![]() You can listen to a ten-minute conversation I had with Jennifer and Shane on my BAM! Radio Show. Mapp, Allen Mendler, Mary Tedrow, and Patricia Vitale-Reilly share their suggestions. In Part One, Jennifer Orr, Shane Safir, Karen L. ![]() This series will be followed by another one specifically focused on engaging familes of English Language Learners) Is it time to finally put school climate at the center of our discussions.(This is the last post in a two-part series. So, how do we re-engage? NCLB has gone away, massive amounts of parents have opted their children out of high stakes tests, and the public is asking for something different than what they have gotten out of the past decade of mandates and accountability. As several have mentioned it may be time for us to re set the semantics and reengage the public in what we are all aiming for. Yet each of these approaches seek to reengage the student in learning and reset the culture of the school. Too many educators view these as separate entities, or at worst individual programs, to be implemented and run for a set period of time. While most of us involved in this field appreciate the vast similarities and nuanced differences between terms such as social and emotional learning, pro-social, character education, and a whole child approach the public and many of the education public don’t. The second challenge holding school climate back is the fragmentation of the pro social/whole child/school climate field. However, culture itself grows and wanes dependent upon the people, actions and targets of those in the school community. Culture will ultimately win out over strategy. I’m not certain who to attribute the phrase to - I believe it was originally Peter Drucker, but it holds true as much in education circles as it does in business. Yet for those who in the school who understand the power of climate and the culture of learning that can be established in a school, this is a misinformed decision. Policy is still condemning the promotion of school climate to an add-on or a nice to-do, something to concern oneself with once the evaluations are in.and are positive. Nowhere in NCLB was there a recommendation to slash the range of subjects taught but because of the punitive nature of the accountability measures tied to the act, classroom instruction atrophied and learning overall suffered. As Jonathan Cohen wrote, Current federal and state educational policy and accountability systems: Policy shapes practice.Īnd just as we saw via the well-intended but ultimately flawed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, policy will influence classroom instruction. ![]() The primary challenge in my opinion being the existence of federal and state policy that outlines what is taught and what is tested - with the latter dictating the former. What do you believe are the challenges to helping schools to create safe, supportive, engaging and healthy climates for learning?īoth Jonathan and Howard hit on the key challenges in their piece last month. The vast majority of school leaders understand the importance of school climate, but there seems to be an issue creating inclusive and positive climates in schools. ![]() Sean is the Director of Whole Child Programs for ASCD. Last month, I asked Sean Slade, my co-author of School Climate Change: How Do I Build a Positive Environment for Learning (ASCD) a question about social emotional learning and school climate. We talk, debate, and try to figure out ways to infuse them into our daily lives in schools, even though we are charged with meeting mandates, passing high stakes test, proving growth and achievement, and defending ourselves against the negative rhetoric about school. ![]() We hear a lot about each one of those terms related to school climate. ![]()
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