Cultivate

Promoting Positive Learning Environments that Improve Academic Performance

While we have always known that the same student can get different grades in different classes—an A in math versus a C in history—research shows that these differences in performance across classrooms cannot simply be attributed to student aptitudes and interests.

The Cultivate System draws on research showing that the Learning Conditions educators create in their classrooms have profound implications for students' development. 
 

These Learning Conditions shape students' daily experiences and have the power to alter what they believe about themselves as learners, beliefs which are then reflected in their academic outcomes and well-being. 

Data collected from thousands of students consistently show students with strong Learning Beliefs earn more As and fewer Fs than those with weaker Learning Beliefs – and that students’ Learning Beliefs fluctuate from class to class in relation to classroom learning environments.

Based on this research, UChicago Impact partnered with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium) Learning & Development Group, in consultation with educators, to develop the Cultivate System to help educators students' perspectives, respond to their experiences, build relationships, and partner with students for improvement. 

Research shows that in educational spaces, Learning Conditions—structures, norms, and practices—shape students' beliefs and have significant impacts on their learning and well-being. The Cultivate System—survey, framework, tools, and resources—can support educators as they work to understand and improve daily experiences of students in their classrooms.
 

Cultivate was designed to provide a safe space for teachers to get feedback from their students on how their instructional efforts are being received. Importantly, Cultivate is not a tool for accountability, nor is it designed to be used to evaluate teachers. Its primary purpose is to cultivate a partnership between educators and students. 

The Cultivate Survey is administered to 5th-12th grade students twice a year—in the fall and spring. Students are prompted to reflect on their Learning Beliefs, as well as their classroom learning environments across nine Learning Conditions. The nine Learning Conditions are:

• Affirming Identities: Recognition and affirmation of student identities
• Classroom Community: Sense of community and mutual support among classmates
• Feedback for Growth: Nature and quality of teacher feedback to improve student work
• Learning Goals: Accessibility and connectedness of instructional goals
• Meaningful Work: Interest and relevance of classroom learning for students
• Student Voice: Opportunities for and responsiveness to student ideas and input
• Supportive Teaching:  Breadth and quality of teacher’s instructional support for learning
• Teacher Caring: Strength and quality of teacher’s one-on-one relationships with students
• Well-Organized Classroom: Clarity and helpfulness of classroom systems and routines

After each survey administration, educators receive a report with student feedback on the nine Learning Conditions in their assigned classroom. The reports help educators to dig into their distribution of students' responses to the survey items and disaggregate overall measures scores by both classroom characteristics and student demographics. 
 
The report also shows how Learning Conditions are connected to students' reports of their Learning Beliefs, which educators are able to explore in the Learning Belief appendix. The five Learning Beliefs included in the Cultivate report are:

• I am valued
• I can grow
• I find class purposeful
• I am empowered
• I am capable

The report culminates with a collection of resources for each Learning Condition that educators can use to collaborate with colleagues and partner with their students to improve classrooms. 
 

Cultivate for Schools vs. Cultivate for Coaches 

The Cultivate Survey can be administered in one of two ways: 

1. Cultivate for Schools: Cultivate is administered to all of a schools’ 5th-12th grade classrooms. This approach can support the development of positive learning environments across grade bands. Students in each of those grades are randomly assigned to report on their English, math, science, or social studies class.  When survey results are delivered, grade level or subject area teacher teams can work together to create plans for improving learning conditions specific to their grade or subject taught, or the school can identify and work on one common area of focus across all grade levels and subjects. 
2. Cultivate for Coaches: Cultivate is administered within the context of a coaching support program.  Teachers who are receiving one-on-one coaching support administer Cultivate to all of their students.  When they receive their results, which are specific to them and their classroom(s), they can work with their coach to create a plan for improving their practices. 

Educators can use Cultivate Survey Results to:

Set priorities and guide efforts to create learning environments that support all students

Educators are working to improve their classrooms in many ways—like implementing new organizational systems or strengthening the sense of community among students. Educators can explore the set of actionable items that comprise each Learning Condition on Cultivate for information about how their students are feeling. In this way, Cultivate provides educator with another data point they can use to guide their continuous improvement efforts—a data point from students, the people best positioned to weigh in on how classroom improvement efforts are going. 

Consider the different experiences students are having in their classrooms 

Educators can disaggregate their Cultivate results by student demographics and see how students' experiences have changed over time. They can also disaggregate by classroom characteristics. Cultivate for Schools can be disaggregate by grade level, subject area, or a combination of both (pictured). Educators who administer the Cultivate for Coaches survey as part of a coaching support program can disaggregate the results by class period. They can then use this information to better understand how learning environments differ across different classrooms.

Understand how students' perceptions of their learning environments affect their Learning Beliefs

On the Cultivate Reporting Site, educators can see how students' perceptions of various Learning Conditions, such as the learning goals teacher stablish, classwork they assign, and level of support they provide, affect students' Learning Beliefs.

Take action!

Ultimately, the goal of Cultivate is for educators to use their report as a starting point to engage in conversation with colleagues and—crucially—with students. To this end, the reports feature a suite of support tools for each Learning Condition—including detailed guides with research and recommendations, protocols for participatory data analysis, and observation checklists.