Student Perspectives on Classroom Environments
Posted on March 31, 2026

Rapid Response Survey March 2026: Spring Cleaning

One of the joys for some during the spring season is the opportunity to roll up your sleeves and pull out the gloves and supplies to “spring clean” your home. The ritual we call spring cleaning became the topic for our latest student RapidResponse poll, created in partnership with our Educators Rising national student leaders.

The questions we asked our student volunteers included the following topics:

  • Beliefs about the impact of a clean and organized classroom on student learning outcomes,
  • Beliefs about a safe and inclusive classroom environment on student learning outcomes,
  • Beliefs about teachers using their own time and resources for maintaining their classroom environments,
  • The preferences of handmade classroom décor in a classroom,
  • Beliefs about schools providing the resources to create strong learning environments,
  • Student experience in helping to improve learning spaces within their schools,
  • and whether or not service brings joy to our responders.

Our appreciation goes to our student rapid responders for participating this spring on their opinions about (clean) classroom environments. We hope you find their insights of interest.

RR Q1 Results
RR Q2 Results
RR Q3 Results
RR Question 4 Results
RR Question 5 Results
RR Question 6 Results
RR Question 7 Results

The Educators Rising RapidResponders program is designed to share student voice around various topics in education throughout the year and can be used as discussion starters in local Educators Rising chapters. The questions asked of students are created by both PDK staff and our Educators Rising national leaders.

Educators Rising Welcomes Four National Influencers to Amplify Student Voice

Educators Rising, the national career and technical student organization, is committed to amplifying student voice and provides opportunities for students to lead. As a national organization with over 21,000 members from middle school through college, we are...
Influencers Announcement

Every teacher has an origin story. What’s yours? 

Join us with author Danny Bergman to learn what superheroes can teach us about developing the next generation of educators. October 7, 2026 4:00 PM ET Join us for a free webinar with Dr. Daniel J. Bergman — Professor and Program Chair of Science Education at Wichita...
Origin Stories

Partner with Us to Explore AI’s Role in Developing Future Educators

Introduction Educators Rising is a CTSO that offers students with experiences through middle, high school, and collegiate chapters opportunities to explore career exploration in the field of education alongside developing skills that translate into a role to work...
EdRising AI Project

What Adults Miss: Four Student Leaders on Being Heard vs. Having Influence

In this episode of There's Power in Teaching, four Educators Rising national officers join Jeanie Lee to talk about what young people understand about the education system that adults miss. They cover why life skills shouldn't be electives, how CTE gave them a...
Podcast 48 with our National Officers

Teaching Fear to Stand Down

In this episode of There's Power in Teaching, we continue our series on educators who used the PDK Travel Scholarship Program to expand their perspective — and their classrooms. Kasie Payne teaches English half-time and Educators Rising's Teaching as a Profession...
Episode 47 - Power in Teaching Podcast

It Starts with Us: One Teacher’s Case for the Profession

"It starts with us. It starts with me as a teacher. It starts with us as a school. It starts with us as future teachers, to build up our profession." Host John Hendron speaks with Becky Tomaso, a 32-year educator and Educators Rising teacher leader at Baldwin County...
Episode 46 Podcast

Rapid Responders for 2026-2027 School Year

Educators Rising’s Rapid Responder program is an active corps of students willing to opine and respond to a variety of timely topics related to public education. The questions asked are a mix of topics developed by our student leadership team and Educators Rising’s...
Rapid Responders for 2026-2027

Educators Rising Influencers Program

We're proud to announce the launch of an updated program for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year! Students and teacher leaders alike may know about our ambassadors program. This year, we're modifying that program and calling it the Educators Rising Influencers Program....
EdRising Influencers

Where do you fit in? Educators Rising can help you decide.

Students often tell us that they joined their school’s Educators Rising chapter because they were invited. A friend or a classmate may have said, “Hey, this group has a lot of fun.” It could be that a teacher suggested the chapter would be a good fit.  Some...
Where do you fit in?

Becky Rowe on Costa Rica, Courage, and Coming Back Changed

Travel, it's said, can change you. Educator Becky Rowe recently traveled to Costa Rica thanks, in a small part, to a PDK travel scholarship. "Teaching is a universal language of love." — on meeting teachers at the school in La Fortuna  Becky Rowe teaches Teaching...
Podcast Episode 45

Conference Snaps

Media: The images posted below may be used in news stories attached to the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference. Please credit the photo: Photo © with permission from Educators Rising. We want to sincerely thank everyone who made this year's Educators Rising...
Conference Quartet

Connecticut Grants Update

On June 15, 2026 we opened up grant applications for 2026-2028 exclusive to districts and schools within Connecticut to support an Educators Rising program. Through a Connecticut-based private foundation, we are able to offer grants to schools to subsidize the costs...
CT Grants

Young People Are Ready to Lead. Are We Ready for Them?

In just ten days, 3,300 young people will gather in Portland for the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference. They're coming to compete, to connect, and to be inspired. But something larger is also happening: they're showing up to claim their place in the future of...
Young People Ready to Lead

2026 Conference Program Book

We're pleased to announce that our upcoming conference's official Program Book is now available for download (PDF). Inside, you'll find the full conference schedule with all the breakout sessions, in addition to learning about our student officers, our "star"...
Program Book

Meet the Keynote Speakers at #EdRising26

Two Teachers Worth Listening To If you're heading to Portland this June for the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference, you already know the energy in that room is going to be something. But before you get there, it's worth getting to know two of the people who...
Keynoters