Sogolytics today released two 2025-2026 State of K-12 benchmarks, The State of Employee Engagement in K-12 Districts, drawn from up to 18,307 employees, and The State of School Climate in K-12 Districts, drawn from up to 552 schools and more than 90,000 parent, staff, and student responses. Read together, principals outscore district leaders by 27 points on the identical leadership question, and campus-based staff outscore secondary students by 29 points on whether a student has a trusted adult at school. The people closest to the daily work describe one reality, and the people farther from it describe another.
The employee report puts it plainly: "The issue is less about overall leadership effectiveness and more about alignment between district and campus-level leaders." The climate report frames the companion question, "Where is the gap between the school we intend to provide and the one students experience?"
Key Findings
- 77% of K-12 employees say their principal or direct supervisor makes good decisions. Only 50% say the same about district leaders. A 27-point gap on the identical item.
- 97% of campus-based staff say students have an adult at school to turn to for a personal problem. Only 68% of students agree. A 29-point gap on the item most tied to student well-being.
- 91% of staff say staff respond appropriately when students report bullying, compared with 66% of students and 64% of parents. 27% of parents chose "Don't Know."
- Feeling appreciated is the strongest single driver of employee engagement in the study (.69 correlation). Only 65% of employees report feeling appreciated.
- Parent School NPS is 38 and Staff School NPS is 45, both in Promoter territory, even as students and adults describe two different schools.
< Read the full 2025-26 Employee Engagement Report here >
Employees Trust the Leaders Closest to Them, Not the Ones at the Top
95% of K-12 employees report being engaged in their work. On identical items, however, principals and supervisors beat district leaders by 27 points on making good decisions (77% vs 50%), 19 points on follow-through (77% vs 58%), 17 points on valuing employee feedback (70% vs 53%), and 11 points on recognizing quality work (73% vs 62%). The four lowest-rated, highest-correlation items in the entire survey all sit inside district-level leadership, making it the single largest available lever for engagement.
Staff See One School, Students See Another
On nearly every climate dimension, staff rate schools higher than parents, who rate them higher than students. The gap widens on the items that matter most, a trusted adult for personal support (97% staff, 68% students, a 29-point gap) and whether lessons connect to life outside school (85% of staff believe they are making that connection, 56% of students agree). Confidence in leadership follows the same pattern; 90% of staff say school leaders make decisions in the best interests of all students, compared with 65% of students, and another 16% of students selected "Don't Know."
< Read the full 2025-26 School Climate Report here >
Where the Two Gaps Meet
In the employee study, 73% of employees feel recognized by their principal, but only 62% feel recognized by district leaders. Because district-level appreciation correlates with engagement at .62, that 11-point gap is a live engagement risk. In the climate study, 91% of staff say staff respond appropriately when students report bullying, but only 66% of students and 64% of parents agree. In both studies, the people running the program see it working; the people it is meant to serve see something less certain.
What Districts Can Do
The school climate and employee engagement reports draw a similar conclusion, closing the feedback loop. The employee report recommends explaining the reasoning behind district decisions, creating visible ways for employees to give input, and reporting back where employee feedback changed an outcome.
The climate report recommends administering student-facing items annually rather than averaging across groups, reporting back to families on how their input shaped decisions, and building advisory structures that assign a trusted adult to every student rather than assuming access. In both cases, what already works at the site level should be protected. What lags at the top is where the return on attention is highest.
About the Studies
The State of Employee Engagement in K-12 Districts, 2025-2026 report is based on responses from up to 18,307 K-12 employees across participating districts in the 2025-2026 school year. The State of School Climate in K-12 Districts, 2025-2026 report is based on responses from up to 552 K-12 schools, including 28,635 parents and guardians, 7,945 campus-based staff, and 53,940 secondary students. Both studies use census sampling, in which every eligible respondent within a participating district was invited to respond. Sample sizes vary by item.
Both are independent Sogolytics studies. Neither was commissioned, funded, or reviewed by any individual school district, state education agency, advocacy organization, or third party. The findings represent Sogolytics' analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. They are not intended as policy advice or as an endorsement of any specific school, district, or instructional program.
Sogolytics is an enterprise experience management platform that helps organizations listen to, understand, and act on employee and customer feedback. Trusted by leading organizations across industries, including K-12 districts and higher education institutions, Sogolytics combines Employee Experience (EX), Customer Experience (CX), and research capabilities in a single platform. Learn more at sogolytics.com.
