Intervention Plan

Creating Positive School Culture

“Nothing is more important to

success in school than the

quality of the relationships

between and among students, staff, and parents.”

-Dr. James P. Comer, M.D.

How to improve school culture?

We must first identify what is the difference between positive and negative school culture.

Make an inventory Survey, interview and

assessment Plan intervention that

will poster positive school culture

School Culture

Dr. Kent D. Peterson : "School culture is the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the 'persona' of the school.

Every school has underlying assumptions about what staff members will discuss at meetings, which teaching techniques work well, how amenable the staff is to change, and how critical staff development is, adds Peterson. That core set of beliefs underlies the school's overall culture.

Glossary of Education: Patterns of meaning or activity (norms, values, beliefs, relationships, rituals, traditions, myths, etc.) shared in varying degrees by members of a school community.

Fullan(2007) School culture as the guiding beliefs and values in the way school operates. Thus school culture can be used to encompass all the attitudes, expected behavior and values that impact how the school operates.

Culture shapes a school’s motivation,

commitment, effort, expectations, and focus (Peterson, 1999).

Positive School Culture

Petrson says “There's an informal network of heroes and heroines and an informal grapevine that passes along information about what's going on in the school... A set of values that supports professional development of teachers, a sense of responsibility for student learning, and a positive, caring atmosphere" exist.

A positive school culture—what many people call “school climate”—is the cornerstone of all good schools. It is the foundation for school improvement. Nevertheless, it often goes unmentioned and unaddressed in school reform and assessment.

Positive School Culture-

No Child Left Behind Every Child a Reader Program And Creating Child Friendly School D.O. no. 40s, 2012 (CPP) Charles Elbot and David Fulton: “A school’s

culture has far more influence on life and learning in the schoolhouse than the state department of education, the superintendent, the school board, or even the principal can ever have.”

Focus on character(moral and performance character states NSOC and CEP

A positive school culture broadly conceived includes the school’s:

social climate, including a safe and caring environment in which all students feel welcomed and valued and have a sense of ownership of their school

intellectual climate, in which all students in every classroom are supported and challenged to do their very best and achieve work of quality; this includes a rich, rigorous, and engaging curriculum and a powerful pedagogy for teaching it

rules and policies that hold all school members accountable to high standards of learning and behavior

traditions and routines, built from shared values, that honor and reinforce the school’s academic and social standards

structures for giving staff and students a voice in, and shared responsibility for, solving problems and making decisions that affect the school environment and their common life

ways of effectively partnering with parents to support students’ learning and character growth

norms for relationships and behavior that create a professional culture of excellence and ethics.

Toxic or Negative School Culture

in a toxic school environment, "teacher relations are often conflictual, the staff doesn't believe in the ability of the students to succeed, and a generally negative attitude" prevails, notes Peterson(2012)

What enables schools and programs like these to have such a positive school culture

Performance excellence and ethical excellence are born from a culture. As Ron Berger observes in his book An Ethic of Excellence, students’ achievement and character are shaped by the culture around them. Regardless of their background, when students enter a culture that demands and supports quality work and moral character, they tend to work to fit into that culture. Once they enter a school culture with a powerful virtuous ethic, that ethic becomes their norm. It’s what they know.

Students themselves testify to this power of school culture to change how they experience school and approach their work.

What Educational Research Shows about the relationship of school culture to performance; school, students and teachers

These case studies of positive school cultures are supported by broader research investigations comparing schools that score differently on measures of school culture. Elbot and Fulton cite findings such as these:

Of the 134 secondary schools in England that were part of the 2004 Hay Group study, “the successful schools had a much more demanding culture—hunger for improvement, promoting excellence, holding hope for every child—while less successful schools had less of a press on improvement.”

In a study of Chicago’s public schools, the top academic performing schools scored high on a measure of “relational trust,” a central feature of school culture which assesses how well each stakeholder (students, parents, teachers, and administration) believes that members of the other groups are fulfilling their role obligations.

A review of research on school success finds that high staff productivity and student achievement are both linked to “positive school climate.

Three Conditions for Building Positive School Cultures 1. Schools need measures of success and areas for improvement

that go beyond test scores. Clearly, schools must be held accountable to external standards, and standardized testing is part of that accountability.

2. Educators must have a comprehensive understanding of what “school culture” is. While there is a growing understanding and evidence of the importance of school culture, we still need to develop a common national vocabulary for defining and discussing it. Many educators and researchers use the term school climate as the foundation for the conversation about school improvement. The National School Climate Council (NSCC) has created School Climate Standards that are helping to inform a federal discussion aimed at creating new benchmarks in this area for public schools.22

The NSCC uses the phrase school climate broadly as the umbrella term to cover a wide range of aspects of the schooling experience for both students and faculty—just as this paper uses the term school culture. Its frameworks describe an environment of safety, respect, support, and challenge for all school members across a full range of domains: physical, emotional, social, ethical, civic, and intellectual. CEP agrees wholeheartedly with this comprehensive conception.

3. Finally, schools need tools for developing and assessing school culture, and must be held accountable for their school cultures. Many schools do not intentionally shape their cultures because they lack the tools for doing so. Many such tools exist and are described in detail in resources such as the frameworks of the National School Climate Council and books such as Building an Intentional School Culture, An Ethic of Excellence, Smart & Good High Schools, and Leading a Culture of Change, to name just a few.

The 12 Dimensions of School Climate Measured

Dimensions Major Indicators Safety 1 Rules and Norms Clearly communicated rules

about physical violence; clearly communicated rules about verbal abuse, harassment, and

teasing; clear and consistent enforcement and norms for adult intervention.

2 Sense of Physical Security Sense that students and adults feel safe from physical harm in the school.

Teaching and Learning 3 Sense of Social-Emotional Security Sense that

students feel safe from verbal abuse, teasing, and exclusion.

Support for Learning 4Use of supportive teaching

practices, such as: encouragement and constructive feedback; varied opportunities to

demonstrate knowledge and skills; support for risk-taking and independent thinking; atmosphere conducive to dialog

and questioning; academic challenge; and individual attention.

5 Social and Civic Learning Support for the development of social and civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions including: effective listening, conflict

resolution, self-reflection and emotional regulation, empathy, personal responsibility, and ethical decision making.

Interpersonal Relationships 6 Respect for Diversity Mutual respect for

individual differences (e.g. gender, race, culture, etc.) at all levels of the school—student-student;

adult-student; adult-adult and overall norms for tolerance.

7 Social Support—Adults Pattern of supportive and caring adult relationships for students, including high expectations for students’ success,

willingness to listen to students and to get to know them as individuals, and personal concern for students’ problems.

8 Social Support—Students Pattern of supportive peer relationships for students, including: friendships for socializing, for problems, for academic

help, and for new students. Institutional Environment 9 School Connectedness/Engagement Positive

identification with the school and norms for broad participation in school life for students, staff, and families.

10 Physical Surroundings Cleanliness, order, and appeal of facilities and adequate resources and materials.

11 Leadership Administration that creates and communicates a clear vision, and is accessible to and supportive of school staff and

Staff development. 12 Professional Relationships

Positive attitudes and relationships among school staff that support effectively working and learning together

Intervention

Program Measurement

Staff Parent Students▪ Elem▪ High School

SOME APPROACHES TO CHANGE

Promoting a Safe and Orderly Environment Maintain buildings in good physical condition Reward students for appropriate behavior Enforce consequences for inappropriate behavior Use contracts with students to reinforce behavioral expectations Post behavioral policies on bulletin boards; periodically announce them

over the public address system Initiate anti-bullying, conflict resolution and peer mediation programs Engage students, staff and parents in planning school safety activities Increase number and accessibility of counselors, social workers, and

mentors Create anonymous tip lines or suggestion boxes for reporting potentially

dangerous situations or providing ideas to improve school climate Provide more in-school options to “blow off steam” Develop strategies to ensure safety during lunch periods and between

classes; provide more structured activities during lunch hour Provide accommodation or time-out rooms throughout the day Provide in-school suspension programs with academic supports and

consistent staffing

Facilitating Interaction and Relationships Build smaller middle and high schools Reduce the impact of size in larger schools13 14 by dividing

large middle and high schools into smaller self-contained units; organizing students into cohorts

that move through classes as a group; and reducing the number of teachers interacting with

each student in middle school by assigning home room or a second subject to a subject area

teacher Use smaller teacher-student ratios (no more than 80 students

per teacher in a secondary school) Use team teaching Provide for small group activities Provide multiple and varied opportunities to participate in

extracurricular activities

Promoting a Positive Affective Environment Use summer school rather than retention in

grade for failing students Promote cooperation rather than competition;

avoid winners and losers Assure that every student has an active

connection to at least one adult in the school Provide professional development on such

issues as cultural and class differences, emotional needs of other children, parental involvement, and bullying and harassment

references

http://schoolclimate.org/climate/documents/dg/district-guide-csee.pdf

http://www.schoolclimate.org/programs/pd.php

http://www.devstu.org/sites/default/files/DSC_ElemSch_scales.pdf

http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/resources.shtml

Thank you!

Prepared By

>>>>Mr. Boyet B. Aluan Teacher I, San Roque E/S Sariaya West