The Climate Of A School

I believe there are many factors that define culture, such as language, food, traditions from past generations, religion, and values. All of these factors have the power to influence the individuals within.

Measuring and trying to improve campus climate can be difficult and sometimes frustrating. There are many different facets, but when the media reports school leaders in a negative light, the school’s image is affected within the school and the local community. Educational leaders can listen to what people are saying. Some people think there isn't a problem and others feel they are not valued and respected. Cultural proficiency becomes a priority in addressing the concerns of a diverse student population. This can prompt a review of school climate (Developing a Positive School Climate, 2009).

The principal understands the educational needs of the community and has structured the school around that concept. According to the article, Preparing and Supporting Diverse, Culturally Competent Leaders, “Educational leaders who are not culturally competent cannot be fully effective”

In the book, The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, the author, Michael Fullan, discusses how a school ran with moral imperative will benefit everyone involved. Fullan summarizes how principals who share the leadership role and work collectively with others find success. He lays out the ways to change the context of your campus, defines some barriers of school leadership, and how to make a difference at the individual level and at the school level. He also discusses how to make a difference beyond your campus, expanding to regionally and society. Lastly he demonstrates how a new direction and new context require the individual and system to work together towards successfully changing the culture of your campus.

How would you categorize the school climate at the school where you are doing your fieldwork?

Montclaire Elementary School (MES) is a Title I neighborhood school located at 5801 Farmbrook Dr., Charlotte, North Carolina. The building was built in 1957-1958 and sits on a large, beautiful campus with a new playground and sports field that are maintained by the parks and recreation association. Montclaire is part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), an urban district of over 145,000 kindergarten through twelfth grade students attending in the 164 schools. For this evidence I analyzed the organizational structures, management routines, budget operations at MES, both internally and externally. Information from the NC Report Card, the TNTP Instructional Culture Insight survey, interviews/surveys I conducted, and current processes that already exist at MES, were reviewed and analyzed in order to provide an accurate analysis of this school.

There needs to be at least 50 participants chosen for this study. A sample of convenience was used which limited the scope of the study to high poverty and low poverty schools in the South Carolina Lowcountry. These participants were all South Carolina certified teachers in multiple secondary disciplines. Teachers who had only been employed for one year were not included in the study because it is possible they did not have enough personal experience with their current principal to accurately determine their leadership behaviors. This was done to protect the integrity of the study and to gain an accurate depiction of the principal’s leadership behaviors over time. This exclusion also ensures that answers to the school climate survey are referencing the perception of the school climate from a perspective of a person that has experienced it for a significant period of time.

As the principal, I want to help develop and guide the climate of the school but in order to do that, I need to have and understanding and respect of the culture of the school and the teachers, parents, staff, and students. The culture is the traditions and values of a school, where as the climate is the feel of the school as you are on the school grounds. For this reflective essay, I would be a new principal at a new school, so the teachers may or may not have all worked together before and there would not be an established culture & climate, with the exception of uncertainty and or excitement. This would provide the staff and the community the opportunity to develop, build, and the culture and climate together. I would start with meeting with the teachers & staff individually, I would also provide a survey to see what they believe are the needs for developing our new school with high expectations for all students. After meeting individually, I would hold our first staff meeting (I would provide food, drinks, little incentives - ) and I would share the survey data as well as data on student achievements from all the schools in the district. This data would guide us in the future directions for our students success. I would then show the YouTube video

This body of work was jointly assigned to my fellow students and I as a requirement for our Leadership with a Vision for Changing School Culture in a Changing Society class. Much to our chagrin, each of us, after five weeks of ever changing syllabi, were tasked with completing a component of a school improvement plan. Schentel Jones completed the “Assessment of the current state of school culture” component. Ronald Berry completed the “Supervise the instructional and leadership capacity of school staff” component. Diamond Elam completed the “Appropriate technologies to support teaching and learning” component. I completed the “Create and evaluate the curricular and instructional school program” component. Each of us provided input and feedback to each other to make our individual components a success and part of an interconnected improvement plan.

Having worked in districts of various degrees of achievement, I have found that the leaders I most desire to emulate, altered their technique based on the staff with which they worked. Having a positive school environment of high expectations for students and staff will ultimately lead to success.

A solid school vision statement and its accompanying goals should reflect the culture of a school and provide for improvement in the school’s instructional program, and professional development to improve student learning (ELCC 2). The meta-analysis work of Marzano, Waters and McNulty (2005) discovered the importance of each of these dimensions in relationship to school principals and the successful school environment. Furthermore, principals’ skill in each of these dimensions has demonstrated a positive correlation to student achievement (Marzano et al.).

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people. It is learned and transmitted from one generation to the next. Culture will change as situations and the needs of people change. A school environment itself constitutes a subculture within a larger society. Each school has a culture of its own, like a minuscule society. The school culture reflects the community in which the school is located and its students’ characteristics. This will consist of the values, attitudes, beliefs, norms, and customs of those making the system. This is because of the racial and socioeconomic segregation of residential communities. A school’s culture is formed by its history context and the individuals in it. Each school has a

There is a large discrepancy in the interpretation of how the current culture is in the High School. The administrative staff seems to have a grasp in reference to this evident in their comments that the some of the staff seems ready to move forward and some of the staff is not. After interviewing teachers, the culture at the high schools seems be on the low end. Questions pertaining to overall feeling towards administration and in specific teacher’s input being heard and valued scored on the low side with an average of about 2.7, with 1 being poor and 5 excellent. One of the lowest scoring questions references leaders not taking the time to praise teachers for doing well. In reference to this, a teacher noted the fact that Wilson high school was named the 44th best school by U.S. News and World Reports (“National Rankings,” 2015) In addition, teacher responses seemed to show a feeling of not planning across curriculum and grade levels. In addition, there is a feeling that the leadership does not value teachers co-planning and observing each other teach. As a whole, the staff felt that teachers are willing to help each other on a daily basis. These questions as well as questions about teachers being involved with and concerned with school improvement were the only questions which scored at a four or better.

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between school climate and the achievement of high school students in core courses as measured by state and national administered assessments. The study will explore the concept of school climate and how it influences what teachers are able to achieve with their students. Implications for the study include helping school leaders understand how to cultivate

Culture and climate are related with each other but has different perspectives about them. Culture of the organization is about the social interaction of the people within organization. This is also about the traditions, values and the minds of the people. Whereas, climate is about the behavior of the people in the organizations. This gives idea about how people are working and what is their contribution in the organization. Man power is the key player in the success of any organization and thus, organizations that have dedicated and motivated employees are more likely to succeed. Such organizations have a comfortable climate which enables the workers to give their best output in the working. Climate is also about how people are thinking and working in the organization. Both culture and the climate have significant importance in the effectiveness of the organizations. There are two types of climate such as defensive and supportive. Defensive type of climate is rigid, conservative and de-motivates new experiments. There are different cultures such as power culture, role culture, task culture and people centered culture. Power culture is based on a centralized power system which handles the organization. Role culture gives role to all the employees and management to work for the organization. Task centered culture has