Framework Components
Each component plays a crucial role in determining a positive outcome of the school community:

• • • • Developing a Team

      • Collecting Data

      • Goal Setting

      • Identifying Resources

      • Identifying and Implementing Interventions

      • Evaluate the process

      • Celebrating your progress and repeating the process

Developing your team
Creating a representative team is an important part of the process.

• Focus on bringing in diverse opinions and backgrounds for your team.

• Make sure underrepresented students and staff are provided an opportunity to participate and lead.

Collecting Data
Focus on bringing various data points to the team for review.

• Use the Delaware School Climate Surveys to gather important stakeholder feedback

• Survey Data Collection

• Focus Groups

  • What are they?

    • Informal group discussions focused on a particular topic or set of issues (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009).

  • Why would we do them?

    • They are a good way to get detailed information from groups of people about a particular topic. They can be a great compliment to information gathered from a survey.

• Tips for conducting groups

  • Develop a set of simple, non-leading questions to ask students, teachers/staff, and/or caregivers.

  • Identify a representative group of participants.

  • Identify facilitators who are good at creating a welcoming environment for all.

  • Discussions are usually recorded, and transcripts are used to review later and identify themes across groups.

  • Share findings with the school community. This assures students they’ve been heard and gives everyone the same information.

  • Additional Resources for Focus Groups

    • Using Focus Groups in Schools

    • Elementary School- Delaware Department of Education

    • Listening to Teachers: Sample Focus Group and Survey Materials

    • Tips for conducting online focus groups

Identifying and Measuring Goals

• • • • Based on the survey data you received consider the following:

        1. 1. Where are the high ratings indicating a positive climate (i.e., strength)?

           2. Where are there lower ratings indicating a less positive climate (i.e., area of improvement)?

           3. Which areas are consistently low or high across stakeholders (i.e., students, staff, home)?

           4. Which areas are unique to a specific group (e.g., teachers feel there’s good teacher-home communication, but parents do not)?

           5. Of all the areas of need, which 3 are most important to the team presently?

           6. How might the team address these needs?

           7. Whose input should you consider?

Identifying Community Resources

• • • • Resource mapping is a way to identify those resources be they students themselves, families, community partners, local universities, etc.

      • This can be done answering the following questions:

        1. 2. 1. What do we have in the way of money, time, personnel, etc.?

              2. What do we need?

              3. Where or to whom can we go to or collaborate with to address these needs?

Intervention Identification and Implementation

• • • • Interventions are simply actions taken to improve a situation. Part of the challenge in selecting interventions is finding one or a set of interventions that have been effective in similar situations or with similar populations in the past. Here are some questions to ask when selecting interventions:

        1. 2. 1. Is there evidence that this has worked in similar cases in the past?

              2. What made the intervention successful?

              3. Are there adaptations that we need to consider?

              4. What resources does this intervention require?

• Additional Resources for Interventions

• Quick Guide for Making School Climate Improvements

  • Reference Manual for Choosing and Implementing School Climate Interventions

• Best Practices for Improving School Climate and Culture

• The Essential Traits of a Positive School Climate (EdWeek article)

• School-wide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWiFT)

• A Commitment to Racial Equity from the Center on PBIS

• Strategies for Creating Racial Equity in Classrooms and Schools

• Student Intervention for Anti-racist Education (blog)

Evaluate the Process

• Revisit your goals

• Celebrate and Repeat the Process when necessary

• Additional resources to consider

  • Visit this table full of school climate surveys for students, teachers and parents

  • Districts Advancing Racial Equity (DARE) Tool

  • Equity Impact Analysis (5 questions to consider before implementing something new)

  • Equity Audit- (MAEC Criteria for an Equitable School)

  • West Orange Public Schools Diversity, Equity and Access Survey for Teachers & Staff

  • Racial Equity and Cultural Diversity Toolkits

Download the EASD Culture and Climate Guide here.