COMPASS

Dr. Scott Leatherdale, COMPASS Principal Investigator, a white male standing outdoors in front of a school and a group of four students, two who have bikes who are talking.

Ophea’s Monthly Recognition Spotlight aims to illuminate the bright spots within the education sector through recognizing the critical work being done by community members and value-aligned organizations, and its impact on student and staff well-being. This initiative also aims to strengthen connections between the Ontario education sector and organizations serving equity-deserving groups through raising awareness of the resources and services available to Ontario educators. 

School connectedness is defined as feeling safe at school as though one belongs and is a part of their school. How might we make sure every student feels like they belong at school? From policy planning to filling research gaps, research results can be used in various ways! Read on to learn about how this month’s featured Spotlight, COMPASS uses survey data and results to help benefit youth health. 

Tell us about your organization.





The COMPASS system is a research platform designed to:

  • ​​​​​​provide school stakeholders with timely locally-relevant data for informing school-based prevention efforts;
  • evaluate natural experiments as school programs and policies change in schools over time, and;
  • generate practice-based evidence in school-based prevention.  

The COMPASS system is focused on enabling the timely and robust generation of knowledge and evidence to advance youth health, by building the capacity to integrate research, evaluation, policy, and practice within the Canadian school system. 

COMPASS is currently Canada’s largest and most comprehensive ongoing prospective cohort study of youth (2012-2028).

What is an upcoming initiative that you are excited about?





We have recently been asked to implement COMPASS in a census sample of secondary schools in Prince Edward Island (PEI). As part of this new work, we are working closely with both education and public health stakeholders provincially to use the COMPASS data to inform the tailoring and targeting of future school-based prevention programming across the province. We will also be evaluating the impact of these initiatives over time using the broader COMPASS system data and feeding the results back into the system to enable real-time learning of what work, for whom, and in what context. This represents the emergence of an affordable and reliable learning system for the PEI education and public health systems. Ultimately, this will benefit youth in PEI and across Canada. 

What is one thing you wish people knew about your organization?





We are one of the largest yet most affordable school-based surveillance systems in Canada. Schools are actually compensated annually for participating through an honorarium they receive each year and via a school-specific feedback report they receive annually that highlights what is happening with their student population and recommendations for action across the various domains covered in COMPASS.  

We also make our unique data available to other researchers across Canada who require longitudinal data to advance their work in youth health. This is done through data sharing agreement that provide anonymized data. This helps to ensure data are used to their full potential.

How can our audience support your organization’s goals? 





Support from Ophea’s audience to help encourage and strengthen relationships with provincial interest holders within the education sector such as government to help ensure that provincial decision-makers have access to critical data covering topics like mental health, substance use, healthy lifestyles, and education achievement would be valuable. COMPASS is the only system that provides these longitudinal data linked to contextual program and policy data, and closer ties could assist with promoting youth health in Ontario.  

For more information visit uwaterloo.ca/compass-system or email Dr. Scott Leatherdale, COMPASS Principal Investigator at sleather@uwaterloo.ca. To stay connected and up-to-date on the COMPASS projects and opportunities to be involved with their research follow them on Twitter, and Instagram. 

Close-up of three students working at their desks. The only student in focus wears their long dark hair in a bun and a pink sweater.
Close-up of two students working at their desks. One of the students has light brown skin and wears a blue flannel. The other has long blonde hair and wears a grey sweater. The students are reading from the same binder.
Close-up of two students working at their desks. One of the students has light brown skin and wears a blue flannel. The other has long blonde hair and wears a grey sweater. The students are reading from the same binder.
A group of laughing students walks down a wide flight of stairs towards the camera. All students are dressed casually, carrying backpacks and other school supplies.
Close-up of three students working at their desks. The only student in focus wears their long dark hair in a bun and a pink sweater.
Close-up of two students working at their desks. One of the students has light brown skin and wears a blue flannel. The other has long blonde hair and wears a grey sweater. The students are reading from the same binder.
Close-up of two students working at their desks. One of the students has light brown skin and wears a blue flannel. The other has long blonde hair and wears a grey sweater. The students are reading from the same binder.
A group of laughing students walks down a wide flight of stairs towards the camera. All students are dressed casually, carrying backpacks and other school supplies.