Transforming School Climate and Learning ─ Beyond Bullying and Compliance

Preble (education, New England College) and Gordon, who has been a teacher, school director, and education professor, detail a program for school leaders to use to transform a school climate to improve the quality of teaching and learning. They move beyond the problem of bullying and complying with school demands to addressing an overall relationship of students to school and learning, as they describe the research evidence for climate in supporting the social and emotional well-being of students and achieving strong academic results. They challenge the idea that safer schools are places with more rules and argue that interaction between positive climate, student engagement, respectful caring relationships, empowerment, and learning is needed for high achievement. Their program focuses on a leadership model that includes students and teachers collaborating to collect and analyze school data and a process of five stages: empowering students and teachers, data collection, analysis and goal setting, action planning and project development, and sustaining change and continuous improvement. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)