K-12 Schools Are Leveraging Qualtrics To Put Students At The Center Of Their Back-To-School Plans

PROVO, Utah and SEATTLE, Sept. 15, 2021 — Qualtrics (Nasdaq: XM), the leader and creator of the Experience Management (XM) category, today announced that the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach, Gwinnett County Public Schools and the Hemet Unified School District are using Qualtrics to put parent, teacher and student experiences at the center of their back-to-school plans. With Qualtrics, educators can create a better learning environment for students that prioritizes safety, well-being and mental health, while building more trust between schools and families.

Parents are sending their children back to school for a second time during a global pandemic, and as Delta cases surge, 56% of parents say they are more worried about their kids’ health and safety this year than they were last year. Though most parents agree in-person learning is best for their child, many would also support school closures if Delta cases continue to spike.

For educators, designing a safe back-to-school environment requires navigating complex questions about vaccine and mask mandates, mental health concerns and remote learning. To answer those questions, educators need the ability to both listen to and understand the myriad competing voices of parents, teachers and students, then take action in a way that responds to individual concerns.

More than half of the top 50 school districts in the United States and 99 of the top 100 business schools use Qualtrics to understand and improve the education experience. Here’s how three K-12 educational organizations are using Qualtrics to prepare for the upcoming school year:

California’s Hemet Unified School District will leverage Qualtrics to connect with students on a daily basis. Each day, as students begin their schoolwork, they will receive a pop-up question where they can provide feedback to teachers on their physical, social, emotional and academic health needs. School officials can then use that data to identify students who may be facing challenges and create action plans tailored to the individual circumstances facing each child.

In Virginia, feedback from parents is essential to building trust between families and the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach. However, administrators began to receive less feedback from parents because of time-consuming surveys and duplicative outreach efforts run on the district’s legacy system. By turning to Qualtrics, education leaders can streamline feedback requests and organize outreach efforts so parents have an opportunity to provide timely feedback without receiving multiple requests. Doing so will help them design a back-to-school experience that fits their community’s needs and will help increase trust, engagement, teacher retention and student success.

In Georgia, Gwinnett County Public Schools, is one of the largest and most diverse school districts in the United States with over 140 schools and students from 133 countries. To create a more equitable and safe learning environment for all students, the district solicits feedback from parents and community leaders in their preferred language to understand where improvements can be made. With Qualtrics, the school district is able to gain insights into the experience schools are providing, including student well-being, access to school resources and impact of education on post-graduate life. These insights help the district make data-driven decisions as they work to create a safe and engaging experience for students at school.

“Parents are sending their kids back to school during a pandemic, again. Everyone’s goal is to keep people safe and healthy, but there is disagreement on what that looks like,” said Qualtrics Chief Industry Advisor of Education, Karla Fisher. “Educators have to make decisions and set policies that effectively thread that needle — tailoring to individual needs while protecting and serving everyone. Having a way to listen to their communities and understand the parent and student experience is essential to making the best possible choices and building community trust in such challenging times.”

To learn more about Qualtrics’ education solutions, please visit: qualtrics.com/education/.

About Qualtrics

Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the Experience Management (XM) category, is changing the way organizations manage and improve the four core experiences of business — customer, employee, product and brand. Over 13,500 organizations around the world use Qualtrics to listen, understand and take action on experience data (X-data™)—the beliefs, emotions and intentions that tell you why things are happening, and what to do about it. The Qualtrics XM Platform™ is a system of action that helps businesses attract customers who stay longer and buy more, engage employees who build a positive culture, develop breakthrough products people love and build a brand people are passionate about. To learn more, please visit qualtrics.com.