As you have learned from our previous posts on the topic, OSSE successfully administered the District-wide DC Survey About Your School (DC SAYS) for the first time in spring 2025 – we are excited to share that the topic-level data files (which will be used to populate the DC School Report Card) are now publicly available on our website. While we are just beginning the process of analyses of these data with things like attendance, discipline and statewide assessment performance (stay tuned), we wanted to share some of the big picture takeaways.

Student Surveys

OSSE heard from 76 percent of survey-eligible students, or 48,745 in total. As a reminder, OSSE offered 10 topics on the student surveys, which we selected with our Advisory Cohort of LEAs during the 2024 pilot year of the surveys. Each topic has four to seven related questions on a five-point Likert scale. We are reporting the percent of “Favorable” responses at the topic level. Two of the topics were optional in the 2024-25 school year, but since almost every LEA used them, we plan to remove the optional designation for the surveys in the 2025-26 school year. Two of the topics only had one question that OSSE made custom for our surveys: “Importance of Attendance” and “Safety While Traveling.”

As you can see in the tables below, the Supportive Relationships, Importance of Attendance, and Rigorous Expectations topics were the most favorable topics for DC students, with a general trend down in the middle and high school years. The topics of Self-Efficacy, which asks questions about the difficulty and applicability of schoolwork, and School Safety, which asks questions ranging from ease of finding adult support to address bullying to levels of disrespect in the school, are the topics that are targets for improvement.

Students (Grades 3-5)

Students (Grades 6-12)

Staff Surveys

OSSE heard from 55 percent of staff members teaching grades from pre-K through 12th grade, or 10,036 in total. OSSE set a threshold of 50 percent participation for public reporting at the state, local education agency (LEA) and school levels to capture a representative sample. OSSE understands that staff members take a lot of surveys and it will take some time to build trust that their time is worth the effort with the DC SAYS surveys. OSSE is excited to continue to analyze these data and use them in workforce reporting going forward.

OSSE heard from 55% of staff members teaching grades from PK through 12th grade, or 10,036 in total. OSSE set a threshold of 50% participation for public reporting at the state, LEA and school levels to reduce non-response bias. OSSE understands that staff members take a lot of surveys; it will take some time to build trust that their time is worth the effort with the DC SAYS surveys.

Family Surveys

While OSSE had 14,500 responses, it did not meet our participation threshold of 20 percent or above for public reporting at the state level (the thresholds for students and staff are set at 50 percent participation). The denominator for that calculation is the enrolled student population, which is around 100,000 students. During our Advisory Cohort, we heard concerns that for smaller schools, a few survey responses could present an inaccurate consensus. However, quite a few LEAs and schools were above the threshold, as you can see in the data file. Additionally, all LEAs and schools are able to see all of their data in the DC SAYS platform.

Next Steps

OSSE is excited to share these data with the public on the DC School Report Card in December 2025.In addition, over 20 LEAs have opted in to optional fall 2025 surveys so they can track progress in students throughout the school year. OSSE hopes you will help to spread the word to boost family participation when the survey window opens again in the spring 2026. In the meantime, OSSE will continue to analyze these DC SAYS data, listen to feedback, and make improvements to DC SAYS to ensure its long-term success and usefulness for our students, families and schools.

Learn More

The data files are live on our website. You can download them here. If you want to learn more about DC SAYS, we recommend this blog post and this one, too.