By Meagan Barrett ‘15

It’s become the new routine: each year, students are sat down in front of computers and anonymously asked some 20 questions about how they feel about their school, their life and their future. Gallup Education Practice, an organization whose purpose is to assist schools in finding ways to drive student success, has planned to distribute the Gallup Student Poll to students in grades 5 through 12 for 10 years to gauge an overall sense of Hope, Engagement and Wellbeing in students in school districts.

Gallup claims that each area tested correlates directly with an area of student success. The amount of Hope, designated as the ideas and energy students express for their future, affects student attendance, earned credits and GPA, and has been found to be a better predictor of college success than standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. The amount of Engagement, defined as the involvement and enthusiasm a student feels for school, draws a clear line between “high-performing” and “low-performing” schools. Lastly, Wellbeing, or how students perceive the quality of their lives, indicates how students are doing in school at the moment, and predicts how they will do academically in the future.

When 1,050 Sherwood students, about half of the population, were first tested last May, the results were similar to other high schools in MCPS and across the nation – about 4.36 out of 5. In response to the statements “I can think of many ways to get good grades,” “I energetically pursue my goals” and “I can find lots of ways around any problem,” more than 50 percent of the population agreed to some degree. In correspondence with Wellbeing, questions such as “Were you treated with respect all day yesterday?” and “Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?” recieved a majority responding with a “yes.” However, in response to the statement, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good schoolwork,” 52 percent did not agree.