School Climate Technical Assistance Symposium
March 9 – 11, 2011 (New Orleans, LA)
The Office of Safe and Healthy Students School Climate Technical Assistance Symposium was held Wednesday, March 9 – Friday, March 11, 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The goal of the symposium was to engage representative teams from each state and territory in a national dialogue and learning experience related to the measurement and improvement of school climate.
Over the past year, the U.S. Department of Education has established a priority for improving school climate and the conditions for learning in our nations’ schools by the funding of a new Safe and Supportive Schools grant program, a pilot that will enable states to measure school safety at the building level and to provide federal funds for interventions in those schools with the greatest needs. For more information about this initiative, go here.
This symposium further addressed this priority by creating an opportunity for a national dialogue and a repository of valuable resources. In particular, it provided information and interactive activities related to strategies that support a positive school climate, school climate measurement tools, administration and data analysis, sustaining effective interventions and programs, and develop state-level plans for improving measurement and programming.
Conference Presentations
The symposium included three plenary presentations, a total of 16 presentations along three themes (measurement, sustainability, and program implementation) and resources. Click on the links below to view symposium presentations and resources.
Plenary Sessions
“International practice and context for school climate”
Extra Resources:
How can we improve school safety research?
List of select publications related to monitoring on the national, regional, and school site levels
Making the case for an international perspective on school violence: Implications for theory, research, policy, and assessment
Monitoring and mapping student victimization in schools
Monitoring indicators of children’s victimization in school: Linking national-, regional-, and site-level indicators
Monitoring school violence in Israel, national studies and beyond: Implications for theory, practice, and policy
Monitoring school violence: Linking national-, district-, and school-level data over time
School violence and theoretically atypical schools: The principal’s centrality in orchestrating safe schools
Unowned places and times: Maps and interviews about violence in High Schools
“The connection between climate and academics”
David Osher, Ph.D., American Institutes for Research
“Creating champions for sustainability through social marketing and communications”
Theme 1: Measurement
“Key strategies for understanding and using climate data”
“Expanding and improving data on bullying, harassment and discipline”
Rebecca Fitch, United States Department of Education
J. Fred Springer, Ph.D., EMT Associates, Inc.
“School safety score considerations: construction, quality, utility”
David Osher, Ph.D., American Institutes for Research
J. Fred Springer, Ph.D., EMT Associates, Inc.
“School climate surveys: Key concepts, approaches to measurement, and use”
“Balancing utility and research criteria in conditions for learning measurement”
“Considerations and strategies for family and staff surveys”
Greg Austin, Ph.D., West Ed
Eric Hirsch, New Teacher Center
Theme 2: Sustainability
“Creating communities of practice in support of improved conditions for learning”
Eric Hirsch, New Teacher Center
Joanne Cashman, Ed.D., IDEA Partnership at NASDSE
“Strategic planning process for sustainability”
Nora Carr, Guilford County Schools
Extra Resources:
Courting the middle class: What can schools do to keep parents from going private, or moving to the suburbs?
Facing Facebook
Mission critical
“Best practices among states and districts”
“Linkages of school climate data to academic outcomes”
“Improving collaboration with agencies and partners for the collection and use of data”
Theme 3: Program Implementation
“Role of mental health in schools”
Dana Cunningham, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine
Extra Resources:
Summary of evidence-based program registries
Summary of recognized evidence-based programs implemented by expanded school mental health (ESMH) programs
“Engaging families in a comprehensive approach to improving school climate”
“The use of data for making improvements at the school level”
Jean Ajamie, Arizona Department of Education
“Strategies to support social, emotional and behavioral needs of students”
“Managing the use of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests: Alternatives for schools and districts”
Jeffrey Sprague, Ph.D., University of Oregon
Other Resources
Anti-Bulling Policies: Examples of Provisions in State Laws
Guides, Briefs, and Tools to Improve Programming and Practice
Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)
School Climate Literature
