School climate refers to the quality and character of school life, and is based on patterns of student, parent, and staff experiences and perceptions of school life. It also reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures, according to the National School Climate Center.
Resources that were compiled to assist schools with improving school climate, and are organized to be in alignment with a team-driven process that addresses climate as a component of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), or overall school improvement.
General Resources
National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)
The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments is a federally funded initiative that offers information and technical assistance to states, districts, schools and communities. NCSSLE has developed the School Climate Improvement Resource Package, an online resource center designed to meet a range of needs among stakeholders interested in improving school climate.
National School Climate Center (NSCC)
The National School Climate Center promotes safe, supportive learning environments that nurture social and emotional, civic, and academic growth for all students. NSCC is an independent nonprofit that offers technical assistance to schools and communities, the NSCC website and online resource center provide free and subscription-based tools and resources that can be used to support school climate improvement.
WestEd
The School Climate Improvement Toolkit was produced by School Climate Alliance at Regional Education Laboratory (REL)West. It is designed to help schools, districts, and other education agencies develop a detailed and focused plan for carrying out and monitoring school climate improvement efforts.
Alliance for the Study of School Climate (ASSC)
The Alliance for the Study of School Climate exists to help schools improve the quality of their climate. In addition to conducting on-going research on what creates healthy schools, ACCS provides ideas, resources, and services to schools seeking to examine and improve their effectiveness.
School Climate Improvement Process (SCIP)
The School Climate Improvement Process (SCIP) utilizes a five-stage improvement process to help school teams engage the school community in analyzing needs and establishing priorities related to school climate improvement and then select and implement research-based approaches to addressing those needs.
This five-stage approach is endorsed by the National School Climate Center at Rampo for Children (NSCC at Rampo) and aligns with the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s comprehensive planning and school improvement processes.
SCIP emphasizes the importance of shared leadership, stakeholder engagement, and data-driven action planning as part of a continuous improvement process.
Five-stage Improvement Process
The five stages are:
During stage one of the school climate improvement process (Readiness), schools form a team or engage an existing team in learning about and spearheading school climate improvement activities. The team initially focuses on communication, visioning, and obtaining buy-in from staff and the school community. They then coordinate administration of school climate surveys and subsequent community engagement and action planning processes. The team sustains improvement efforts over time by monitoring and supporting implementation of school-level action plans and by using data to guide revisions to the plan.
Resources and information to support schools in the readiness phase are available below.
School Climate Action Improvement Guide for School Leaders
Improving school climate takes time and commitment from a variety of people in a variety of roles. The School Climate Action Improvement Guide for School Leaders (PDF), developed by the National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, outlines key action steps that school leaders can take to support school climate improvements.
National Implementation Research Network
The National Implementation Research Network uses the science and practice of implementation to help solve real world problems. They offer a range of resources on effective implementation of programs in schools.
Building Learning Communities with Character: Readiness
This chapter from Building Learning Communities with Character describes how issues of readiness can impact efforts to address social and emotional learning in the school, an underlying feature of school climate improvement. It provides practical information for those leading improvement processes.
During stage two of the School Climate Improvement Process (Evaluation), school climate teams identify and examine existing data, and collect new data which enables them to evaluate and prioritize school climate-related needs.
School climate improvement requires attention to more than the school's test scores or discipline statistics. While these types of data are important indicators of a school's effectiveness, the climate of a school is reflected in stakeholders' perceptions of the school's safety, the learning environment, and patterns of engagement in the school (National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments).
School climate teams should consider attendance and academic data, Student Assistance Program (SAP) data, office discipline referrals, and PA Youth Survey results, as well the results of annual school climate surveys administered to students, staff and parents. Resources to support teams in selecting measures of school climate are below.
School Climate Survey Compendium
The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) maintains a compendium of valid and reliable surveys, assessments, and scales of school climate that can assist educators in their efforts to identify and assess their conditions for learning.
Pennsylvania School Climate Survey (PASCS)
The PA School Climate Survey is a free suite of surveys provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education - Office for Safe Schools. The online (student, teacher, parent, and community) surveys are available to all schools in the Commonwealth and are intended to provide educators with formative and summative climate data for use in improvement planning.
Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS)
The Pennsylvania Youth Survey is sponsored and conducted every two years by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). Schools may use the PAYS to supplement other school climate related data and identify risk and protective factors impacting youth in their community.
ED School Climate Surveys
The U.S. Department of Education provides surveys for middle and high school students, their parents, teachers, instructional staff, non-instructional staff, and administrators on a web-based platform. The surveys can be downloaded free of charge and provide user-friendly school climate reports back to users. Local education agencies administering the survey will be able to store the data locally on their own data systems.
Stakeholder perceptions of the school's safety provide insight into the overall school climate. These include stakeholders' perceptions of physical and emotional safety of the school, as well as the extent to which:
- the school is prepared to prevent and respond to emergencies;
- behavioral expectations are clear and enforced; and
- the school environment is perceived as orderly and predictable.
Perceptions of school safety are also influenced by students' social and emotional experiences in school, as well as school personnel's perceived responsiveness to safety threats. Bullying and other forms of peer aggression and harassment impact students' emotional safety and should be addressed as part of action planning when indicated.
Resources
- Emergency Planning
- Bullying Prevention
- Teen Dating Violence Prevention
- Hazing Prevention - Pennsylvania law requires that secondary schools adopt a written hazing policy to prevent and address hazing by students or persons associated with organizations sanctioned by the school. More information about hazing and hazing prevention.
Academic engagement refers to the extent and intensity with which students participate in and apply themselves to learning and other school activities, as well as the supportive relationships and structures that exist to support student engagement.
In general, students who are effectively engaged in learning perform better in school and on standardized tests, and they are more likely to persist in school than students who are less engaged. Students who are engaged in school activities report more positive attitudes toward school and improved achievement. Research suggests that student engagement can be improved through effective teaching.
Engagement in extracurricular activities can be improved by weaving student engagement into the core practices of schools, increasing opportunities for student engagement, and by addressing barriers to student participation.
Student support is closely related to school connectedness, a factor known to support positive youth development. It is important that educators build positive relationships with students and that schools provide a tiered system of supports to students who demonstrate academic, social and behavioral health needs.
According to research (Durlak, 2015; Payton, Weissberg, Durlak, Dymnicki, Taylor, Schellinger & Pachan, 2008), Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) plays an important role in school climate and youth development.
SEL refers to the process of learning and applying the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.
Schoolwide SEL programming has been shown to support achievement gains in students, and contribute to post-graduation success. It is an integrated part of the PA Career Ready Skills, wellness and mental health and student-centered approaches to discipline, including restorative practices and trauma-informed strategies.
Student-centered discipline refers to approaches to schoolwide and classroom behavioral management that emphasize the role of student engagement, social emotional learning, and cultural responsiveness in supporting positive outcomes for all children.
While many best-practices in student-centered discipline are not mandated by Pennsylvania law, research indicates that strategies like trauma-informed practices and restorative practices can play a role in reducing violence in schools, improving school climate, and addressing issues of disproportionality in student discipline. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) can be a useful decision-making framework for organizing and implementing student-centered interventions.
Disciplinary Equity
Disciplinary Equity resources are provided within the Equitable Practices Hub to provide educational communities a starting point for having difficult conversations about disciplinary equity. Resources are provided to guide school teams in selecting processes for identifying disproportionalities, evaluating how to mitigate inequitable disciplinary practices, and building more equitable learning environments.
National Clearinghouse on Supportive School Discipline (NCSSD)
The NCSSD was founded by the American Institutes of Research to provide educators with the resources needed to facilitate the reduction of harsh and exclusionary discipline practices and the support the implementation of supportive school discipline practices. It provides quality research, data, information, and tools related to school discipline policies and practices.
PA Positive Behavioral Support (PAPBS) Network
The PAPBS Network through training and technical assistance, supports schools and their family and community partners to create and sustain comprehensive, school-based behavioral health support systems in order to promote the academic, social and emotional well-being of all Pennsylvania's students.
Stage four of the school climate improvement process is Implementation. At this phase, school-based teams work to implement action plans designed to improve school climate. Emphasis is placed on implementing programs and strategies with fidelity. Coaching and ongoing process evaluation are key components of this stage of the school climate improvement process. Resources to support implementation are below.
National Implementation Research Network
The National Implementation Research Network uses the science and practice of implementation to help solve real-world problems. They offer a range of resources on effective implementation of programs in schools.
National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, Implementation Webinar Series
This National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, Implementation Webinar Series is focused on implementing programmatic interventions as part of school climate improvement processes.
Stage five of the school climate improvement process is Reflection.
At this phase, school-based teams work to reflect on how school climate improvement plans and strategies are working and identify adjustments that are needed to improve the implementation process and respond to emergent needs.
At this stage, emphasis is placed on learning from current implementation efforts and from feedback received from stakeholders.