School Bonding - P.E.A.R. Share

Students at Gates Middle School and Scituate High School recently took the PEAR Holistic Student Assessment(HSA) survey. The HSA provides a self-report measure of a young person’s social-emotional strengths and challenges. As a district, we monitor and reflect upon the aggregated social-emotional data of our students. A foundational focus for Scituate Public Schools in recent years is to ensure a school climate where students are connected to their school and have a sense of belonging. To support this focus, a core HSA scale the district monitors and reflects upon is School Bonding.

PEAR defines School Bonding as a student’s “positive personal connection and the sense of belonging in one’s school.” While engaging with the HSA, students respond to prompts on a Likert Scale of ‘Not at All - Sometimes - Often - Almost Always.’ A few examples of HSA School Bonding prompts include ”I care about my school community” and “I feel like people understand me at my school.”

A student with School Bonding at or above the norm (i.e., ‘Strength’ or ‘Typical/In The Norm’) often feels connected with their school community, has good relationships with school faculty, believes that the school is a safe space to learn, and feels proud to be a part of their school. The chart below shows encouraging aggregated School Bonding data from our Fall 2024 HSA check-in with Gates and SHS students.

    Scituate Public Schools has partnered with the PEAR Institute: Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) for the past six years to promote the positive social-emotional development of our students. PEAR conducts research to improve the ways schools promote social-emotional development.