one to two hours of homework in total a night is optimal — toward the one hour side at the start of Middle School to two hours by grades 11 and 12. Our reported average of 2.2 hours a night in the Upper School is, therefore, quite reasonable, as is the total weekly homework load of 13.7 hours, which is 2.9 hours less than similar schools.

“When homework is meaningful and connected to what I learn in class, I feel supported and confident in what I’m learning,” said Marin Strisik ‘26, a Finn Student Fellow with The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. “If it is difficult to see the purpose, it makes me more likely to want to get it done rather than take time to learn the material.”

 

 

In grades 5 to 8, the average of 2.0 hours a night is on the high side and 11% higher than the average of similar schools. In addition, students’ perception of the value of their homework assignments in grades 5-12 is pretty good but could be stronger.

 

Other areas of note where St. Andrew’s students report higher than average levels:

 

The absence of areas that need urgent attention puts the school in the enviable position of being able to choose areas to strengthen.

 

Student engagement at St. Andrew’s is higher than other schools surveyed but is an area where gains can be made — ones that can potentially strengthen other areas as well.

 

Students were surveyed around three types of engagement — behavioral, cognitive, and affective. Behavioral engagement looked at activities such as completing assignments, effort put into schoolwork, paying attention in class, and trying hard. Cognitive engagement measured whether schoolwork was meaningful, the value of class time, does schoolwork deepen understanding and improve skills, and the belief whether or not schoolwork is useful in preparing for the future. Finally, affective engagement asked whether schoolwork was interesting, if students enjoyed it, and how fun classes are.

 

When combining those three areas, it showed that 43% of St. Andrew’s Upper School students were fully or purposely engaged, 8% higher than peer schools, while 44% were “doing school,” 15% less than other schools in the data set. Results showed a slightly more engaged group of students in the Middle School with 50% fully or purposely engaged and 39% “doing school.”

 

These “doing school” students by and large are behaviorally engaged, but don’t regularly see the purpose in what they are doing or find it interesting or fun. So while St. Andrew’s is doing better than most other schools surveyed by Challenge Success, this is an area where growth can take place. And since factors like engagement, belonging, stress, and agency seem to track together, some pedagogical and curricular tweaks designed to boost engagement may also lead to improvements in a range of other areas such as increasing belonging, raising students’ level of agency, and lowering stress.

 

“I feel like an engaging class has a lot to do with your teacher and their teaching style,” said Student Government Association President Adam Grumet ‘26. “I find that classes that are entirely a lecture or without a varying teaching style can be boring and not engaging. Additionally, it really matters the attitude of your fellow classmates. In classes where people seem tired or uninterested, it takes away the energy and fun.”

 

Strisik echoed those points. “I don’t feel engaged when classes lack conversation or interaction, and it feels more like checking boxes to get information across before a test than actually learning the material,” she said. “When I feel engaged in a class, I have more choice in what I do. In humanities, this might mean tailoring a project to my interests, and in STEM, it could be as simple as choosing which problems to work on for homework out of a larger packet.”

 

The Challenge Success surveys showed that across constituencies, St. Andrew’s is at or above average in nearly every critical metric for a school’s long-term health and well-being. But it wouldn’t be St. Andrew’s without a growth mindset. The idea of what we can do to get better permeates the ethos and the surveys help provide a roadmap when it comes to teaching and learning.

 

In the summary of St. Andrew’s AIMS Self-Study, examining and evolving the preschool through twelfth grade curriculum to promote student engagement, learning, and leadership is one of five goals between now and the next reaccreditation in 2035-2036. The first step in achieving that is focusing on ways to elevate student engagement during professional development throughout this year and next year. To test the efficacy of those efforts, the school expects to survey students again in the 2027-2028 school year.

 

In the here and now, the Challenge Success surveys were validation of the intentional work by St. Andrew’s teachers and administrators, from the school’s founding through today, to create a community of belonging where students can thrive academically in a joyful environment. It proves that when Head of School Robert Kosasky stands in front of prospective families at every open house and declares that you don’t have to choose between joy and rigor, that you can have both, he is indeed capturing the heart and soul of St. Andrew’s.

 

 

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Parents and guardians were asked the three most important qualities when looking for a college or university for their child. More than 55% indicated a specific academic program first followed by quality of professors, location, and cost/financial aid. College ranking (based on US News & World Report) came in at 28.7% and whether or not it is a member of the Ivy League was at 15.7%. However, when asked the three most important qualities they thought mattered to other members of the school community, an overwhelming 71.2% said ranking in US News & World Report was mattered most and 53% said whether or not it was an Ivy League school.