1. Building a Positive School Climate Creating a Community of Upstanders: Promoting Learning as well as Preventing Cruel and Bullying Behaviors Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. National School Climate Center; and Teachers College, Columbia University
July 20, 2017
1:00 to 2:30
Changing the Story Together: Inspiring our Youth to Succeed in an Ever-Changing World

2. Goals
1) To describe the range of behaviors that undermine K-12 students feeling safe 2) To examine and consider the range of school-wide, instructional and relational improvement goals and strategies that have the potential to support students – and adults – feeling safe in schools 3) To recognize how you and your school/district may be involved with these improvement efforts already as well as to consider possible ‘next steps’

3. Discussion Questions
What do you think are some of the most important experiences that undermine students’ feeling safe?
HANDOUT
If you’re thinking that the data look like this because African American students act out more than other students or in worse ways, consider this data:
It’s not poverty:
while African American students in poverty are more likely to be suspended than poor White students, middle and upper class Black students are also more likely to be suspended than their peers at the same demographic level.
Using a regression model controlling for socioeconomic status at the school level (percentage of parents unemployed and percentage of students enrolled in free lunch program), Wu et al. (1982) reported that nonwhite students still reported significantly higher rates of suspension than white students in all locales except rural senior high schools. (The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment, Skiba, R.S., Michael, R.S., Narado, A.C. (2000) Indiana Education Policy Center, Policy Research Report #SRS1).)
there is simply no good evidence that racial differences in discipline are due to differences in rates or types of misbehavior by students of different races.
If racial disparities in discipline are due primarily to behavioral differences, the contribution of race to disciplinary outcomes will become non-significant when type or severity of behavior enters the statistical equation.

4. A framework: Step by step
Understandings shape our
Goals, which in turn drives behavior and suggests
Methods/strategies we use to actualize goals
Measurement supports learning and possible revisions in our under- standings: The problem solving cycle!
• A some what abstract problem solving model.   Later on I will discuss how to actualize this framework using the 5-stage model

5. Understandings
On the limitations of the term “bullying” Perpetrator, target, witness roles: consistent and/or fluid? On the spectrum of mean, bullying and hateful behaviors that undermine feeling safes
1. Prosocial education or what is sometimes referred to as “whole child” education refers to teaching and learning that promotes the skills, knowledge and dispositions that promote mature, productive and ethical citizens, who are also critical and knowledgeable.
• Brown, P., Corrigan, M.W., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2012). Handbook of prosocial education. Rowman & Littlefield
2. Camps:
SEL: Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. (
• Weissberg, R. P., Durlak, J. A., Domitrovich, C. E., & Gullotta, T. P. (2015). Social and emotional learning: Past, present, and future.  In J. A Durlak, C. E. Domitrovich, R. P. Weissberg, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), Handbook of social and emotional learning: Research and practice. New York: Guilford.
Character education includes and complements a broad range of educational approaches such as whole child education, service learning, social-emotional learning, and civic education. All share a commitment to helping young people become responsible, caring, and contributing citizens.” (Taken from:
School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students', parents' and school personnel's experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures
THE PROCESS: A school climate improvement process is an intentional, strategic, collaborative, data-driven and democratically informed process that supports students, parents/guardians, school personnel and community members learning and working together to create even safer, more supportive, engaging and healthy climates for learning that promote school – and life – success.

6. Understandings: Behaviors that Undermine Feeling Safe
• Normal moments of ‘stepping on each others emotional toes” and reacting to feeling frustrated, hurt and/or scared with anger
• Unmet needs
• Being intentionally hurtful:
An individual and a social act
• Hateful (horrible, terrible, unbearable, intolerable, insufferable, disgusting) acts
1. Prosocial education or what is sometimes referred to as “whole child” education refers to teaching and learning that promotes the skills, knowledge and dispositions that promote mature, productive and ethical citizens, who are also critical and knowledgeable.
• Brown, P., Corrigan, M.W., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2012). Handbook of prosocial education. Rowman & Littlefield
2. Camps:
SEL: Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. (
• Weissberg, R. P., Durlak, J. A., Domitrovich, C. E., & Gullotta, T. P. (2015). Social and emotional learning: Past, present, and future.  In J. A Durlak, C. E. Domitrovich, R. P. Weissberg, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), Handbook of social and emotional learning: Research and practice. New York: Guilford.
Character education includes and complements a broad range of educational approaches such as whole child education, service learning, social-emotional learning, and civic education. All share a commitment to helping young people become responsible, caring, and contributing citizens.” (Taken from:
School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students', parents' and school personnel's experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures
THE PROCESS: A school climate improvement process is an intentional, strategic, collaborative, data-driven and democratically informed process that supports students, parents/guardians, school personnel and community members learning and working together to create even safer, more supportive, engaging and healthy climates for learning that promote school – and life – success.

7. Moving From Understandings to Goal Setting and Actions
Effective Prosocial Education
Moving from a reactive to a proactive stance
Priority setting
Specific improvement goals and strategies:
(i) School wide goals and improvement strategies
(ii) Instructional goals/improvement strategies
(iii) Relational goals/improvement strategies
1. Aligned with:
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) Whole Child Initiative;
Character Education Partnerships 11 Principles of Effective Character Education;
CASEL’s theory of change;
National School Climate Council’s National School Climate Standards;
Coalition for Community Schools Models of Community Schools;
The Federally funded Center for Mental Health in Schools three-component policy framework, and
The USDOE-funded Equity Assistance Center Network’s Six Goals of Educational Equity and School Reform.
Citation: National School Climate Council (2015). School Climate and Prosocial Educational Improvement: Essential Goals and Processes that Support Student Success for All, Teachers College Record, May 2015

8. Moving from a reactive to a proactive stance

9. Reactive vs. Proactive Interventions: Individual and Systemic
INDIVIDUAL INTERVENTIONS
SCHOOL-WIDE INTERVENTION
• Peer Mediation
• Tier II and Tier III Interventions
• Suspensions
• Keeping in from recess
• Restorative discipline practices
• Parenting class for student parents
• Student Assistance Team
• Alternative to suspension program
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT
SCHOOL-COMMUNITY WIDE IMPROVEMENT
• Character/SEL programs
• Developmental guidance
• Life skills programs
• Adventure/experiential education
• Mental health promotion
• Peer leadership
• Social contracts (codes of conduct)
• Family involvement & meaningful school-community partnership efforts
• Faculty/staff role modeling: Being a living example
• Disciplinary practice that focuses on learning
• District policy that supports positive school climate improvement efforts
• Professional Learning Communities/Network Improvement Communities
Citation 13
Maybe this slide could be a handout instead of a slide? It can’t be edited to fit the requirements.

10. Priority setting decision making
High Impact
High Effort
{Long-term Projects}
Service Learning Program, Advisory, Peer-mentoring, etc.
Low Effort
{Short-term projects}
“Acceptance Day,” Staff training, themed lesson plans, etc.
Low Impact
{Skip}
{Low Lying Fruit}
Cleaning the bathrooms, painting the walls, etc.

11. Being intentional, strategic and fundamentally collaborative
Setting Specific Goals & Strategies: Setting in Motion a Process of Learning and Improvement
Being intentional, strategic and fundamentally collaborative
Systemic
Instructional
Relational
1. Aligned with:
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) Whole Child Initiative;
Character Education Partnerships 11 Principles of Effective Character Education;
CASEL’s theory of change;
National School Climate Council’s National School Climate Standards;
Coalition for Community Schools Models of Community Schools;
The Federally funded Center for Mental Health in Schools three-component policy framework, and
The USDOE-funded Equity Assistance Center Network’s Six Goals of Educational Equity and School Reform.
Citation: National School Climate Council (2015). School Climate and Prosocial Educational Improvement: Essential Goals and Processes that Support Student Success for All, Teachers College Record, May 2015

12. School-wide goals and strategies
Leadership Development: For students as well as educators
Prosocial indicators of success  
Improvement goals are tailored to the unique/contextual needs of the students and the individual school community
Policy reform: District level and ideally State level
Adult learning and professional learning communities
Professional codes of conduct/rules/norms: Witness?
Prosocial education is an explicit and valued goal

13. Instructional goals and strategies
Being a helpful “living example”  - modeling
Managing classrooms and offices in dignified and democratically informed ways that always focus on student engagement, co-leadership and restorative practices.
Utilizing pedagogies that promote prosocial instruction  
Implementing curriculum

14. Relational goals and strategies
Fostering meaningful & healthy student-teacher/staff relationships: Being connected! 
Supporting civic engagement and equity
Parents, educators, and counselors learn and work together to recognize and respond to ‘at risk’ students

15. Reflections and conversations
In what ways does the goal setting models make sense and/or not?
Reactive vs. proactive?
Priorities setting?
Schoolwide, instructional and relational?

16. School climate improvement: Essential Questions & Conversations
• A continuous process of students, parents/guardians, educators and even community members learning and working together:
What kind of school do we want ours to be?
What are our current strengths, needs and weaknesses?
Understanding what improvement goals we want to work on together?

17. NSCC’s Cyclical Model of School Climate Improvement #6: A “Road map” - Benchmarks
• A problem solving cycle that defines and suggests Understandings – Goals – Strategies – Measurement systems
• Based on a series of tasks/challenges
• Cohen, J. & Pickeral, T, (2009). The School Climate Implementation Road Map: Promoting Democratically Informed School Communities and the Continuous Process of School Climate Improvement. New York, NY: National School Climate Center (

18. Stage 1 - Planning and preparation: Laying the groundwork
Promoting engagement & collaboration
Forming a representative SC improvement leadership team and establishing ground rules collaboratively
A shared vision: Building support and fostering “Buy In” for the improvement process
Establishing a “no fault” framework and promoting a culture of trust
Ensuring your team has adequate resources to support the process
Celebrating successes and building on past efforts
Reflecting and learning from Stage One work: Process assessments
On the value of leadership teams understanding “where we are?” with regards to tasks noted above and developing informed plans that intentionally build on current strengths and potential areas for improvement

19. Stage 2 - Assessment
• Supporting the school community’s comprehensive understanding of strengths and potential areas for improvement:
Systematically evaluating the school’s strengths, needs and weaknesses: Prosocially, academically, behaviorally
Developing plans to share evaluation findings with the school community
Reflecting and learning from Stage Two work

20. Stage 3 - Action Planning
• Engagement and the creation of a foundation for learning as well as implementation
Understanding the evaluation findings
Digging into the data to understand areas of consensus & discrepancy, and promoting learning & engagement.
Prioritizing Goals
Researching best practices and evidence-based instructional and systemic programs and efforts
Developing an action plan
Reflecting and learning from Stage Three work

21. Stage 4 - Implementing the Action Plan
• Schoolwide, instructional and relational improvement efforts
Coordinating evidence-based pedagogic and systemic efforts
Efforts are implemented with fidelity, monitored and there is an ongoing attempt to learn from successes and challenges.
The adults who teach and learn with students work to further their own social, emotional and civic learning.
Reflecting and learning from Stage Four work.
• designed to:
promote students’ social, emotional and civic as well as intellectual competencies; and
improve the school climate by working toward a safe, caring, participatory and responsive school community.
• IIRP-NSCC developing partnership

22. Stage 5-Re-evaluation & Beginning Anew
• Learning from successes and challenges
Discovering what has changed and how
Discovering what has most helped and hindered further the school climate improvement process
Reevaluating the school’s strengths and challenges
Revising plans to improve the school climate
Reflecting and learning from Stage Five work

23. Learnings Being intentional and strategic about our goals
Fostering learning communities: Celebrating success and learning from failures/challenges
Supporting inter generational school improvement efforts
Making implicit social norms about the role of the witness explicit: From a culture of bystanders to one of Upstanders
Fostering meaningful conversations

24. Next Steps
What seems most important to you to consider now? How might you build on current efforts?
Are there ways you can and would like to be a ‘teacher/learner’ with other classroom, school, district and/or state improvement leaders?

25. Thank you! Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D.
• President, National School Climate Center (NSCC)
341 West 38th Street, 9th Floor, New York, New York (212) ;
• Adjunct Professor in Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University;                                                                                                                                 • Co-editor, International Journal on School Climate and Violence Prevention.
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