Three steps to balance vision and practice.
By Bobbi DePorter and Mark Reardon
Principal, November/December 2013
Web Resources

Culture is the sum of the attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize a group. In particular, the culture of a school is seen and heard every day in the way individuals— school administrators, teachers, students, and parents—speak to, interact with, and even think about one another. Culture permeates every aspect of the school. It is not just seen and heard—it is felt.

For example, just as effective parent communication and staff motivation positively impact a school’s culture, bullying and cyberbullying, miscommunication, and instances of school violence negatively impact it, and by extension student achievement. But social and emotional learning (SEL) programs can make a world of difference. Joseph Durlak and colleagues, reporting their research in the January/February 2011 issue of Child Development, explain that students participating in SEL programs “demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement.”

SEL programs, such as The 8 Keys of Excellence school character education program, can help foster a culture that significantly impacts student achievement. Such cultures increase attendance; decrease the number of disciplinary actions; and improve staff morale, passion, and alignment. The 8 Keys program, which focuses on principles such as integrity, commitment, ownership, flexibility, and balance, provides schools with a full year of character education lesson plans, online resources, training, and support.

Regardless of the SEL program used, principals should take these three essential steps to establish a culture of excellence: define, build, and orchestrate.

1. Define It for Clarity
A school’s culture is driven by a shared vision. Begin the process with your staff by defining the attributes of a culture of excellence and identifying the manifestation of those attributes. The greater the clarity you and your staff have about your culture of excellence, the greater success you’ll have in building it.

For example, when Jefferson Middle School in Oceanside, California, adopted the 8 Keys program, the principal and assistant principal were determined to make it a strong, pervasive force in their school culture. Once a month, they extended the first period for all teachers to teach and reinforce a specific key at the same time. This focused the entire school on one principle as they integrated the keys into the culture in myriad ways.

The 8 Keys created a common language throughout the school. At the end of the first year of implementation, suspensions had decreased 29 percent from the previous year, and expulsions had decreased by 32 percent. In addition, teachers reported an increase in their ability to engage all students in learning, improve student socialization, cultivate positive attitudes, and encourage students to take responsibility for their learning.

2. Build It for Consistency
The culture you desire will become reality as you systematically build it. To do so, there are four components to consider—social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. We’ll focus here on the social and emotional components because without them the cognitive component is compromised.

Social Component: Alignment. What people believe, what they agree to do, and what they actually do are the essence of culture. The social component includes alignment of many factors, including intentions, agreements, and beliefs.

Intentions are different from expectations. For example, you may expect a student who failed math last year to do poorly again this year. However, you can choose to hold an intention that the student will do well this year. Students know what their teachers think of them, so holding positive intentions empowers students to believe in their excellence.

Agreements are commitments we make to one another. They hold us accountable. Without agreements, people operate on assumptions. With your staff, define what you agree on. Determine the commitments you will make to one another to build your culture of excellence. For example, staff can agree to listen respectfully to each other and take ownership of decisions.

Finally, consider what you and your staff believe about yourselves as educators and the impact of your work. What do you believe about one another and your students? Examples of powerful beliefs include: “All students can learn,” “All students can behave appropriately,” and “All students can develop good character.”

Emotional Component: Safety, Support, Belonging. The emotional atmosphere is how it feels to be in class, at school, and in the staff lounge. For many, it’s an instant gut-level reaction about whether it feels welcoming, supportive, and safe. School leaders need to ensure that it is.

When an atmosphere is positive and supportive, it provides a “home court advantage.” In sports, this phenomenon commonly gives home teams a statistical advantage. Achieve this advantage by focusing on fostering feelings of safety, support, and belonging as you get to know your staff, teachers, and students.

To get to know your staff and teachers professionally, build an awareness of what’s happening in classrooms. Maybe one teacher is using strategies that are producing exceptional results and would be willing to share them with others. Perhaps another has effectively engaged parents in her classroom activities. When you keep this professional contact alive on a continuing basis, not only are you building rapport and connecting with your teachers, but you are also making your teachers feel valued.

Rapport increases when teachers and staff know that you also care about them personally. Whose birthday is coming up? Who’s getting married, buying a new car, or has a child graduating from college? When staff members feel valued, the home court advantage permeates the entire school.

To get to know your students, learn about their world and build authentic bridges into their lives. Look beyond the cumulative record, past report cards, discipline referrals, and individualized education plans. Ensure that you and your teachers take the time to engage in conversations with students about their lives—family, athletic and musical interests, challenges, struggles, and victories—so they, too, know you care. Through personal connections with their principal and teachers, students experience role models of excellence and, in turn, aspire to be their personal and academic best.

Strong leaders build a balanced culture by ensuring that the social and emotional components are consistently nurtured. This requires intentionality, compassion, and courage, and sends an important message: People are more important than progress reports and proofs of achievement. Commit each day to sincerely connect with as many teachers, staff members, and students as you can.

3. Orchestrate It for Sustainability
Once you and your staff have worked hard to define and build your school’s culture of academic and personal excellence, you must now ensure the fidelity of its implementation. Accomplish this through orchestration. Like a maestro of a symphony, the principal facilitates the dynamic interactions that influence the quality of the composition—or in this case, the culture.

As leader, you are the holder of the vision and keeper of the culture. This begins with modeling the beliefs, intentions, words, and actions that uphold the culture. Remember that everything you do and say sends a message—positive or negative—about what you believe and value. Nothing is neutral. Be vigilant about always demonstrating your belief in the academic and personal excellence of everyone in your school.

Sustaining the culture you envision requires consistent, ongoing interactions with everyone involved. Every interaction you have with teachers, students, staff, and parents provides an opportunity to “grow” your culture, to keep it alive and thriving. Celebrate the impact that your culture is having in your school by writing about it to parents, your superintendent, and the school board.

Next, provide as many opportunities as possible for growing your school’s culture of excellence. For example, the Coastal Academy in California holds an annual 8 Keys Field Day at a local park. They set up eight tents where eighth graders conduct activities related to the 8 Keys for the younger students. Activities include story time, skits, and games such as tug-of-war. This type of schoolwide activity facilitates an atmosphere where all participants—including students—take responsibility for maintaining the positive school culture.

Another concept schools can adopt is called “the LINE,” which helps students take ownership for their actions as part of the Ownership Key. Students ask “Where are you living?” and their response is either “above the line” (taking responsibility for their actions) or “below the line” (denying, justifying, blaming, quitting). Students who respond that they’re living below the line can then recommit to positive behavior.

The final step in implementing a culture of excellence is providing feedback. The easy part of being the orchestrator of the culture is finding the positives. The other part—corrective feedback—is more challenging, yet equally important. Have the tough conversations with staff and teachers when necessary to address words and actions that erode your culture of excellence. In doing so, you’ll gain respect for valuing the culture, keep the culture healthy and vibrant, and maintain a supportive environment for your students.

Orchestrating culture is an ongoing process of highs and lows. A culture of excellence must be held in place with conviction and courage. The time, thought, and planning you put into the purposeful setup and ongoing reinforcement of the social and emotional components of your school’s culture yield immeasurable dividends—a powerful, effective schoolwide culture that supports academic and personal excellence.

Measuring School Climate

Assessing school climate can be a daunting task, considering that it touches every aspect of students’ learning. Although there are no absolute measures, the National School Climate Council recommends that school climate assessments address four major areas:

1. SAFETY: There needs to be a clear set of rules concerning physical violence, verbal abuse, harassment, and teasing. Successfully communicating and enforcing these will create a sense of physical and social-emotional security.

2. RELATIONSHIPS: Relationships, between and among staff and students, should be supportive and caring. Respecting diversity and understanding individual differences are also key.

3. TEACHING AND LEARNING: Teaching should be supportive and include constructive feedback and individual attention. Social and civic learning should help students understand and regulate their emotions and promote ethical decision-making.

4. ENVIRONMENT: School surroundings should be clean, appealing, and provide resources to meet students’ needs.

In addition to these elements, consider the multiple perspectives—parents, students, staff, and community—that a school climate assessment could gather. This will help you determine the most useful assessment tool for your school. For example, you might want to use an online survey for parents and staff and a more informal approach for students.

Last, make sure that you develop a plan to use the collected data. It can be helpful in providing feedback to staff, planning events or professional development, and in developing a school improvement plan.

Bobbi DePorter is president of Quantum Learning Network.

Mark Reardon, a former principal, is chief learning officer of Quantum Learning Network.

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