Summary

Another example comes from my first year as a principal. Our school had several boys who were struggling behaviorally, with some getting in fights, not going to class, or disrupting class. We created a program called Team Fitness. Every day, the students met to work out, discuss leadership, set goals, and talk about their day. At the end of the year, the entire team went on a field trip to the University of Connecticut. Students in the group changed their behavior drastically, and several went on to college. Two of the students decided to work in our school as college leaders, one while attending the University of Connecticut, and the other while attending the University of Bridgeport.

Search for the brilliance in the building to create special groups to support high-need students, for example, a group that meets twice a week during lunch to discuss leadership skills, or a group that meets once a week to listen to speakers, read motivational books, and participate in team-building activities.

Another way to help the most high-need students is to create a check-in and checkout mentoring program as part of an intervention action plan (see chapter 4, page 87, for more about intervention action plans). A staff member checks in with specific high-need students, builds relationships, and helps the students become successful in class by meeting with them before school to motivate them for the day, and then meeting again at the end of school for these students to review the day.

Multiple schools where I have worked created such a program. Teachers or other staff members met with high-need students to start the day to discuss their previous day and evening, and how they were feeling that morning. If the student had a bad evening, the student stayed with the staff member to discuss and create a plan for the day. During the day, staff visited the classes of the students with plans to see how they were doing and to encourage them. After school, staff met with the students, reviewed their day, and called their parents for positive reasons if the students were successful. Students who met their goals stayed after school with me to play sports in the gym. Staff constantly checked in with the students to motivate and encourage. This reduced students’ referrals by approximately 95 percent.

Create a culture of care, where all adults in a school care about students, and show that care can have a significant impact in urban schools. In this chapter, I reviewed six action steps leaders can take to create a culture of care: (1) ensure current staff care about students and create an effective recruitment and selection process to ensure candidates are a good fit, (2) collaborate to facilitate discussions and actions on race and equity, (3) be mission driven, (4) strengthen individual mindsets, (5) conduct community and home visits, and (6) create a behavior system focused on relationships. Do you and your staff care enough to take action? Use the reproducible “Reflection and Action Plan for a Culture of Care” (page 28) to determine your next steps.