October 1, 2025
This article is adapted from a recent blog post by our partners at Understood.org. Read their full post here.
At EOS, were student survey to reach – and understand – every student in our partner schools.
But we identified a challenge: Students with learning and thinking differences shared that aspects of the survey, like layout and question framing, made it difficult to complete. This meant they were less likely to be truly seen by educators and connected to academic opportunities.
We recruited the help of Understood.org to gather student feedback and redesign our survey to maximize accessibility – enabling us to reach more students than ever.
Our adjustments to the survey included:
- Using simpler language
- Redesigning the layout
- Reducing the mental effort it takes to complete
The results? Students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) found the survey easier to understand and complete. This means EOS can now help schools identify and engage more college-ready talent – and provide more accurate data on each student.
Read more about this project and its crucial impact on EOS’ work in Understood.com’s new article.
Special thanks to Oak Foundation for making this project possible.
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