How Does Improving School Climate Support Student Achievement ?

1. How Does Improving School Climate Support Student Achievement? February 25, 2010 1:00-2:00 p.m. Facilitator: Mary Anne Mather Briefings for Education Leaders: A Webinar Series

2. Welcome Randy Ross, M.S., M.A. Equity & Diversity Specialist New England Equity Assistance Center The Education Alliance at Brown University Elizabeth A’Vant District Psychologist Providence PS Department

3. The Webinar Environment • The PowerPoint Window • Polling • Question and Answer Window • Technical Difficulties Window • Telephone audio information

4. Agenda • School Climate: The Air We Breathe • The Safety Factor: Bullying & Harassment • The SEL Factor: Social-Emotional Learning • The Equity Factor: Cultural Proficiency • The Connectedness Factor: Student Engagement • Finally, the Funding Factor!

5. School climate is much like the air we breathe -- it tends to go unnoticed until something is seriously wrong.Jerome Freiberg, 1998

6. Overview and Poll School climate refers to patterns of people’s experiences of school life; it reflects the norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching, learning, and leadership practices, as well as the organizational structures that comprise school life. National School Climate Standards, 2010

7. School Climate: The Air We Breathe • Like air that enters our lungs, school climate can’t be touched, yet it is felt in our minds and hearts…. • Like improving air quality for our general health, improving school climate supports learning • Academic, social, emotional, and civic • National School Climate Standards offer a framework for understanding, evaluating, and improving school climate in multiple dimensions Five Core Standards: 16 Indicators 30 Sub-Indicators

8. Five Core Standards • Developing a shared vision and plan Includes gathering disaggregated climate data • Developing policies to promote learning and systems to address “barriers to learning” • Promoting practices to enhance learning and student engagement • Creating welcoming, safe, supportive environments • Promoting social/civic responsibilities and a commitment to social justice

9. As With Air Quality, We Must Collect School Climate Data • Surveys • Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) • Three reports on survey results for students, staff, and parents (2006-2008) • Center for Social Emotional Education (CSEE) • Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (link in Resources) • Needs Assessments (surveys & focus groups) • What Works Clearinghouse report on Dropout Prevention • SafeMeasures Student Leadership Process

10. What Do We Mean by “Student Achievement?” • Academic learning in distinct subject areas, measured by standardized test scores • Comprehensive academic learning, measured through multiple forms of assessment • Dropout rates/graduation rates • Post-secondary enrollment and completion • May also include social, emotional, and civic learning

11. The Safety Factor: Bullying & Harassment (1) “School-based bullying prevention efforts can positively enhance school performance and achievement.” (Swearer S.M. et. al., 2010, p. 39) • Aggressors, targets, and “bully-victims” less likely to be high achievers than bystanders • Targets more likely to avoid school or drop out • Peer bullying/harassment -- one of many factors contributing to poor achievement, possibly because it undermines engagement

12. The Safety Factor: Bullying & Harassment(2) • Bullying/harassment is… a group dynamic in a social context • Social-ecological model derives from this understanding • Universal, school-based programs with multiple elements • Comprehensive policies (procedures, rules & sanctions) • Professional development (legal & psychosocial) • Culturally competent classroom curricula/instruction • Individual counseling for aggressors and targets

13. The SEL Factor: Social-Emotional Learning(1) • Three large scale reviews of K-8 SEL impact • Collectively, 317 studies, with 324,000 children • Meta-analysis showed SEL can be effective if well-designed and evidence-based • In-school and after school • Students with or without behavioral challenges • For racially and ethnically diverse populations • In urban, rural, and suburban settings • SEL programs improved academic performance 11 to 17 percentile points

14. The SEL Factor: Social-Emotional Learning(2) • Reviewed SEL programs showed continuing effect beyond intervention • School personnel effectively deliver SEL programs • Principal leadership supporting SEL programming enhances student benefits • For example, through professional development and scheduling • Evidence-based teaching practices - SAFE • Sequenced, coordinated instructional steps • Active learning methods • Focus on skill instruction • Explicit teaching of specific skills

15. The Equity Factor: Cultural Proficiency (1) • Absolutely necessary for all educators, no matter the demographics of their communities • Requires willingness to be self-reflective, individually and with others • Culturally proficient educators are • Comfortable and skilled at resolving inter-group cultural, racial, and ethnic concerns with staff, students, and parents • Proficient at evaluating/developing equitable educational materials, pedagogy, and assessments

16. The Equity Factor: Cultural Proficiency(2) • Culturally responsive curricula improves academic achievement by • Increasing school engagement among students of color • Fostering positive ethnic identity, which is associated with academic performance, self-confidence, commitment to goals, etc. • Inclusion of culturally responsive materials, such as diverse literature, improves inter-group relations, a critical element of positive school climate • Culturally proficient educators build cross-race, inter-ethnic relationships with students & parents, leading to improved school engagement

17. The Connectedness Factor: Student Engagement(1) • Student engagement is behavioral, emotional, and cognitive • Three previous factors each contribute to one or more of these three aspects of engagement • For example, SEL improves • Self-regulation (element of cognitive engagement) • Relationship skills (element of emotional engagement) • Responsible decision-making (element of behavioral engagement)

18. The Connectedness Factor: Student Engagement (2) • Behavioral engagement improves attendance, discipline, standardized test scores and grades • Cognitive engagement not only improves standard measures, but deeper content also understanding • Emotional engagement more difficult to evaluate, but some evidence (and common sense) that it impacts achievement • Wanting to please teachers who care • Learning cooperatively with diverse peers

19. Finally, the Funding Factor! (1) • Major federal funding shift: toward competitive funding inclusive of school climate emphasis • Signals of this shift: • Inclusion of school climate concerns in state “Race to the Top” applications & Title I guidelines • One of 11 new USDOE funding streams (redesign from 38 programs) is “Successful, Safe and Healthy Students” ($410 Million)

20. Finally, the Funding Factor! (2) • Safe & Drug-Free Schools’ model of minimal funding for every district now changing to competitive, comprehensive climate approach • 2010 transition year; hopefully new model in 2011 • States and districts need to prepare NOW to compete, for example, by: • Developing plans for improving school climate, including factors we have been discussing • Revising outdated school climate policies/approaches • Collecting data on bullying/harassment incident reports • Carrying out needs assessments & disaggregating data

21. In Summary…. To prepare for new funding initiatives: • Assess your current school climate efforts • Re-evaluate policies to include adults, cyberbullying, other new issues • Collect and disaggregate data by race, ethnicity gender, disability, and sexual orientation on student, staff, and parent perceptions of school climate • Do not fall prey to piecemeal solutions that fail to address school climate with multiple, coordinated interventions • Educate your leadership and your school boards • On research showing that school climate impacts academic achievement • On successful approaches to improve school climate

22. School climate is much like the air we breathe -- it tends to go unnoticed until something is seriously wrong.Jerome Freiberg, 1998 But school climate, like air quality, can be improved!

23. Questions?

24. Resources (in order of Web briefing content) • National School Climate Standards (http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/standards.php) • Freiberg, H.J. (1998). Measuring school climate: Let me count the ways. Educational Leadership, 56(1), 22-26. • Council on Urban Boards of Education - three school climate surveys/reports (http://www.nsba.org/SecondaryMenu/CUBE/Publications/CUBEResearchReports.aspx) • Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/practice.php) • Dybarski, M., Clarke, L., Cobb, B., Finn, J., Rumberger, R., and Smink, J. (2008). Dropout Prevention: A Practice Guide (NCEE 2008-4025). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education/sciences, U.S. Department of Education, retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc (see especially “Recommendation 5: Personalize the learning environment and instructional process”, pp. 30-33) • SafeMeasures Student Leadership Process, described in Preble, W. & Taylor, L. (2009). School climate through students’ eyes. Educational Leadership, 66(4), 35-40.

25. Resources (continued) • Swearer, S.M., Espalage, D.L., Vaillancourt, T., & Hymel, S. (2010). What can be done about school bullying? Linking research to educational practice. Educational Researcher. 39(1), pp. 38-47. • Vreeman, R.C. & Carroll, A.E. (2007). A systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent bullying. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 161(1), 78. • Ragozzino, K. & O’Brien, M.U. (2009). Social and Emotional Learning and Bullying Prevention, downloaded on 02/07/10 from http://www.casel.org (includes list of several effective programs and many resources). • Let’s Get Real (DVD with curriculum). For more information go to http://groundspark.org/our-films-and-campaigns/lets-get-real • Payton, J., Weissberg, R.P., Durlak, J.A., Dymnicki, A.B., Taylor, R.D., Schellinger, K.B., & Pachan, M. (2008). The positive impact of social and emotional learning for kindergarten to eighth-grade students:Findings from three scientific reviews. Chicago, IL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.

26. Resources (continued) • Zirkel, S. (2008).The influence of multicultural educational practices on student outcomes and intergroup relations. Teachers College Record. 110(6), pp. 1147-1181 • Fredricks, J., Blumenfeld, P. & Paris, A. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence.Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109. • US Department of Education (2010). Supporting Student Success: Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request, downloaded February 17, 2010 from http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget11/justifications/g-sss.pdf

27. For More Information Contact: • Randy Ross Randy_Ross@brown.edu • On-line Resources: • http://www.alliance.brown.edu/webinars/20100225/

28. Please fill out a short evaluation Click on the link below to go to the online evaluation form: http://www.alliance.brown.edu/forms/poll2.php?m=600 We will send you a follow-up email shortly with the link to the recording of this briefing, and the other links referenced previously. Thank you!