Amp Up APS! Districtwide Equity Survey Results Are In With 63% of APS Students Reporting a Sense of Belonging in Their Schools

This article was written by Carolyn Rondina, Equity Data Strategist with the APS Office of Equity + Social Justice

This past November, more than 17,000 Atlanta Public Schools (APS) students and over 3,500 teachers and school staff participated in the 2024 Amp Up APS! Districtwide Equity Survey. Student response rates ranged from 37% in the Washington Cluster, to 95% in Midtown Cluster, with an overall response rate of 73%.

The Amp Up APS! Districtwide Equity Survey – powered by Panorama Education – provides an opportunity for students and staff to provide feedback to their school and district leaders on their learning experience. For students, this means voicing how supported they feel academically, emotionally, socially, and culturally with questions that include Sense of Belonging, Cultural Awareness & Action, and Diversity & Inclusion in their schools and classrooms.

While taking the survey, students also answered questions about their Profile of a Graduate characteristics, including engagement in class, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills. For teachers and staff, survey questions focused on how supported they feel to be able to educate and support all students regardless of background or unique learning needs. This includes their perceptions on the availability of support resources and the quality of professional learning opportunities.

Here are a few key results from the survey:

• 63% of students reported a positive sense of belonging in school.
• 54% of students reflected positively on their own skills and abilities to graduate ready for college, career, and life.
• 64% of students believe their schools to be diverse and inclusive spaces.
• 57% of students reported opportunities to interact with and deepen their understanding of other races, ethnicities, and cultures at school.
• 76% of teachers reflected positively on their ability to fully support all students, up three percentage points from last year, putting APS around the 50th percentile of all districts nationally in this survey category.

Overall, student responses reflected no change within Profile of a Graduate, Sense of Belonging, and Cultural Awareness topics, and a slight one percentage point increase in favorable responses to Diversity and Inclusion questions since 2024. For teachers and staff, there were positive increases across all four topic categories, including Educating All Students, Cultural Awareness and Action (Student Focus), Cultural Awareness and Action (Staff Focus), and Professional Learning About Equity.

Kassia Walker, school business manager at Peyton Forest Elementary School, said her students engaged deeply with the Amp Up! survey, sharing valuable insights about their experiences and school environment.

“This process not only gave our students a voice, but also helped us better understand their needs, strengths, and areas for growth,” said Walker, whose school was among four APS school sites with 100% survey participation. “We appreciate their participation and look forward to using these results to enhance our school community.” 

There are some differences in survey outcomes by cluster, however, as represented in the table below. A green highlight indicates that the cluster scored above the district average in the survey topic, while red indicates below average. The district witnessed the most variation within the Diversity & Inclusion category, with the Therrell cluster reporting 45% favorable and the Midtown cluster reporting 78% favorable responses. 

Students in the Therrell Cluster rate their schools the lowest in terms of diversity and inclusion, while Midtown students tend to view their schools as diverse and inclusive spaces. Profile of a Graduate responses remained fairly consistent across clusters, with the exception of the Washington Cluster, where students rated their own Profile of a Graduate skills and abilities seven percentage points higher than the district overall.

Table 1: Amp Up APS! Districtwide Equity Student Survey Results

Percentage of Favorable Responses by Cluster

Across student subgroups, outcomes varied as well. Table 2 outlines how a few of our unique student groups responded to survey questions compared with the district overall. One key takeaway is that Gifted students reported 14 percentage points more positively than the student population as a whole on the diversity and inclusivity of their schools and classrooms, while Cultural Awareness and Action did not vary much between subgroups. Gifted students also scored highly on Sense of Belonging compared with other groups, while Students with Exceptionalities and English Language Learners each scored four percentage points lower than the district overall. Our English Language Learners and our Hispanic/Latino/a students rated themselves the lowest of all groups on Profile of a Graduate competencies. 

Table 2: Amp Up APS! Student Survey Results

Percentage of Favorable Responses by Subgroup

We know that the percentage of favorable responses in these topics can also vary by grade level, with elementary students more likely to report a greater Sense of Belonging, for example. See Table 3 for results broken down by primary and secondary grade bands.

Table 3: Amp Up APS! Student Survey Results

Percentage of Favorable Responses by Grade Band

Survey results were shared with the Community Equity Advisory Committee at their February 2025 meeting. The Office of Equity + Social Justice (E+SJ) will continue to meet with senior district leadership and other district offices in the coming weeks, including the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) team, to examine survey results and collaborate on next steps. E+SJ will also offer direct support to schools to help school leaders understand their survey results and develop an action plan to address growth opportunities in the data. 

The Office of Equity + Social Justice will also utilize Panorama Education’s professional development experts and schedule professional learning opportunities for school leaders.

In addition to informing school action plans, the data gathered will support the development of E+SJ culturally and linguistically responsive programming, guide analyses of SEL curriculum implementation, and track progress toward the APS Equity Commitments. 

For more details about the Amp Up APS! Districtwide Equity Survey, and to see specific survey questions within each category, review the results here.