About a quarter of middle school students (23 percent) and nearly a fifth of Morgan Hill high school students (19 percent) said they’ve experienced some type of physical abuse by a family member or house guest, according to the latest YMCA Project Cornerstone Developmental Assets survey.
The vast majority (about three quarters) of the same group of Morgan Hill Unified School District students surveyed also responded that they have strong family support and positive peer influences in their lives, according to the results discussed at the Sept. 19 school board meeting.
Seventh, ninth and 11th graders gave some conflicting answers to 160 questions posed in the hour-long survey about their experiences at home, in school and with the community. Participation in the survey, given countywide every six years, was voluntary and kept anonymous. The latest results are from fall 2016.
“The data is very valuable for school use,” said Linda Row, the Director of Student Services and Enrollment who reviewed the survey results with board members. “It’s valid data. It’s meaningful and relevant in what we do (in identifying at-risk youth).”
Morgan Hill Unified Superintendent Steve Betando, however, had a different take. He told school board trustees that he had “concerns about this particular survey” and the validity of its results.
“There’s really critical concerns related to the structure of questions and real flaws found in this particular survey,” said Betando, adding the survey was also given to elementary school kids. “It is highly likely that we’ll fall back on other surveys that we do (to gauge student experiences).”
Trustee Mary Patterson commented that the survey results are not unique among those of neighboring school districts. She reviewed the Project Cornerstone survey for all of Santa Clara County and told her fellow trustees that Morgan Hill’s responses were “on par with the entire county.” In fall 2016, Project Cornerstone administered a survey to over 43,000 students in more than 180 schools and 25 districts throughout the county.
“This is not only Morgan Hill,” Patterson said.
With each board member having their own take on the results, Row explained, “The best way to address questions is to build systems of support for students.”
Other survey results from Morgan Hill students included:
• 21 percent of middle schoolers and 17 percent of high school-aged students were a victim of physical violence where someone caused them pain or injury in the last two years;
• 22 percent of middle schoolers and 25 percent of high schoolers have experienced depression and contemplated suicide;
• Zero percent of middle schoolers and 1 percent of high schoolers used tobacco and drugs;
• 6 percent middle school/7 percent high school have been in trouble with police; and
• 15 percent of high schoolers felt valued by the community.
Student answers prompt discussion
The survey, which is given every six years in communities throughout the county, had two categories covering the 40 external and internal development assets (20 each) used by Project Cornerstone and adopted by the City of Morgan Hill and the school district as well as two dozen school districts within the county.
External assets are the students’ perceptions/feeling about school, community, organizations and church. Internal assets are students’ personal choices and beliefs. The survey also measures risk behaviors and “thriving indicators,” and correlates them with the presence or absence of developmental assets.
“I think the value of this data is conversation and the things we do after,” board Vice President Tom Arnett said. “Now that we have data like this, what actions are we going to take?”
Row explained the survey had a variety of answer choices ranging from “not important to extremely important” or “very often to never” or “strongly agree or disagree.” She said that 15-20 percent of the surveys were invalidated for various reasons and not included in the final results.
“We try to look for patterns and trends and not get caught up in a single-digit focus,” Row said. “They yielded some real compelling answers.”
The question posed that yielded the physical abuse statistic was: “Have you ever been physically harmed (that is, where someone caused you to have a scar, black & blue marks, welts, bleeding, or a broken bone) by someone in your family or someone living with you?”
The survey results can be viewed on the Sept. 19 agenda posted on the district website, mhusd.org.
