Build a positive school climate to impact students, teachers, and the community! Is improving school climate on your to-do list? Do you think about it as a top-down directive or as a dialogue to build equity within the school? A healthy school environment should never be seen as an option, but instead supported as a must-have. Peter DeWitt offers leaders practical high impact strategies to improve school climate, deepen involvement in student learning, and engage a broader family network. In addition to international vignettes focused on community stakeholders and research-based practices, this book features tools such as · a leadership growth cycle to help leaders build their self-efficacy · a teacher observation cycle centered on building collective efficacy · an early warning system to identify potential at-risk students · action steps following each chapter to apply to your own setting · discussion questions for use in team environments Establishing a supportive and inclusive school climate where professionals can take risks to improve the lives of students is vital to maximize learning in any school community.

Many people have become impatient with school reform and school improvement efforts that fail to include school climate. The importance of a positive school climate is emerging in current research, not only as an essential component of school reform and school improvement, but also as a necessary framework for maintaining excellent schools and providing healthy and safe schools for all students. Research strongly suggests that educators and policy makers have a lot to learn about the importance of school climate for school safety and academic success. With the growing body of research regarding school climate, it is important to study the research and understand how the psychology of school climate and how the elements of school climate can be viewed from a population-based perspective, as well as understanding the impact of school climate on individual students. This review of school climate research includes hundreds of articles and research papers of different perspectives from around the world in numerous cultures. School climate is becoming a science of education and psychology that must be studied further in order to understand the dynamic nature of learning environments, to identify elements that support or threaten the learning environment, and to learn how to improve the conditions for learning in all schools.

The authors provide a collaborative action research process to help all stakeholders transform both their school climate and student learning. Includes success stories, strategies, and implementation activities.

As educators, psychologists, child advocates, researchers, and others that support education for all students will find, a positive school climate is the central element for students feeling connected and engaged at school, which are necessary for positive student outcomes. The Psychology of School Climate (2nd Edition) is an essential compendium of school climate research from around the world. With over 600 references, the book is the most comprehensive study of school climate in print. The book is based on a review, description, and application of research that focuses on identifying basic problems and the effects social determinants have on the lives and outcomes of students and school staff members. At the end of each chapter, there are summaries that highlight important points for discussion and additional research. Most importantly, the book offers the gateway to understanding the nexus of students and school climate and the importance of that bond.

Creating an Inclusive School Climate introduces school psychology stakeholders to a wealth of foundations, individualized experiences, and school improvement efforts intended to bolster the outcomes of our most vulnerable learners. As student populations grow increasingly diverse, sociocultural variables have never been more important to supporting school climate. Using an original cultural-ecological framework, this book builds on the experiences of historically underrepresented and oppressed youth to foster a socially just, strengths-based perspective for implementing school improvement efforts within multi-tiered systems. Faculty, graduate students, researchers, and professionals in the field will come away with a conceptually and methodologically sound understanding of the interrelationships between personal characteristics, culture, ecological contexts, and school climate.

Empower students and staff to prevent cyberbullying and sexting Bullying is not new, but its venues have expanded to include social media and mobile phones. When students receive hurtful, threatening, or sexually explicit electronic messages, it affects their ability to concentrate on schoolwork. Renowned cyberbullying experts Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin connect the off-campus, high-tech behaviors of teens to the school environment and provide educators with a road map for developing a positive school climate that counteracts cyberbullying and sexting. School Climate 2.0 differentiates cyberbullying from traditional bullying and offers specific strategies for improving school climate, including Building a sense of community Peer mentoring Social norming Data-driven action plans Youth grassroots campaigns Multi-pronged policy and programming approaches by adults Included are anecdotes, stories, and high-profile case examples that illustrate the research. The book′s companion website features a Twitter feed and Facebook Fan Page with regular PreventionPoints you can put into action quickly, downloadable activities and worksheets, questions to facilitate staff and student discussions, and emerging best practices in school climate research and evaluation—powerful tools for bully-proofing your school.

In the book, Leadership, Violence and School Climate: Case Studies in Creating Non-Violent Schools, three important themes are emphasized namely, democratic leadership, violence and school climate. The book recognizes that safety should be the first issue of concern when addressing school violence. However, violence in schools should not be the sole concern of outside experts who advocate for lock downs, metal detectors and bullet proof glass. Through democratic school leadership violence can be reduced by those professionals actually working in schools. The book emphasizes that reduction in school violence originates from school leaders having a comprehensive understanding of the climate found in schools. Leadership, violence and school climate are connected through the use of democratic principles that address; crisis, trauma, empowerment, common ground, critical thinking, assertiveness and others. The book points out how schools can reverse their reactionary stance to violence, and become pro-active through the practice of democratic principles.