It’s no secret that there is a direct correlation between student engagement and academic performance, but many teachers are unsure of how to make the connection consistently to get it to stick. After teaching over 1,700 students, first at a nationally ranked academic high school, then at a Title I CTE school, and now training K-12 teachers on student-centered learning, I can tell you with confidence that the connection is visceral. When I conduct workshops now, I start with something I learned the hard way: engagement isn’t something you deliver to students. It’s something you cultivate with them.
First, it is important to understand why the connection between student engagement and academic performance is so important. According to the Journal of School Health, “academic success and engagement in school are closely tied. High academic achievers tend to be engaged in their learning and motivated toward educational attainment.” When I first read that study, I kept thinking about all those students in my early years who had seemed engaged…heads nodding, eyes forward…but whose test scores told a different story.
I realized I had been measuring the wrong things.
What We Get Wrong About Student Engagement
Before I train teachers on best practices for boosting engagement levels, I always ask them to define what engagement actually looks like. Almost invariably, I hear answers about students sitting up straight, making eye contact, and raising their hands. But here’s what I learned from my own mistakes: those are behavioral engagement signals, and they’re only the thinnest slice of the pie. When I first started teaching in 2007, I confused quiet compliance with actual learning. I’d look out at my rows of students, all facing forward, all seemingly attentive, and think, This is working. Then I’d give a quiz and discover that half of them couldn’t explain the concept I’d just spent forty-five minutes explaining.
How do we increase student engagement and academic performance as a result? As most teachers already know, there is no “magic bullet” for this question. However, according to the National Education Association (NEA), “Research indicates that students who feel connected to their school experience greater academic success and are more likely to pursue opportunities.”
I remember a student who perfectly illustrated this. She showed up every day and never caused any trouble, but she also never spoke. When I finally pulled her aside, she told me she felt like she didn’t belong…like everyone else had figured out how to do school and she hadn’t gotten the memo. That conversation changed everything. I stopped focusing on whether students looked engaged and started focusing on whether they felt engaged.
Here’s what I wish I’d understood then: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and behavioral engagement operate on three different tracks. Cognitive engagement is about whether students are actually processing, questioning, and connecting new information to what they already know. Emotional engagement is about whether they care. Behavioral engagement is simply the outward expression of the first two.
When I started looking for evidence of critical thinking instead of just active participation, everything shifted.
The Research That Changed My Practice
Another reason why the connection between student engagement and academic performance is so important? A 2009 McKinsey & Company study, “How the world’s best performing schools come out on top,” shows that students within highly engaging classrooms are more likely to be successful in all areas of life. The study shares, “the students who were most engaged in their learning, who expressed a ‘love of learning’ and to whom school was important, were more likely to show up for work. They had better health habits and fewer drug problems.”
The National Survey of Student Engagement has been tracking these dynamics for decades, and the data consistently shows what I observed: the single most significant factor in student success isn’t socioeconomic background or grade level. It’s whether students feel a sense of belonging in their learning environment. I remember reading a study in a peer-reviewed journal that found students who reported high levels of school connectedness were significantly more likely to demonstrate higher academic outcomes, better grades, and improved test scores. The effect was strongest for students who came from backgrounds where academic success wasn’t already assumed.
So how do we ensure that our students “love learning?” According to the NEA, the answer is simple: “Students who enjoy school are more likely to get better grades and score higher on tests.”
Building the Learning Environment from the Ground Up
Let me be specific about what changed. In my first five years, I thought the classroom environment was about posters on the walls and desks in neat rows. Now I understand that the learning environment is the invisible architecture of relationship, expectation, and safety that either invites students into the learning process or locks them out of it. When I started training teachers, I began collecting case studies from classrooms where student engagement and academic performance transformed together.
One teacher I worked with in 2021 was struggling with low student engagement in her ninth-grade English classes. She was doing everything “right”: she had beautiful anchor charts, well-structured lessons, and clear success criteria, but her students’ academic performance was stagnating. When I observed her classroom, I noticed something she hadn’t: her students never talked to each other. The learning experience was transactional, not communal.
We started small. I asked her to build in three minutes at the start of each class, where students could talk about anything except schoolwork. Just social interactions. Then we added collaborative learning structures where students worked in small groups on complex concepts. Within six weeks, her students’ active participation in classroom discussions more than doubled. Their student involvement in peer review activities went from something they dreaded to something they requested. Their test scores improved by an average of fourteen percentage points. What changed was that students stopped feeling like they were performing engagement and started feeling like they were part of a learning community that actually needed them.
Student Interest and Intent
Find out what your kids are interested in by asking them questions. Find out what kind of music they listen to, what movies and television shows they watch, which video games and influencers capture their attention, and what books they read for pleasure rather than for class. This will help you connect their interests with learning that may seem dry otherwise. Even something as basic as “Let’s go around the room and say our names, where we’re from, and something we like to do for fun.” This helps students get comfortable with each other and breaks the ice.
I’ve found that when students are having fun, their student participation becomes natural rather than forced. The positive emotions associated with game-based learning create a classroom environment where students want to be. I remember a student who was completely checked out until I asked him what music he listened to. Turned out he was obsessed with Tupac. I redesigned our unit on social movements to include analyzing protest music, and he became the class expert. His student motivation skyrocketed.
Find ways to connect schoolwork to the real world and show students how what they’re learning is important beyond just getting a grade. When students can see the value of student engagement in their actual lives, they stop asking “when are we ever going to use this?” and start leaning into the learning process with genuine curiosity.
Showcase Student Accomplishments
When students feel good about what they’re doing, they’ll be more likely to keep trying new things. I started displaying student work on a dedicated wall…not just the high-grade work, but work that showed growth, creativity, or persistence. Students started taking more pride in their assignments, and the sense of ownership over their academic journey became palpable.
There are also many opportunities where students can share what they know with others without you having to call on them. When students feel seen in their identities and experiences, their emotional engagement deepens. I’ve had some of my richest classroom discussions when I stopped trying to control the conversation and started creating space for students to bring their whole selves into the room.
Make Your Classroom Conducive to Learning
Is it easy for students to pay attention? Do the desks have enough room for students to spread out their work? Is your room temperature appropriate? These might seem like small details, but the learning environment either supports or undermines everything else. When I moved desks from rows to clusters to support collaborative learning, I noticed an immediate difference in how students interacted with the course content.
Also, don’t feel like you have to go through an entire lesson in one sitting. If you feel bogged down and your students are not engaged, take a break! I used to push through lessons even when it was clear my students had checked out. Now I know that sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop, take five minutes, and come back fresh.
Plus, if students have things to do during class, especially in these moments, they’re less likely to get off task. Assign specific roles for different days…write the date on the board, tally points in a game, pass out papers. When students have a role in the classroom community, their student involvement becomes automatic. Students who struggle with traditional academic tasks often thrive with these responsibilities.
Make Your Expectations Clear
Don’t leave kids wondering what is expected of them or how you will be grading their work. Create an outline for what you’ll be covering and stick to it. Post success criteria for every lesson…not as a checklist for you, but as a roadmap for students. When they know where we’re going and what success looks like, they’re more likely to invest in getting there.
Find ways for students to be challenged while getting what they need out of the lesson. For example, play Jeopardy with categories that reinforce the material. When review feels like a game rather than a chore, students engage more deeply and retain more, which has a significant effect on academic outcomes come test time.
Give students enough time between lessons to completely let go of what you just taught. When I was first teaching, I didn’t give myself enough time between activities. I was stuck in my head about how poorly they’d answered previous questions, and my teaching suffered. Build in transition time intentionally.
The Role of Student-Teacher Relationships
I can’t talk about student engagement without talking about relationships. Research shows that student-teacher relationships are one of the most significant factors in predicting academic success. For me, it looks like knowing something about every student that has nothing to do with their academic performance. It looks like showing up at their extracurricular activities when I can.
I learned this during my time at the Title I school. A student was perpetually late to my class. I enforced detentions, calls home…nothing worked. Finally, I pulled her aside. She told me she had to get her younger siblings on the bus every morning because her mom worked the night shift. She was doing everything she could to get to school at all, and I’d been punishing her. That moment changed how I understand discipline. Now I know that high expectations mean believing in students’ capacity to grow while providing the support they need to get there.
Have lunch together, do community service projects as a class, and get to know one another. When kids know each other well and care about each other as people, they’ll be more willing to work together. I started a once-a-month lunch group where students could come eat in my classroom and just hang out. The strong relationships we built transformed how students interacted during instructional time.
Whether you’re giving them activities or letting them choose where they sit, give kids some control over their learning environment so they feel like it’s theirs. This is one of the biggest pieces I stress for student engagement and academic performance. Student choice gives students a sense of ownership over their own learning, and that ownership drives student motivation.
It takes away from your personality as an educator if you only teach the way you’ve always taught. Let go and try something different. I started incorporating project-based learning and problem-based learning units where students had to create original work. The critical thinking I saw was orders of magnitude beyond what I’d seen in traditional assessments.
Know Your Own Limitations
Students can sense when you’re unhappy. If you need a break, take one. You can’t pour from an empty cup, and feeling burned out will have a direct effect on student engagement and academic performance. I’m honest with myself and my students now. I take mental health days when I need them.
There are good days and bad days…be willing to go with the flow. If things aren’t working, try something else. I had a lesson that had worked for years, and one day it completely bombed. Instead of pushing through, I stopped, asked students what wasn’t working, and pivoted. The lesson that emerged was better, and students learned that their input matters.
At the end of every lesson, show your students your appreciation for them being there. I end every class with a genuine thank you. That simple practice has strengthened student-teacher relationships more than any complicated intervention.
Be Consistent (and creative)!
Figure out what works best for you and stick to it. Don’t go back and forth trying to please every student. Consistency helps propel student engagement and academic performance. I use the same routines and expectations. Students know what to expect, and within that safe structure, they take more risks with their learning.
If you don’t think students should be doing something, speak up. Don’t let behavior slide because you want them to like you. Students actually respect teachers who hold high expectations with compassion, whether they show it or not. I’ve had students thank me years later for not letting them slide.
I am a huge promoter of the flipped classroom. When implemented correctly, it changes everything. Flipped assignments make a world of difference and aren’t just busywork. When students engage with new content at home, they come to class ready for collaborative problem-solving and deeper understanding. Class time becomes active rather than passive.
For instance, when students have their phones out, they get distracted. I found that embracing them made a huge difference. Allow them to use them for classroom-specific apps, or give them a spot in the room as a charging station. If their phones are charging, they can’t be on them. I’ve had a charging station for four years, and students voluntarily put their phones away because they know they’ll get them back fully charged.
I’ve seen teachers burn out trying to control phones through prohibition alone. Now I try to use technology intentionally. I create learning opportunities that leverage tools students already use. I’ve had students create TikTok-style videos explaining complex concepts and used social media to extend classroom discussions. But I’m also honest with students about the costs of constant connectivity. We talk about how social media is designed to capture attention. My charging station lets students plug in their phones at the start of class, reducing temptation.
The Power of Student Voice and Choice
With all of these, actively listen to your students! When students are talking, take a second to really listen. They want you to hear what they have to say and know that you care. Also, don’t assume anything. When I first started teaching, I assumed every student had the same background knowledge as me. It wasn’t until later that I realized I should’ve been more patient.
I’ve found that giving students meaningful ownership over their learning is one of the most reliable ways to boost engagement. I was terrified in my early years that if I gave students too much choice, they’d choose the path of least resistance. But when I finally started experimenting, I discovered the opposite. I remember a unit on World War II where I gave students a choice: traditional lecture, project-based learning, problem-based learning simulation, or collaborative problem-solving with primary sources. The requirement was the same: demonstrate understanding of complex concepts, but the path was their choice.
Students who had previously refused to participate became regular participants. The method didn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that they’d chosen it themselves.
I always praise my students for how far they’ve come instead of just complimenting what they know. This shifts students’ locus of control from fixed ability to growth. When students believe their effort matters, they’re more willing to take on challenging work.
Rethinking Assessment and the “Correct Answer”
I have to be honest about something: I was obsessed with the correct answer. I was trained to believe my job was to transmit information and verify students had received it accurately. But this approach was undermining student engagement and academic performance. Now I train teachers to ask students to explore meaningful questions instead of finding the correct answer. Students must demonstrate a deeper understanding by explaining their reasoning and connecting their learning to their own experiences.
Moving away from whole-class instruction was one of the most significant changes I made. I used to think that if I wasn’t talking, I wasn’t teaching. Now I understand that powerful learning happens when I step aside. Collaborative learning requires structure and clear expectations. The most effective experiences involve tasks that can’t be completed alone, clear roles, and explicit instruction on feedback.
When this is done well, classroom discussions become spaces where students grapple with complex concepts together and develop problem-solving skills that transfer beyond my classroom.
The Long Game
Student engagement and academic performance don’t transform overnight. My first attempt at project-based learning was a disaster; students were confused and frustrated. But instead of abandoning it, I reflected and tried again. The second time, I built in more structure. The third time, I co-designed with students. By year’s end, students were creating extraordinary work. That transformation took months.
There is no denying that the student engagement and academic performance connection is strong. Sometimes the most difficult part of teaching is not having too many assumptions about your students. Each student brings unique things to the classroom. Understanding the way your students learn best (visually, auditorily, tactilely) allows you to tailor your teaching on a more personal level.
As I write this, I’m thinking about the 1,700 students I’ve taught. I remember the ones who started the year convinced they were bad at school and ended it knowing they were capable of more. I remember the ones who challenged me and taught me more than any professional development ever could.
Here’s what I’ve learned: student engagement and academic performance aren’t metrics to optimize. They’re reflections of whether students feel seen, capable, and like school is a place where they belong. When I started teaching in 2007, I thought my job was to deliver content. Now I understand my job is to create conditions where students can become who they’re meant to become.
The National Survey of Student Engagement has tracked these patterns for decades, and the findings align with what I’ve observed: the most powerful predictor of student success is whether students feel engaged in meaningful learning. Not test prep. Not compliance. Genuine engagement with ideas that matter.
If you’re a teacher reading this, the work you’re doing matters. The days when you feel like you’re barely holding it together are still days when you’re showing up for students who need you. The moments when something fails are still moments when you’re demonstrating that learning is about growth. The relationships you’re building, the expectations you’re holding, the community you’re creating…all of it matters more than you’ll ever fully know.
I’m still learning. After almost 20 years, I’m still figuring out how to reach students who seem unreachable, how to balance high expectations with genuine compassion. But I know this: when we prioritize student engagement and academic performance as interconnected goals, when we design learning experiences that honor students’ humanity, when we create classrooms where every student can see themselves as capable and valued…we don’t just improve test scores. We change lives.
And that, ultimately, is why we teach.
This article was originally published on September 13, 2021.