Address and Improve Your School Climate

Students and staff alike thrive in a positive learning environment. Is your building a place where everyone wants to be? These four steps from a recent Edutopia article serve as a guide to gauging and improving your climate.

1. Establish a climate team to take inventory of current initiatives and actions intended to address and contribute to culture (e.g. assemblies, social and emotional learning programs/initiatives, discipline programs, recognition programs—both for staff and students, anything you’re doing to improve morale and support). This tool can be adapted to facilitate this process.
2. Analyze your list using either these questions or the considerations in each column on the above linked tool:
   a. What need is this program/initiative addressing?
   b. Who is responsible for carrying it out? Is there accountability? Is this voluntary, or is the work involved recognized in some way?
   c. What evidence do we have that it is effectively addressing the need?
   d. Should we keep, modify, or abandon it?
   e. How does it fit with other climate-related efforts, and how can we ensure that all the pieces fit together well?
3. Seek staff input on current initiatives and ideas for changes.
4. Compensate climate team members for their time outside the school day and ensure a system for transparent communication to staff about the team's work.

The author also reminds readers to attend to the adult interactions. How do the adults in your building respond to their level of agreement with the statement, I like being here. Key to climate and culture are the ways adults behave. Consider establishing and monitoring agreements. This tool can help.

Read the full article