Data Visualizations for the Konstanz School Survey

Challenge

As part of a research series, karla systematically surveyed how students in Konstanz themselves assess the condition of their schools, the quality of their learning environment, and their participation opportunities – a perspective that is rarely heard in the public debate about schools. To this end, karla conducted a four-week online survey in February 2026, in which 511 students from various secondary schools in Konstanz participated.
This survey data – broken down by school type, grade level, and gender – should be analyzed and presented in such a way that it can be contextualized in journalistic articles so that a broad audience can understand it.

The Project

The goal of the project was to create data visualizations from the raw data of the student survey that convey the survey’s key findings at a glance and can be reused in several articles and social media posts.
The main activities of the project included:

• Analysis of survey data (including data on building condition, schools as a learning environment, general well-being, pupils’ sense of being heard and having a say, and teachers’ problem-solving ability) using R;
• Design and creation of diagrams addressing key questions, using tools such as R and Canva;
• Design of the visualizations in accordance with the karla corporate design.

The resulting visualizations were used across several publications: in the main article on the survey results, in a commentary on the connection between school construction and democracy education, in an Instagram post, and in an interview with the mayor for social affairs and the director of the municipal Office of Education and Sports, which provided a political context for the survey results.

Impact

The data visualizations created as part of the project were a central component of a multi-part series of articles by karla on the topic of school construction and student participation in Konstanz:

• "What Students in Konstanz Really Think About Their School"
• "How We're Saving Democracy in the School Restroom"
• "We need to plan schools more intelligently"
• Instagram Post

The visualizations made it possible to grasp key findings at a glance. The survey and its analysis are intended to serve as a building block for school development in Konstanz and help bring pupils’ perspectives into the local political debate.