polaris education
In partnership with the
Michigan Department of Education

Student empathy interviews at your school

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has partnered with Polaris Education to hear directly from students across the state. As part of this work, students at your school will hold empathy interviews: small focus-group conversations about what's going well at school and what could be better.

What it looks like

2–4 groups of students Each group has about 4–8 students, and a student host leads the conversation.
About 20–40 minutes The host reads a short set of questions and the group talks them through. There are no right answers.
Recorded on Polaris The host records the conversation at polariseducation.ai on a Chromebook, laptop, or tablet. There is nothing to install.
Anonymized, then analyzed Polaris removes names and identifying details, then pulls out the common themes across conversations for MDE.

Before the conversations: two things to do

1

Send the attached opt-out form home to participating students' families.

Families return the form only if they do not want their child to take part, either to your front office or by email to support@polariseducation.ai. What families should know about privacy:

  • Student names are removed. A student is identified only by grade level (for example, "7th Grade Student"), and their voice can be changed in the recording on request.
  • Taking part is optional. Polaris asks each student for consent before recording, and students can skip any question, pause, or leave at any time.
  • Polaris is FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA compliant. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest and stored in the United States.
  • Student responses are never used to train AI models, never sold, and never used for advertising.
  • The full policy is at polariseducation.ai/privacy. We can also sign a student data privacy agreement with your district.
2

Make sure signing in with Google isn't blocked on student devices.

Students sign in to Polaris with their school Google account. Please ask your IT team to confirm that student devices can reach polariseducation.ai and Google sign-in (accounts.google.com), and that the microphone is allowed for polariseducation.ai.

If Google sign-in is blocked, the page will load but signing in will hang. Try signing in on one student Chromebook a few days ahead so there's time to fix it. We can send your IT team the full list of addresses to allow.

Questions? Email Chris McNutt at chris@humanrestorationproject.org.

Polaris Education is built by Human Restoration Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Learn more at polariseducation.ai.