Safe and Supportive Schools
(School Climate)
What Works…
Essential Components
Culture v. Climate
• Culture refers to the behavioral norms,
assumptions and beliefs of a school
-A School’s Personality
• Climate refers to perceptions of persons in the
school that reflect those norms, assumptions
and beliefs.
-A School’s Mood
Leadership Team
• Decide on and recruit members (training?)
• Schedule meetings/time to meet
• Assign roles: agenda, student & dashboard data,
minutes, communicating with staff
• Establish a fixed agenda: e.g., analyze behavior and
other data, review action plan
review budget (how much left to spend)
• Create effective in-school communication system
• Anticipate threats to team effectiveness
• Be CHEERLEADERS!
WHY a Team?
 Cooperative planning
 Whole staff initiative (not top-down,
not bottom-up… represents entire staff)
 Shared responsibility
for implementing initiatives
 On-going management and support
Leadership Team Issues
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Member burn out
Turn over (teacher/staff and administrator
Some carrying all the weight
Removal of a member
Dynamics of team members
Discipline Matrix
Example
Staff Buy-In
On All Components
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Must understand the WHY of improving climate
Staff meeting to go over draft plan
Share copy of draft plan
Panel presentation by team members
Staff input into steps for achieving goals
Ask for help, e.g., team for each goal
Person to person convincing of fence-sitters
Share data of progress to win over skeptics
Recognize, celebrate successes
Food and T-shirts
Staff Buy-In
On All Components
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Staff meeting to go over plan
Share copy of plan
Panel presentation by team members
Staff input into plans for achieving goals
Ask for help, e.g., team for each goal
Person to person convincing of fence-sitters
Share data of progress to win over skeptics
Recognize, celebrate successes
Food and T-shirts
Establish Staff Norms
 Identify staff norms that contribute to a positive school
climate and reinforce, reward, and hold each other
accountable for those behaviors. For example:
 high expectations for all students
 positive approaches to discipline
 no display of anger or sarcasm
 model respectful behavior
 no bullying or harassment
 Agree on hallway behaviors that invite relationships, e.g.
smiling, making eye contact, using students’ names, greeting
students at the classroom door before and after class.
Safe and Supportive Schools
Activity
Data Analyzed Regularly
• School Climate Survey analyzed annually and
reviewed periodically
• SWOT, Environmental Scan
• Behavior Data reviewed at each team meeting
(frequent referrals – students, behaviors)
• Dashboard Data analyzed for patterns
• Attendance, Graduation Rate, etc.
• Evaluation… did we get the results we wanted?
Data, Not Hunches! – Don’t Make Assumptions!
Behavior Expectations
Clear to All
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What are they and what do they mean?
Communicate to staff and clarify
Present and explain to students (stress priorities)
Teach -- don’t assume! – and re-teach,
re-teach, re-teach
• Make parents aware of expectations
• Prompt parent notification of inappropriate
behaviors
• Stick to expectations unless major cause for
change… but revisit at the end of the year
Expectations Consistently
Enforced
 Consistently enforced? REALLY???? YES!!!!
 School wide Classrooms?
 Most often a work in progress
 Options to move toward greater consistency
Talk about scenarios as a staff
Some choose to observe (and mentor) in pairs
Provide reminders of target areas, behaviors, etc.
“Coach” staff members who don’t conform
Recognize progress using data
Celebrate success
What teachers permit,
they promote!
Teachers expect students to follow rules in their
classrooms. But if teachers permit certain
behaviors that do not align with their expectations,
they send the message that those behaviors are
acceptable.
In other words,
what they are permitting,
they are promoting.
(How to Lead Teachers to Become Great,
by Janet Pilcher and Robin Largue, p. 39)
A rule or a suggestion?
If a teacher expects her students to hand
in their papers in a certain way but then
allows some students to do it differently,
she is essentially saying,
“The paper-handing-in rule
is not really a rule, but a suggestion.
Do it if you feel like it.”
(How to Lead Teachers to Become Great,
by Janet Pilcher and Robin Largue, p. 40)
A Caring, Non-Punitive Effort to
Shape Behavior
• Not all students come to us knowing how to behave
• Our job is to support them in their process of growth
• To help them learn to make better choices… not to
catch and punish them
• ATTITUDE is the key!
“Dislike the Behavior – Not the Child”
When kids don’t behave, we play the blame
game.
Who is to blame?
The college professor
said:
“Such rawness in a
student is a shame,
lack of preparation in
high school is to
blame.”
Who is to blame?
Said the high
school teacher:
“Good heavens!
That boy’s a fool.
The fault of
course is with the
middle school.”
.
Who is to blame?
The middle school teacher
said:
“From stupidity may I be
spared. They sent him in so
unprepared.”
Who is to blame?
The elementary teacher huffed:
“Kindergarten blockheads all.
They call that preparation-why,
it’s worse than none at all.”
Who is to blame?
The kindergarten teacher
said:
“Such lack of training never
did I see. What kind of
woman must that mother
be?
Who is to blame?
The mother said:
“Poor helpless child. He’s not to
blame. His father’s people were
all the same.”
Who is to blame?
Said the father at the
end of the line: “I
doubt the rascal’s even
mine.”
A Caring, Non-Punitive Effort to
Shape Behavior
“Competence …is promoted in the context …in which
students feel valued, respected, connected to and
engaged in learning.”
(WVBOE Policy 4373, Ch. 1, Sec. 2)
At some point, school staff need to have difficult
discussions about what they believe about
behavior, discipline, punishment, school’s role
in teaching values, and in providing mental
health supports for students.
Consequences Structured
to Change Behavior
• If the behaviors don’t change, the
consequences have not been effective.
• Develop a flexible plan of consequences
(increasing severity, greater support, etc.)
• Review individual student data at team
meeting: if multiple referrals or serious
violations, what consequences have been
used? results?
Sample Consequences
Tardiness – When the bell rings students will be out of the hallway and in
their assigned classroom / area.
1.Teachers have the right to have higher expectations than the school
rule.
2.The teacher’s higher expectation must be discussed with students and
requirements posted ahead of time and followed consistently.
•1st tardy teacher issues verbal warning, document on log
•3rd tardy parent contact, document on log
•5th tardy, parent contact to invite parent in for a conference, document on
log
•6th tardy, referral sent to EHB, 1 day ISS (6 pts)
•9th tardy, referral sent to EHB, 1 day ASD (9 pts)
•12th tardy, referral sent to EHB, 1 day ASD, Referral made to Discipline
Advisory Board (12 pts)
On tardies 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, and 11 remind student of next consequence.
Meaningful Incentives
Low or No Cost
The common thread woven through the following examples is
time with friends.
 a movie
 a couple minutes early to lunch or to the buses
 dance, music at lunch
 early to lunch
 “Minute To Win It” stations
 sock hop after school
 game time (students play their games)
For incentives with a cost, ask for help from your
community partner or PTO...
School-Wide Systems
for Student Success
Behavioral Systems
Academic Systems
Intensive, Individual Interventions
•Individual Students
•Assessment-based
•High Intensity
1-5%
Targeted Group Interventions
•Some students (at-risk)
•High efficiency
•Rapid response
Universal Interventions
•All students
•Preventive, proactive
5-10%
1-5%
5-10%
80-90%
TEACH
Safe and Supportive Schools
Intensive, Individual Interventions
•Individual Students
•Assessment-based
•Intense, durable procedures
Targeted Interventions
•Some students (at-risk)
•High efficiency
•Rapid response
•Individual or Group
80-90%
TEACH
Universal Interventions
•All settings, all students
•Preventive, proactive
Support for All Students
Provide
Individualized
Intensive Supports
Provide coordinated, intensive, sustained, culturally
competent, individualized, child- and family- driven
and focused services and supports that address
needs while building assets.
Intervene Early & Provide
Focused Youth
Development Activities
Build a School-wide Foundation
Safe and Supportive Schools
Implement strategies and provide supports
that address risk factors and build protective
factors for students at risk for severe
academic or behavioral difficulties.
Universal prevention & youth
social skill development
approaches, caring school
climate, positive & proactive
approach to discipline,
personalized instruction, cultural
competence, & strong family
involvement.
Prevention Strategies
• Design a school wide prevention framework to
promote student success
• Teach and re-teach behaviors: anticipate problem
behaviors, school issues
If you want it, teach it!
• School-wide themes… some examples:
Rachel’s Challenge
Capturing Kids’ Hearts
Peer Mediation
Natural Helpers
By-Stander Training
Prevention Strategies
 Character Education: trustworthiness, respect, fairness,
responsibility, caring, citizenship
 Social and Emotional Learning
“Socially Competent Students are Skilled in Three Core Areas:
① Self-awareness and Self-management
② Social-awareness and Interpersonal Skills
③ Decision-making Skills and Responsible Behaviors”
(WVBOE Policy 4373, Ch. 1, Sec. 2)
Use data to decide where to focus
What is Social and Emotional
Learning?
“…the process through which individuals
acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills
they need to
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recognize and manage their emotions,
demonstrate caring and concern for others,
establish positive relationships,
make responsible decisions, and
handle challenging situation constructively.”
(WVBOE Policy 4373, Ch. 1, Sec. 2)
Obj. 5—8.2.01 Predict others’ feelings and
perspectives in a variety of situations.
Ideas for Promoting and Supporting this Objective
Opportunities to Teach
Opportunities to Practice
Evaluation
Health: 5 6 7 8
Phys Ed: 5 6 7 8
Soc Studies:
Guidance:
Advisor: 5 6 7 8
LS&TT: 5 6 7 8
Classrooms (all):
Hallways:
Lunchrooms:
Gym:
Assemblies:
Games/Events:
All of the above:
Student self-assessment:
Assessed by the teacher who
provided “Opportunity to Learn”:
Assessed by all of the student’s
teachers:
Assessed by analysis of data:
LEVEL 3
Intensive Interventions
Individual students
1-5%
LEVEL 2
Targeted Group Interventions
Some students (at-risk)
5-10%
PREVENTION
LEVEL 1
Core Instructional Interventions
All settings, all students
80-90%
LEVEL 3
Intensive Interventions
Individual students
1-5%
LEVEL 2
Targeted Group Interventions
Some students (at-risk)
5-10%
LEVEL 1
Core Instructional Interventions
All settings, all students
80-90%
Intervention Strategies
Level 2
Early intervention for at risk students (5-10%)
who need something more to be successful.
Such as: smokers, bullies/targets/by-standers,
students considering suicide
Example strategies: tobacco cessation, behavior
management plan, check-in/ check-out, anger
management skills, by-stander skills,
mental health supports
Intervention Strategies
Level 3
For a individual students (1%-5%) who need
more intense interventions.
Examples: Treatment Center, Teen Drug
Court, Alternate Education Site -- often
requires the support of community groups/
agencies integrated with school supports
Team to organize screening and referral
Partnerships
“School systems cannot provide
all of the resources and intervention services to meet the more
severe behavioral needs of students For this reason, partnerships
with other agencies and organizations are essential…”
(WVBOE Policy 4373, Ch. 3, Sec. 2)
mental health
law enforcement
social services
judicial system
Etc.
Alternatives to Suspension
• Extended Day
• Saturday Academy
• School or Community based Service
Learning (time = suspension)
• In-school Suspension
• Planning Center
(get emotional support, “cool off, "resolve
conflicts, learn coping/ problem-solving skills,
complete school work)
Safe and Supportive Schools
Family/Community Support
• Provide parents clear information about behavior
expectations and consequences for violations
• Welcome parents, give them good news about
their child from day one
• Communicate to parents and community survey
results, plans to address them, data on progress
• Ask parents and community organizations to do
something specific to help
How Measure Effectiveness?
By Outcomes…
 student attendance
 grades
 achievement scores
 discipline data
 promotion and graduation rates
 extra curricular participation
 teacher, student, staff and parent satisfaction
surveys
Safe and Supportive Schools
What Schools Must Do
What WV schools have found creates
A Safe and Supportive School Climate
is now policy
for all WV Schools
WV State Board Policy 4373
Chapter 3
At a minimum, schools shall:
Establish a
Leadership Team
(may be an existing team)
to manage the design, monitoring and
improvement of school climate/culture.
(Ch. 3, Sec. 5)
At a minimum, schools
shall:
Establish
A Process to Gain
School-Wide Input and Commitment
to school climate/culture improvement from
students, staff, parents and community
(Ch. 3, Sec. 5)
At a minimum, schools shall:
Develop
School-Wide Priorities
(Ch. 3, Sec. 5)
At a minimum, schools shall:
Analyze
School Climate/Culture Data
At a minimum, schools shall:
Make
Data Driven
Improvement Decisions
based on analysis of consistently tracked
student behaviors
At a minimum, schools shall:
Implement
School-wide Plans
… to support and reinforce expected
behaviors
At a minimum, schools shall:
Implement
Programs/Practices
that promote
youth asset development to support
• expected student behaviors,
• positive education, and
• health outcomes
At a minimum, schools shall:
Implement
comprehensive and effective
Intervention Programs/Practices
that target identified behaviors that are
disruptive to the educational process and that
place students at higher risk of poor
education and health outcomes
At a minimum, schools shall:
Develop
Referral Procedures
that are appropriate and reliable
for intensive intervention
that enlist school and community
partnerships
At a minimum, schools shall:
Evaluate
And Revise as Needed
the school climate/culture
improvement process
Change is Slow, Often Subtle!
Changing a school’s climate is a
PROCESS
• It happens not in big events, but in small steps
implemented strategically, over time
• It happens with INDIVIDUALS first,
then institutions
• It usually takes 3-5 years
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