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Every principal and assistant principal wants to lead a happy, healthy, and safe school with a climate that supports the success and well-being of students and adults. According to the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse, “Research shows that when schools and districts focus on promoting a positive school climate, students are more likely to develop trusting relationships with their peers, teachers, and others in the school community; demonstrate positive behaviors; and achieve better outcomes. In the absence of a positive school climate, a student may feel disconnected and engage in destructive or violent behaviors.”

At the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), we know that preventative strategies based on supportive relationships and building positive climates benefit all students, especially those furthest from opportunity. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an effective strategy to strengthen positive school climates, build meaningful relationships, and foster safe, supportive, and healthy schools. Indeed, when we work to call students into their education, rather than calling them out when they do something wrong, we create stronger school climates where students feel safe, supported, and engaged.

A National Priority

School safety is a local and national priority. The federal government continues to fund grant programs to support schools and districts to implement evidence-based programming, including SEL and restorative discipline practices, to foster safe and healthy learning environments. School leaders can use this funding to improve school climate.

For example, the Stronger Connections Grant Program, created as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, provides funds to state education agencies to competitively award subgrants to high-need local education agencies to establish safer and healthier learning environments and to prevent and respond to acts of bullying, violence, and hate. In addition, the School Climate Transformation Grants Program provides funds to develop, enhance, or expand multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) in districts and schools that leverage evidence-based programming, including SEL, to impact school climate.

As a school leader, you can leverage the funding from each of these programs, as well as braid these funding streams with local and state funding sources, to implement the strategies shared below. If your district does not already apply for these funds or use them for these purposes, you can advocate for district leaders to seek and use these federal resources.

Strategies for Collaborating With Students and Staff to Strengthen a Supportive, Positive School Climate

At CASEL, we use 10 indicators of schoolwide SEL to paint a picture of what implementation of high-quality SEL looks like at the school level. Many of the indicators are connected, and we encourage school leaders to think “big picture” about how they work together to create positive school environments. For example, one of the indicators is supportive discipline, which we describe as policies and practices that are “instructive, restorative, and developmentally appropriate.” This relies upon another indicator, supportive school and classroom climates, where educators have built the kinds of developmental relationships with students that supportive discipline requires. Additionally, SEL is most effective when it is part of a continuum of integrated supports (MTSS) to address the social, emotional, and academic needs of all students. Through this systemic approach, we lay the groundwork for student health and safety.

Let’s take a look at three concrete strategies to help ensure this work is effective and equitable.

Strategy 1: Engage students in designing school climate practices, discipline policies, and community agreements and routines. Students have a unique perspective on how high-level decisions impact the day-to-day life of the school and can help us with fresh, outside-the-box thinking. Engaging students as co-designers also creates opportunities for student leadership and builds belonging.

For example, many secondary schools have repurposed classrooms (and in some cases, spaces formerly used for in-school suspension) as Peace Rooms to support students in a variety of ways, including restorative practices, de-escalation, wellness and mindfulness activities, and community gathering spaces. Sending students to an out-of-classroom location was formerly viewed as a punishment. As a result, it can be challenging to rebrand these spaces in a way that the school community will embrace. Inviting students to co-design these spaces, frame how and when they should be used, and communicate about their purpose and benefits with their peers, helps the school community understand them as resources to use proactively and intentionally to build relationships and skills. (See this video at youtube.com/watch?v=YE8XhZFs13c about The Wellness Center in Century High School as an example.)

Inviting students to co-design these spaces, frame how and when they should be used, and communicate about their purpose and benefits with their peers, helps the school community understand them as resources to use proactively and intentionally to build relationships and skills.

Students can act as co-designers within classrooms as well, building agency, leadership, and a sense of belonging as they develop and lead class routines. CASEL’s Class Routines and Responsibilities tool for teachers describes steps teachers can take to balance teacher-directed structure with student choice, facilitate class discussion to shape a routine, and present a new routine back to the class while staying open to feedback and adjustment as the year goes on.

Strategy 2: Partner with students, families, and staff to regularly collect and analyze data to understand trends and uncover any inconsistencies in disciplinary practices and disparities between student subgroups. Reviewing multiple data sources, including qualitative and quantitative data, can help tell the story of how students are being supported and what remains to be done. Disaggregating data for different subgroups of students is an especially powerful way of understanding the effectiveness of school interventions and can help educators answer the questions, “What works? For whom? And in what circumstances?”

CASEL’s SEL Data Reflection Protocol presents a structured reflection process to observe trends and discuss ideas for improvement, and it prompts reflection on issues of equity, such as:

  • What additional context would be helpful to the team in interpreting or acting on this data? Consider the lived experience behind this data.
  • Whose voices and experiences are not represented?
  • How could students help us make sense of this data? (Another version of this protocol is designed to be led by students.)

Strategy 3: Provide strategies and tools to support reflection on emotions and the impact of words and actions, as well as collaborative problem-solving. Students are bound to have normal friction as they go about their days collaborating on projects, socializing, and struggling through the myriad challenges of growing up. When educators model and teach strategies, students can grow their skills in self-awareness, communication, and decision-making. For example, consider these strategies for resolving interpersonal conflict:

  • All students and staff learn to use a talking piece (an object that indicates who is speaking to support taking turns without interruption) and a problem-solving discussion protocol. For example, a discussion protocol may include: 1) Say what the problem is for you, 2) Listen to what the problem is for them, 3) Brainstorm possible solutions together, 4) Choose the solution that you both are willing to try, and 5) Try it out. A comfortable space is set up with a table, chairs, talking piece, and posted discussion protocol. Students are encouraged to use the space on their own when a conflict is emerging or can request staff support to use the protocol with a peer.
  • Students experiencing a conflict can request or be encouraged to participate in peer mediation. A trained student mediator works with students on both sides of a conflict to find a resolution. They each reflect on and describe the conflict from their perspective, how they have experienced harm and/or how their actions or words caused harm, and their ideas about what actions could repair the harm. This process can also be effective to mediate conflicts between students and staff, if the staff member is open and prepared to let go of their positional authority and authentically reflect on the part they have played in the conflict and the harm they have caused.
  • At Pearl-Cohn High School in Nashville, trained staff facilitators guide a restorative circle in the morning before classes begin as an alternative to exclusionary discipline. Referred students are encouraged and supported to discuss their behavior along with the context and root causes of the problem and collaborate with other students and the facilitator to generate ways to resolve conflicts and access support when they need it. Watch their video here: https://youtu.be/1-RZYSTJAAo?si=-E5Khc1tZYRQwqcX.

Staff members may need to experience the benefits of these practices before they understand and support them as viable alternatives to punitive practices. Modifying practices for use with adults during staff meetings or smaller team meetings (such as CASEL’s Circle Discussion Protocol) can serve as an introduction to a style of communication and collaboration they can use in their classrooms.

Why Your Role Is Essential

As you know, school leaders set the tone for our schools and can be the catalyst for development of equitable and inclusive learning environments in which every student is called fully and joyfully into their educational experience.

By modeling positive social and emotional competencies through inclusion of student voice, deep data dives, and development of school policies that are equitable and encourage supportive discipline, you have the ability to create a school climate that fosters the safety and well-being of every student and adult you lead.

Claire Schu is a senior manager of implementation support at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, where Heather Schwartz is a practice advisor, and Andrew Tucker is director of policy. Learn more at casel.org.

References

Century High School Wellness Center. (2019, September 26). Wellness center video [Video]. youtube.com/watch?v=YE8XhZFs13c

Edutopia. (2018, February 5). Restorative circles: Creating a safe environment for students to reflect [Video]. youtube.com/watch?v=1-RZYSTJAAo

Osher, D., & Berg, J. (2018, January 31). School climate and social and emotional learning: The integration of two approaches. American Institutes for Research. air.org/resource/brief/school-climate-and-social-and-emotional-learning-integration-two-approaches#:~:text=School%20Climate%20and%20Social%20and%20Emotional%20Learning%3A%20The%20Integration%20of%20Two%20Approaches,-David%20Osher&text=Healthy%20schools%20support%20student%20learning,for%20social%20and%20emotional%20development

Strawhun, J., Parenell, K., Peterson, R.L., & Palmon, S. (2014, December). Peer mediation. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. k12engagement.unl.edu/sites/unl.edu.cehs.special-ed-communic-disorders.student-engagement-project/files/media/file/Peer%20Mediation_0.pdf