Student Engagement

The survey begins with the following message:
You will be shown 33 statements. For each one, select which answer best describes you. There are no right or wrong answers.

Students are then shown 3-5 questions at a time. At the top of each page, students see this message:
Below are 3 [or 4 or 5] statements, select which answer best describes you.

At the bottom of the page under the questions, students see this message:
Once you move to the next question you will not be able to return. Check your answers before clicking "Next."

Students are offered four response options for each item:
almost never, sometimes, often, almost always

The following are words, phrases, and concepts that are included in survey items:

• a fun place
• acting, pretending
• activities
• asking questions
• being at home
• being at school
• being ignored
• being in class
• being interested
• being involved
• being part of school
• being yourself
• books
• caring about others, others caring about you
• checking your work
• classroom
• close connections and relationships
• completing your work
• disliking something
• doing something again
• doing well in school
• extra
• feeling accepted
• feeling bored
• feeling excited
• feeling excluded
• feeling happy
• feeling like you belong
• feeling like you don't belong
• following rules
• friends
• getting in trouble
• how you see yourself
• ignoring someone
• knowing
• learning
• liking something
• making sure
• meaning of a word
• mind wandering
• mistake(s)
• on time
• other people
• outside of school
• participating
• paying attention
• people caring about you
• reading
• school work
• studying
• talking
• teachers
• tests
• trying hard
• understanding
• watching shows or videos
• words
• working hard

The survey begins with the following message:
You will be shown 43 statements. For each one, select which answer best describes you. There are no right or wrong answers.

Students are then shown 3-5 questions at a time. At the top of each page, students see this message:
Below are 3 [or 4 or 5] statements, select which answer best describes you.

At the bottom of the page under the questions, students see this message:
Once you move to the next question you will not be able to return. Check your answers before clicking "Next."

Students are offered five response options for each item:
never, rarely, sometimes, often, always

Following are words, phrases, and concepts that are included in survey items:

• acting, pretending
• associating ideas and information
• being an active participant
• being happy
• being ignored
• being interested
• being involved
• being part of your school
• being proud
• being yourself
• caring about others, others caring about you
• close and sincere relationships
• combining and connecting information
• comparing ideas
• concepts
• course material
• deciding something
• differences
• difficulty
• doing just enough
• doing something often
• doing well
• enjoying learning
• examples
• experiences
• extra-curricular activities
• feeling accepted
• feeling excluded
• feeling like you belong
• feeling like you don't belong
• figuring out something
• finding something boring
• finding something interesting
• getting by
• going over information again
• having trouble
• how you see yourself
• ideas fitting together
• important ideas
• knowledge
• learning
• liking learning
• looking forward to something
• matching information
• mind wandering
• mornings
• participating
• paying attention
• problem
• putting something into your own words
• relating information
• running into a problem
• school activities
• similarities
• solving something
• studying
• taking an active role
• the real world
• thinking through ideas
• to keep working
• topics
• trying hard
• understanding
• useful
• volunteering
• what you already know
• working hard

Q: When will the survey be given to students?
A: The survey administration window will be open February 1-18, 2026. Each district will determine the best time to administer the survey to its students during this window.

Q: How are student rosters determined for the survey?

A:  Schools will work with Pearson to keep student rosters up-to-date for both assessments and the NDSES.

Q: What is the purpose of the North Dakota Student Engagement Survey (NDSES)? 
A: The purpose of the NDSES is twofold. First, results are used to calculate the School Quality Indicator for accountability purposes. Second, the student-level results will be shared with schools in support of continuous improvement efforts.

Q: Which students are included in the survey administration?
A: All students in grades 3-12 who are actively enrolled in a North Dakota school during the survey window should participate in the survey administration.

Q: How will students access the survey?
A: The survey is administered online to students statewide via a platform designed and administered by Pearson.

Q: How long is the survey, and will students be asked demographic questions?
A: There are 33 questions in the survey for Grades 3-6 and 43 questions in the survey for Grades 7-12.  Demographic questions are not asked.

Q: Will a transfer or new student have to take the survey?
A: Each student will only take the NDSES once. Because this is a statewide survey, if a student transfers from another North Dakota school where he or she already has taken the survey during the current administration window, they will not take the survey again. If during the survey administration window, a student transfers from a school outside of the state, or he/she did not previously take this year’s survey while at another school/district within the state, the student should take the survey.

The following four academic publications describe the scales used in the NDSES:

Arslan, G., & Duru, E. (2017). Initial development and validation of the School
Belongingness Scale. Child Indicators Research, 10(4), 1043-1058. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9414-y

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P., Friedel, J., & Paris, A. (2005). School engagement. In K. A. 
Moore & L. H. Lippman (Eds.), What do children need to flourish: Conceptualizing and measuring indicators of positive development (pp. 305–321). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23823-9_19

Hart, S. R., Stewart, K., & Jimerson, S. R. (2011). The Student Engagement in Schools 
Questionnaire (SESQ) and the Teacher Engagement Form-New (TERF-N): Examining the preliminary evidence. Contemporary School Psychology, 15(1), 67–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03340964

Lam, S.-f., Jimerson, S., Wong, B. P. H., Kikas, E., Shin, H., Veiga, F. H., Hatzichristou, C., 
Polychroni, F., Cefai, C., Negovan, V., Stanculescu, E., Yang, H., Liu, Y., Basnett, J., Duck, R., Farrell, P., Nelson, B., & Zollneritsch, J. (2014). Understanding and measuring student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries. School Psychology Quarterly, 29(2), 213-232. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000057

The following academic publication describes the framework for identifying students as committed, compliant, or disengaged at school:

Schlechty, P. C. (2002). Working on the work: An action plan for teachers, principals and 
superintendents (1st ed.). Jossey Bass. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED465719