About
Located in Monterey County, Santa Rita Union Elementary School District serves 3,186 students and a large multilingual learner population.
With just one Parsec Real they collected 829 student submissions from 426 students and analyzed all of the data in just three days. This process that normally took the district more than two weeks.
Key Points
Cut empathy interview time by 80%, saving weeks of staff capacity
Captured more authentic, honest student feedback across multiple languages
Used insights to address safety, belonging, and recess challenges districtwide
Problem
Santa Rita USD needed student voice at scale, but traditional empathy interviews were too slow, too labor-intensive, and too difficult for many students, especially multilingual learners, to participate in honestly.
Solution
The district used Parsec Real to replace time-consuming live interviews with fast, private, multilingual student voice collection that students could complete on their own terms.
Impact
Santa Rita USD cut empathy interview time by over 80% while gaining more honest, candid insights that directly shaped safety, belonging, and recess improvements districtwide.
“And so you know we’re able to close the survey, have the data within 24 hours, and be able to see exactly what kids are saying across multiple schools, and that was huge for us.”
-Dr. Summer Prather-Smith, Director of Engagement and School Climate.
Their Real Experience
Santa Rita sent out a Parsec Real to all students focused on recess, lunch, and passing periods which are key moments when students often experience safety and belonging challenges. In just a few days, 426 students submitted 829 voice reflections, sharing everything from concerns about supervision to how peer interactions made them feel. The volume and candor of the responses gave the district clearer insight than they had ever been able to capture through traditional empathy interviews.
- Students raised specific concerns about recess and lunchtime safety, including places where they didn’t feel supervised.
- Many comments pointed to adult tone and interactions as shaping whether students felt respected and safe.
- Responses showed inconsistent supervision and experiences across sites, with some schools mentioned frequently and others barely at all.
- Students described moments during recess, lunch, and passing periods where they felt uncertain about expectations or how adults would respond.
- Themes around belonging and meaningful adult connections highlighted where relationships were strong and where they were missing.
Santa Rita used these findings to design a districtwide PD day for 250 classified staff, adjust supervision and expectations around recess and passing periods at specific campuses, and refine their restorative practice and belonging work using what students actually said.
