Page 78 - EdViewptsSpring2017

School Climate Equals School Success

By Kerri Walsifer, Assistant Principal/Director of Student Services,

HW Mountz School in Spring Lake

Embracing the idea of a of education for many years and has The Center for Social and Emotional
been found to have a positive impact Education, School Climate Research
positive school climate on student performance according to (2010), identified five areas to consider
ultimately creates a vision within a much research. when understanding and recognizing
district that supports student growth. Although much research exists on the importance of school climate on
The research on school climate and these two topics, many educators view student performance: Safety, Rela-
student achievement is nothing new; school climate and student achieve- tionships, Teaching and Learning,
rather it has been a source of refer- ment as two separate issues. Howev- Institutional Environment, and School
ence for nearly 100 years. In Johna- er, the Alliance for the Study of School Climate and Improvement. Therefore,
than Cohen's (2006) “Social, Emotion- Climate (Shindler, 2009) confirmed a consideration to factors such as bully-
al, Ethical, and Academic Education: strong relationship between the qual- ing, student conflict, suicide, character
Creating a Climate for Learning, ity of school climate and academic education, and moral education seem
Participation in Democracy, and Well achievement. Shindler’s (2009) study prudent in examining the educational
Being” he reported that “Parents found that, “In fact, the quality of system where students learn. Accord-
across America have consistently re- the climate appears to be the single ing to a Best Practices Briefs (2004)
sponded by saying, ‘I want my child to most predictive factor in any school’s article, “School Climate is a significant
be responsible, to be a lifelong learner, capacity to promote student achieve- element in discussions about improv-
to get a good job, and to have good ment” (p. 1). Additionally, Freiberg ing academic performance and school
friends and marriage.’” Therefore, it (1998) notes, “school climate can be a reform” (p. 2), which is something that
only seems right to include social skill positive influence on the health of the all districts should consider when mak-
instruction in teaching and learning in learning environment or a significant ing educational decisions about their
order to foster lifelong learning. School barrier to learning” (p. 22). schools and district.
climate has been an instrumental part

Educational Viewpoints -76- Spring 2017