Sharing Results from our 2025 Student Feedback Surveys
The Puttkammer Center collected its second annual student feedback survey in Spring 2025, receiving responses from nearly 200 students across 38 different programs across the Northeast. This year’s results, along with last year’s data, paints a clear picture of where the PGP excels, and how we impact the students we serve in our 7 regions. Additionally, this survey was administered for the first time in Spanish, part of a larger project of translating all key materials to increase the accessibility of our programming across the facilities and partnerships we have, where English Language Learning support remains a growing need.
Some key highlights include: 89% of students believe they are more confident in achieving the goals they set for themselves as a result of their PGP experience, an increase of 7% from 2024 data. Self-confidence correlates highly to academic achievement, as well as to positive impacts on relationships and mental health outside of an educational context. By helping students believe in their own ability, the PGP is paving the way for students to be successful in all aspects of their life, no matter what they chose to study or where their academic journey takes them. 84% of students reported that they were more interested in continuing their educational journeys because of working with the PGP tutors, indicating that the PGP’s programming is instrumental in creating the interest and motivation to continue to pursue their education at a variety of skill levels.
The PGP provides high quality academic support and fosters a positive and safe learning environment for all participants. 85% of students said their tutors usually or always explained the topics clearly–our students come to tutoring sessions and are able to get the practical help they need to succeed! Students report an increased comfort in being able to make mistakes: 80% of participants reported feeling usually or always comfortable making a mistake in their tutoring sessions. Making mistakes is a vital part of the learning process, and cannot be done without intentionally fostering a classroom space that is safe and sees “mistakes” as an inherent and important part of learning. We are proud that so many students feel safe learning with us!
We asked our survey participants to identify the top four characteristics of an ideal tutor. Those tutors are: patient, non-judgmental, knowledgeable about the subject they are tutoring in, and engaging. These were the four most important traits identified in last year’s survey as well. This suggests that what matters most to our students is a tutor’s ability to foster a caring, safe, and skill-driven learning environment rather than characteristics like similar life experiences or age. The PGP upholds these values as part of both our tutor recruitment and training processes. We saw these traits reflected back in students’ short answer responses. They most often cited the kindness of the tutors, high-quality instruction, affirmation of their humanity as learners, and the individual connections they formed with their tutors as program standouts.
Finally, students are asking for more of PGP’s programming: when asked what would be most helpful to them, respondents chose more sessions, longer sessions, access to tablets and computers, and dedicated space for tutoring. We will work with our program partners to strategize about how to best accommodate these requests so we can continue to ensure our programming remains as responsive as possible.