Whole-School
Learning Needs Scale
Students
To develop the student surveys, Fig first conducted focus groups with 34 students, aged 11 to 18, between December 2022 and May 2025. The semi-structured protocol asked students what helped them “feel good” in school. The diverse group of students (16 Black or African American, 12 white, 5 Latine, and 1 Native American) attended a range of schools in Washington State and Virginia: an alternative high school; two low-performing, public middle schools; a Christian middle school; and two college preparatory independent high schools.
Across our sample, students said they wanted a school environment that sets high expectations and prepares them for the next stage of life, promotes a feeling of connection among students and adults, helps them feel successful, and gives them voice and choice. Their responses align with two academic motivation theories: Self-Determination Theory and Expectancy-Value Theory.
The finalized survey measures student well-being (operationalized as life satisfaction) and student perception that the learning environment supports belonging, student-adult relatedness, competency, autonomy, and purposeful learning.​
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We used validated items from existing scales to create a novel survey. While our assessment of the scale is on-going, initial tests suggest good consistency, fit statistics, and concurrent validity with subjective well-being.
A March 2024 pilot test with 95 students in grades 5-8 showed good internal consistency for the final, 9-item scale (α= .77 and ω= .84) and for each of the three-item sub-scales: Competency (α= .63 and ω= .63), Relatedness (α= .69 and ω=.70), and Autonomy (α= .77 and ω= .78). Fit statistics for the overall model were acceptable: CFI = 0.870, TLI = 0.805, RMSEA = 0.106, and SRMR = 0.076. The full scale had a statistically significant relationship with life satisfaction (R2 = 0.28, F(6, 85) = 6.90, p < 0.001), after controlling for student grade level and length of enrollment in the school.​
We are in the midst of testing a revised scale for grades 9-12. Fig can modify our survey for use with students in grades 3-4.