Does school climate research match education policy and practice?

Details

Educators have written about and studied school climate for 100 years. School climate is the quality and character of school life. It is based on patterns in people's experiences and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. It is also a group phenomenon larger than any one person's experience.

According to the article, a sustainable, positive school climate fosters the youth development and learning needed for a productive, contributive, and satisfying life in a democratic society. Its norms, values, and expectations support social, emotional, and physical safety. People are engaged and respected. Students, families, and educators work together to develop, live, and contribute to a shared school vision. Educators model and nurture an attitude emphasizing the benefits of and satisfaction from learning. Each person contributes to school operations and care of the physical environment. School climate covers areas such as safety, relationships, teaching and learning, and the environment, as well as broader organizational patterns: visions can be fragmented or cohesive and shared, and patterns can be healthy or unhealthy, conscious or unrecognized.

These definitions were collaboratively developed and agreed upon at an April 2007 consensus-building meeting of national practice and policy leaders, organized by the National Center for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States, and Center for Social and Emotional Education.

The article examines the relationship between school-climate research findings and educational policy, school improvement practice, and teacher education. To assess the state of research, policy, practice, and teacher education, it used historical analysis, a literature review, a national State Department of Education policy scan, and a national survey of 40 building, district, and state educational leaders about school climate measurement and improvement practices.

The literature review found a growing body of empirical research indicating that positive school climate is associated with and/or predictive of academic achievement, school success, effective violence prevention, students' healthy development, and teacher retention. The authors found a glaring gap between these research findings and state departments of education, school climate policy, practice guidelines, and teacher education practice.

The authors argue that the gap between research, policy, practice, and teacher education is socially unjust and violates children's human rights. They state that research-based guidelines now exist that predictably support positive youth development and student learning. Applying them would support children, educators, parents, communities, and the foundation for democratic process, but the authors say that, as a country, this is not being done. They argue that children deserve better. They propose detailed recommendations for policy makers, practice leaders, and teacher educators to narrow the gap and support students' healthy development and capacity to learn.