Assessing and creating a climate of support for staff members in addressing student conduct
Date
2023
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
School climate is a widely researched concept because of the influence that school climate can have on student outcomes such as academic achievement, attendance and discipline (Thapa et al, 2013;Wang & Degol, 2016;), as well as staff member outcomes such as job satisfaction and teacher retention (Cohen et al, 2009; Thapa et al, 2013). A positive school climate can result in better outcomes for students and staff members. School climate, however, is largely based on stakeholder perceptions, and therefore data must be collected from stakeholders to first assess the climate, and then design a plan to improve the school climate. This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP), was designed to address the following problem: staff members perceive a lack of support from administration when addressing student misbehavior, which can negatively affect school climate. In order to address that problem, I designed three improvement strategies: 1) assess school climate, 2) communicate expectations, strategies, and resources, and 3) provide professional development to staff members. The results of this ELP demonstrate the need to continuously assess school climate through stakeholder feedback. The feedback gathered from staff members and student participants emphasizes the importance of consistent communication between staff members and administration, as well as staff members and students. Staff members identified additional measures that they viewed as support from administration in response to student discipline, including collaboration and exclusionary discipline measures. This study also highlights the importance of an integrated disciplinary framework that is multi-tiered and focused on prevention of student misconduct, and intervention rather than punishment in response to misconduct. Professional development was also identified as important for improving school climate and increasing staff members’ understanding of prevention-and intervention-focused responses to student misconduct. ☐ The work of this ELP supports the existing literature on school climate, in that improving and maintaining a positive school climate is an on-going effort (Payne, 2018). I have identified several next steps as the result of this ELP, including: continued effort to use stakeholder feedback to assess school climate, consistent and clear communication to students and staff members regarding expectations for student behavior, clear expectations for staff member responses to student behavior, and professional development for staff members on prevention- and intervention-focused student discipline.
Description
Keywords
School climate, Staff member outcomes, Teacher retention, Job satisfaction, Staff members