How Do You Create a Culture of Care in Urban Schools?

A culture of collaboration (see chapter 2, page 31, for more details) is a foundational element for creating a culture of care; teachers cannot provide a caring and supportive environment for students if they work in isolation. Creating a culture of care necessitates a commitment from every staff member. The following sections explore six strategies for creating a culture of care in your urban school. 1. Start with the staff—the brilliance in the building. 2. Have collaborative conversations on race and equity and take action. 3. Be mission driven. 4. Strengthen individual mindsets. 5. Conduct home and community visits. 6. Create a behavior system focused on relationships.

Start With the Staff—the Brilliance in the Building

Creating a culture of care starts with staff—the people who come together every day to make an impact on students. New and veteran staff must make two key characteristics a priority: (1) care about students and (2) care about teammates. The anchor statement for a culture of care states that teams care enough about students to take action on every practice and policy that has an impact on student learning and equity. Do your staff care enough to take action that would make a significant impact on student learning? Urban schools and districts need staff members who care deeply about students. It starts with the hiring process. DuFour and colleagues (2016) state that creating an effective recruitment and selection process to ensure candidates are both a good fit for the PLC process and their collaborative team should be a high priority on every principal’s agenda. The questions to ask of every potential candidate must include: “Do you care about students? How do you demonstrate care for students? Are you a caring teammate?” DuFour and colleagues (2016) provide a template for school leaders to use when hiring to determine whether a candidate is a good fit for a PLC (figure 1.2).

Is This Candidate a Good Fit for Our PLC?

Questions to assess if the candidate is a good fit with the big ideas of a PLC:

1. The purpose of our school is to ensure that all students learn, rather than to make sure they are taught. I’m going to present you with four statements. Please tell me which statement is closest to your personal philosophy and elaborate on your thinking. a. “I believe all students can learn based on their ability.” b. “I believe all students can learn if they take advantage of the opportunities we give them to learn.” c. “I believe all students can learn something, but it is more important that we create a warm and caring environment than fixating on academic achievement.” d. “I believe all students can learn, and we should be committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure all students learn at high levels.” 2. If, at the end of the first semester, you discovered that 50 percent of your students were failing, would it trouble you? (Then drop the percentage: How about 25 percent? 15 percent? 10 percent?)

3. We have all encountered a student who simply does not want to work, but is not a behavior problem and is not interfering with the learning of others. How have you responded to such a student? 4. One of your colleagues states that there is little a teacher can do to help a student who is just not interested in learning. Would you respond, and if so, how would you respond? 5. How would you respond to this assertion: “The major causes of learning do not fall within the teacher’s sphere of influence.

Student learning will be determined primarily by factors such as innate ability, parental support, the socioeconomic conditions in which the student lives, and the beliefs and behaviors of the student’s peer group.” 6. If we are to help all students learn, we must work collaboratively and collectively. How would you respond to the following statement? “A teacher is a professional who deserves wide-ranging autonomy regarding what to teach, how to teach, how to assess, and how to run his or her classroom. I would not presume to advise another teacher how to run his or her classroom, and I would not be receptive to a teacher offering unsolicited advice to me.” 7. Think of a time when you were part of a group or team that led to better results for its members and a more satisfying professional experience. Think of another time when you were part of a group or team, and it was a negative experience. What factors contributed to the difference?

8. Imagine you are on a team that is experiencing significant conflict. How would you respond?

9. If you were assigned to a teaching team and encouraged to collaborate, on what questions or issues do you believe the team should focus its efforts?

10. “Do you want to be the teacher with the highest student achievement in our school or a member of a team whose students all achieve at high levels?” (Smith, 2015, p. 6). 11. We say in our vision statement that we will work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for the success of our students. What does that phrase mean to you? Can you give me examples of how a staff might take collective responsibility for student success?

12. It is important to focus on results, rather than intentions. What is your understanding of the terms formative assessment and summative assessment? Can you cite examples of when and how you have used each of these assessments in your teaching experience? What do you feel is the primary purpose of assessing students?

13. What is your reaction to the following statement? “Teachers of the same course or grade level should use common assessments so each member of the team can determine the achievement of his or her students compared to other students attempting to acquire the same knowledge and skills.” 14. What is your reaction to the following statement? “Teachers and students benefit when evidence of student learning is easily accessible and openly shared among members of the teaching team.” 15. It has been said that in most schools,the quality of a student’s work is assessed primarily upon the idiosyncrasies of the teacher to whom that student is assigned. What is your reaction to that statement? Can you think of steps a school might take to provide more consistent feedback to students?

16. It’s the end of your first year. I ask you to provide me with evidence you have been an effective teacher. What will you give me?

Other important questions to explore:

1. What is your understanding of the term professional learning community? How would you explain that term to someone completely unfamiliar with it? In what ways, if any, is the PLC process different from traditional schooling? 2. I’m a student in your class the first day. Help me understand your expectations regarding the classroom environment.

3. I’m one of your students. Help me understand the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions I will acquire as a result of being in your classroom. 4. What does the research tell us about effective teaching strategies? 5. What should I have asked you that I didn’t, a question you would want to ask a teaching candidate? 6. If you are offered this position, what could we do to make this a great school year for you? 7. What questions do you have for me?

Source: DuFour et al., 2016, pp. 191–192.

FIGURE 1.2: Is this candidate a good fit for our PLC?

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Once the new staff member joins the team, the leader expects everyone on the team to support one another in cultural transformation. As DuFour and colleagues (2016) state, “There is no better way to provide ongoing support for new teachers than to engage them in the work of a high-performing teacher team” (p. 194).

Have Collaborative Conversations on Race and Equity and Take Action

Staff must have conversations about race and equity to build a culture of care for all students. Team members that meet regularly build trust with one another, and trust is necessary for teams to have these types of discussions. Muhammad (2015) asserts about race and equity:

Race seems to be the most illogical factor regarding the achievement gap, and it strikes the heaviest emotional cord. It seems improbable that we should be able to predict the achievement of a group based on the level of pigmentation or melanin present in people’s skin, but we have been able to track these data for decades. What makes this even more troubling is that race is deemed a social construct. A social construct is a mechanism, phenomenon, or category that develops meaning for individuals or groups through social practice (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). Therefore, although a person’s race (black, Latino, white, and so on) is generic, people’s ideas and perceptions of that race are socially constructed. In essence, race is only a figment of our imagination. It only has value in our minds and in our social systems. So, race cannot be the problem; the problem must be our perception about race and how race has played out in our society historically in a concept called racism. (pp. 15–16)

Teachers in caring cultures examine their perceptions about race and issues of racism in society. Formal race and equity discussions involving the entire staff can help guide professional learning on these topics. The discussion time can vary depending on the time available, from thirty minutes to hours-long professional development sessions. The purpose of such discussions is to educate staff on race, participate in collaborative discussions on race, read about race, and hopefully impact staff perceptions about race. Another major purpose is to take action— How do teachers translate their adult learning and form a caring culture for students? Figure 1.3 shows the race and equity discussion template to guide staff.

In attendance: Meeting norms:

Introduction: Greeting, norms, desired outcome

1. Do now (read a passage, analyze a picture, watch video, and so on):

2. Race talk (tell your story):

3. Book talk (individual, group, or whole group): + Read designated section. + Underline big ideas. + Think of action the team can immediately take. + Note additional thoughts.

4. Closure (celebrations, encouragement, and action):

FIGURE 1.3: Race and equity discussion meeting template.

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The meeting template in figure 1.3 begins with a do-now section, or a brief activity to start off the meeting. This can be reading a passage or quote, or looking at a picture or video to get staff thinking about race and equity. Use a video clip or a quote from a current event—something that is currently happening involving race or equity. Next, the team reviews the team norms. Norms dictate the expectations for behavior during collaborative meetings and help build trust, bringing staff together. Adjust the norms for the race and equity talks for the specific topic. For example, norms for race and equity talks could include tell your story, respect one another, listen with empathy, and pass the mic.

The second item on the template is race talk (tell your story). This step helps all staff understand the brilliance in the building—specifically as it relates to non-White staff members. Staff members should tell their stories about their life experiences. What challenges have they had to overcome regarding race? How has race informed their perspective on education and their profession? This step in the meeting can help staff examine their mindset regarding what challenges urban students face, what students are capable of, and what creating a culture of care can do for urban students.

The book talk section of the meeting keeps all staff learning. Leaders should use a book team members can discuss in a meaningful way throughout the entire school year. Select a book that can make an impact immediately. Ask staff to read the material before the meeting or a shorter portion of the book (for five to twenty minutes) during the meeting, depending on the material and time available. Some possible book talk resources include the following.

• Fields, H. E., III. (2021). How to achieve educational equity. O’Fallon, MO: Author. • Howard, J. R., Milner-McCall, T., & Howard, T. C. (2020). No more teaching without positive relationships. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. • Jackson, R. (2019). Becoming the educator they need: Strategies, mindsets, and beliefs for supporting male Black and Latino students. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Kafele, B. K. (2013). Closing the attitude gap: How to fire up your students to strive for success. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Kafele, B. K. (2021). The equity and social justice 50: Critical questions for improving opportunities and outcomes for Black students. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Mayfield, V. (2020). Cultural competence now: 56 exercises to help educators understand and challenge bias, racism, and privilege. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Milner, H. R., IV, Cunningham, H. B., Delale-O’Connor, L., & Kestenberg, E. G. (2018). “These kids are out of control”: Why we must imagine “classroom management” for equity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. • Muhammad, A. (2015). Overcoming the achievement gap trap: Liberating mindsets to effect change. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press. • Williams, K. C., & Hierck, T. (2015). Starting a movement: Building culture from the inside out in professional learning communities. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

The final item in the meeting is closure, which includes celebrations, encouragement, and action. This is an opportunity for teams to celebrate a student or staff member who has been doing a great job in the book talks, has great ideas, or has supported the team in an exceptional way.

Be Mission Driven

One of the first items in PLC transformation is drafting a mission statement. The mission statement answers the questions, What is our purpose? What do we stand for as an organization? What drives our initiatives? (DuFour et al., 2016). One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my experience with PLC transformation is to be sure to engage in discussions with staff about their purpose, their individual why. Staff who work in urban schools should also have a collective why that connects to their desire to make a difference for students who face the challenges in school.

In A Summing Up, Eaker (2020) states that “leaders spend far too much time on developing a mission statement. After all, the fundamental purpose of schools is fairly obvious—to ensure high levels of learning for all students” (p. 170). When DuFour and colleagues (2021) write, “Do not waste another minute writing a mission statement, but instead begin with the hard work of aligning all of the practices, policies, and procedures of your school with that mission” (p. 89), they mean doing the right work is the most important thing. Educators should not get hung up on writing a mission by overthinking it and consequently failing to take action for PLC transformation.

I would argue that many educators in urban schools are mission driven and focus on learning for all—it’s the reason they chose to work in urban schools. Many educators may have grown up in urban areas facing poverty, racism, and other challenges; they overcame many obstacles and now want to give back to their communities. In a caring culture, staff members reflect on their purpose for working in the urban community and share their reflections with others.

School culture experts Kenneth C. Williams and Tom Hierck (2015) describe a concept called mission drift as when “staff members simply drift away from a clear understanding of it [the mission] as their day-to-day work moves away from the core focus of the school” (p. 5). Mission drift is real in schools—it impacts a culture of care because staff members forget their why (their purpose) when they are overcome with daily stressors. Having detailed conversations with staff about the why of the work will help stop mission drift and keep the focus of your PLC on the culture of care you are creating so all students learn at high levels. This process can be as simple as having staff members write their why and how for working in the urban area, and then share their reasons with others.

Strengthen Individual Mindsets

Leaders must continue to focus on strengthening staff mindsets to create a culture of care. In a culture of care, it is important for educators to have a growth mindset. Psychologist Carol S. Dweck (2006) explains that people think about intelligence in two ways: (1) you either have it or you don’t (fixed mindset) or (2) you can grow and change (growth mindset). Those with a fixed mindset believe intelligence or competency is a rigid, unchangeable quality; those with a growth mindset believe intelligence and competency can develop over time as the brain changes and grows (Jensen, 2019).

As Muhammad (2015) notes, “Our thoughts matter. . . . the concept of mindset, which is the established set of attitudes each person has . . . is the summary of our beliefs about the world and how it works, and it acts as a guide for our behaviors and decisions” (p. 51). Educational leader and coach Kristyn Klei Borrero (2019) writes, “Mindsets influence decision making and can empower or disempower relationships with students” (p. 4). Borrero (2019) adds, “While no one becomes a teacher to hold students back from doing their best, somehow, over time, certain mindsets surface subconsciously” (p. 50). Fixed mindsets work against a culture of care. Staff do not believe students are capable of growth. When students are failing to reach learning targets or present behavior problems, for example, staff members make assumptions that students are incapable of more. Author and brain researcher Eric Jensen (2016) says, “Examining old mindsets and sculpting new ones might be the toughest thing you’ve ever done” (p. 17).

Leaders can help individual teachers be aware of and begin to improve their mindsets by building shared knowledge using book studies, celebrating evidence of growth in student achievement over short periods of time, hiring teachers who reflect the racial diversity of the school and creating programs that focus on Black and Hispanic individuals, and reflecting on their individual mindsets. The following briefly examines each. • Using book studies: One way to educate staff about race and equity is through book studies or book talks. Figure 1.3 (page 14) is a tool to help leaders focus the conversation during book talks. (See the list of possible books for study on page 16.)

• Celebrating evidence of growth in student achievement: Another strategy leaders can use to help improve the mindsets of staff is celebrating student learning growth.

The learning block process (see chapter 3, page 57) allows collaborative teams to see the results of their work with students and track learning improvement. This process gives teacher teams confidence they can help all students learn, which leads to a more positive mindset, so celebrate all of those small victories! • Hiring staff who reflect the racial diversity of the school and creating programs that focus on Black and Hispanic individuals: Another strategy to improve mindset is to bring in more staff who reflect the racial makeup of the student population into the school building, either through the hiring process or by creating programs focused on these individuals, and celebrate their greatness. For example, create a college leadership program for Black and Hispanic students where college students visit the school to mentor students. Students will see people who look like them achieving at high levels. When hiring new staff members and support personnel, be proactive by being visible in the community and asking your own staff about possible candidates for the position. Search for the candidates you want. If you cannot hire anyone, work with the local college or high school to bring young Black and Hispanic leaders to the building to mentor students. Highlight and celebrate their greatness to help staff see their own greatness! • Reflecting on individual mindsets: The final strategy is for teachers to reflect on their mindsets. Author, educator, and consultant Robert Jackson (2019), in Becoming the Educator They Need, states that “it is imperative to turn your gaze inward and question what limiting and biased beliefs you have about students and teaching that are disadvantaging kids. It’s not always the students. Sometimes it’s the teachers” (p. 49). Educators should constantly reflect on their mindset and be aware of the impact mindset has on students and collaborative team members. Use the actions in this section to improve the mindset of staff to make collaborative teams as powerful as possible.

Conduct Home and Community Visits

An important action step for creating a culture of care is to visit students’ homes and be present in the community. In my experience, visiting homes and being in the community have a significant impact on the way families view the school. Award-winning educational leader Nathaniel Provencio (2021) notes, “Parent and caregiver interest and involvement in their child’s academic work can have profound effects on behavioral and academic outcomes” (p. 14). When families see the school cares about their children enough to take extra steps (like visiting homes to show support for students and ensuring that students have the supplies they need to be successful), families are more likely to get involved, leading to better outcomes for students. During every summer of my career, I visit as many student homes as possible. I have conducted over two thousand home visits. I conduct what I call mass visits, where I (along with the assistant principal and other staff members) visit as many homes as possible in one outing or in a three- to five-day period. We bring selected families a backpack filled with school supplies and also remind all families about the first day of school. We email families before we conduct

the visits and ask if anyone needs a backpack. An alternative to visiting individual homes is to set up a time to be in a neighborhood (such as in a park or at a neighborhood business), so students and families can pick up their backpack or other supplies.

Home visits get supplies to families and provide an opportunity for staff to meet students and their families, but, most important, they show the community how much you care about the students. It is a visible action step. Do not stay long at each home; pull up, drop off the backpack, wave, tell the family you care, and move to the next one. If your school cannot provide backpacks or supplies for students, you can still conduct home visits to greet families and students.

This takes a lot of time, so creating an efficient system for home and community visits is a must. Our assistant principal, Brendan Hines, designed the plan in figure 1.4 for creating a home visit map.

Directions for creating a home visit map:

1. Open your school’s information system page (for example, PowerSchool [https://powerschool.com], Aspen Institute [https://aspeninstitute.org/programs/education-and-society-program], and so on). + Select all students as a group and export a report. Select a report that includes student addresses and parent phone numbers, such as a transportation list. + The list may download in an unformatted file type. If it does, select all and copy the data. Open a new spreadsheet using Google Sheets (https://google.com/sheets/about) and paste in the data. + Delete any unnecessary columns. Keep name, address, parent names, phone numbers, and any other information that would help staff contact a parent before visiting the student’s home.

2. Open Google Maps (https://google.com/maps). + Click on the Menu tab (top left corner), and scroll down and click Your Places. + Select Maps on the tab and then click Create Map. + Click import to import the Google Sheet you created in step 1 directly into Google Maps. + Select all the address columns to set as placemarks, and then click Next. + Select First Name to title your placemarks, and then click Finish.

3. You now have a Google Map with all your students’ addresses loaded. You can share the map with other staff doing home visits with you. You can even download the map in Google Maps on your phone to quickly navigate neighborhoods for home visits.

FIGURE 1.4: Steps for creating a home visit map with Google Maps.

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In addition to visiting homes, all staff should try to make it a point to be visible in the community. In Closing the Attitude Gap, author and highly regarded urban educator Baruti K. Kafele (2013) states the importance of knowing your students’ neighborhoods:

Do you know your students’ neighborhoods? Do you understand their neighborhoods? Do you respect their neighborhoods? I remind teachers all of the time that they must be careful when they talk about their students’ neighborhoods because students are their neighborhoods. When you lack knowledge of your students’ neighborhoods, you lack knowledge of the students. When you lack understanding of your students’ neighborhoods, you lack understanding of the students. When you lack respect for your students’ neighborhoods, you lack respect for your students. (pp. 71–72)

Know the neighborhood and be visible there. It is important to show families you care about their community. Schedule events during the year for families to attend. For example, if there are sports events in the community, visit those events, make your presence known, and support your students. Use social media to highlight the greatness in the neighborhoods. For example, one of my favorite parents was also a barber, and his shop was next to the school. I started going to him to get my hair cut and have continued doing so for nine years. I not only interact with students and families at the shop but also highlight his place on social media. Show families and community members your culture of care extends beyond the walls of the school building.

Create a Behavior System Focused on Relationships

Your culture of care needs a behavior system that focuses on creating, establishing, and maintaining relationships between students and staff at its core. Punitive approaches to behavior management hinder achievement; when students are punished, isolated, or suspended, they are not learning (Fleischman, 2005). A system focused on relationships maintains and protects relationships with the students (Fleischman, 2005). Effective teacher-student relationships contribute to student achievement (Jensen, 2019). Form collaborative teams to create a behavior system, analyze the current system, or work to continuously improve the system. Behavior systems should have a common language for behavior expectations and include plans for supporting and improving student behaviors in the classroom. The teams should focus on solutions and taking action rather than complaining about students.

School leaders must take a reflective approach to school systems by creating a positive classroom culture, reflecting on systems and action steps, utilizing the learning block process for behavior, and using a collaborative team approach to assist high-need students.

Creating a Positive Classroom Culture

The most important approach for creating a positive classroom culture is to create a place where the teacher focuses on relationships first—or relationships before content. I use five success criteria for an exemplary classroom that come from over fifteen years of research and reading about best practices and visiting thousands of classrooms, and over twenty years of teaching and classroom visits. Figure 1.5 describes the following five practices for a positive classroom culture. 1. Create a positive climate. 2. Drive the students with relationships. 3. Demonstrate teacher passion. 4. Commit to a culture of learning with high expectations. 5. Implement norms and procedures.

Strategy Success Criteria

1. Create a positive climate. • Teacher creates a positive learning climate in the room as evidenced by interactions between the teacher and students. • Teacher encourages, supports, and motivates the students. • Teacher’s tone of voice, nonverbal body language and gestures, and other behaviors reflect genuine caring and respect for students. • Teacher establishes strong relationships with students. • Teacher acknowledges and recognizes students’ efforts. • Teacher uses nonverbal corrections, positive group correction, and private conferences to demonstrate respect for students and provide least-invasive forms of intervention. • Teacher never loses his or her cool, never demeans students, and doesn’t use sarcasm. • Teacher treats all students with respect using great manners: like saying, “Please,” “Thank you,” and “You’re welcome.”

2. Drive the students with relationships. • Teacher makes relationships a priority in the classroom and has a clear action plan for building and maintaining relationships using verbal and nonverbal behaviors that indicate affection for students, understanding of students’ interests, and control. • Evidence of the teacher using restorative practices like questioning, conversations, circles, class meetings, re-entry meetings, and the 2 × 10 strategy (a two-minute conversation at least ten times) • Teacher brings great energy to the classroom every day for students.

3. Demonstrate teacher passion. • Teacher has enthusiasm and a joy for teaching students. • Positive energy is evident in the classroom. • There is clear evidence of teacher credibility (trust and caring). • Teacher narrates the positive regularly, especially during independent and group practice. • Teacher loves teaching students, loves the students, and is fair.

4. Commit to a culture of learning with high expectations. • Teacher believes all students can learn and behave in the classroom. • Teacher relentlessly commits to all students, expects all students to learn at high levels (based on success criteria and learning targets), shares a belief in the importance of learning, maximizes time in the classroom, uses growth-mindset language, and asks rigorous questions for students to answer with top-quality responses. • Teacher expects all students to participate and work hard, and challenges all students to think critically. • Teacher uses grade-level assignments and challenges so all students can be successful. • Teacher believes every student was born for greatness and values reluctant learners. • Teacher establishes and communicates learning targets and success criteria.

5. Implement norms and procedures. • Teacher establishes class norms, routines, and procedures using precise directions for students. • Teacher has a system to recognize students for following classroom norms. • Teacher posts standards for behavior and expectations in the classroom.

FIGURE 1.5: Strategies and criteria for building a positive classroom culture.

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Reflecting on Systems and Action Steps

To create a behavior system that focuses on relationships, teams must take a broader view of the school, reflect on daily practices, and take action. This can be a challenge for some educators because they are used to focusing on just their classroom or space. A broader reflection forces staff to focus on all school operations to measure the effectiveness of the behavior system. The key discussion point should always be student safety. Teams must review drop-off and pickup, building entry, transitions, building exit, and open spaces procedures to ensure students are as safe as possible. Evaluate every practice, policy, and procedure on the basis of behavior. Teams must also discuss the current behavior system focus. What are the expectations? Do students know the expectations? Do staff know the expectations? Teams can use figure 1.6 to reflect on the current systems and create a plan for revising or creating a schoolwide behavior system. Measure effectiveness by analyzing behavior incidents. The goal is to reduce the number of incidents by location. Create a plan to have staff at each location where incidents occur, and plan staff relationship-building opportunities as staff monitor areas of the school, such as greeting every student, smiling as students enter the building, and engaging in conversations.

School Program, Policy, or Procedure

School entry into the building • Bus drop-off • Parent drop-off • Walkers • How do we handle visitors during this time? • What spaces in the school must we monitor during this time?

Breakfast

• Do students have the opportunity to eat breakfast? • Do we have staff to monitor breakfast? • How do students transition after breakfast?

Homeroom

• Do we have homeroom? • What is the procedure to organize students in homeroom?

Transitions

• Is there proper supervision and support in the hallways? • Are all staff outside their classrooms greeting students? • What about support staff? • Where will the most students be during transitions?

Cafeteria

Reflection Action Steps

• How do students get to the cafeteria? • Who monitors the cafeteria? • What are cafeteria behavior expectations? • How do students know the expectations? • How can we make the cafeteria experience enjoyable? • How do students exit the cafeteria?

Assemblies

• What spaces do we use for assemblies? • What are entry and pickup procedures?

School dismissal from the building • What do bus drop-off and pickup look like? • What does parent pickup look like? • Where do walkers go after school? • How is that working?

Length of classes • How long are classes? • Would having longer classes have a positive impact on student learning and also reduce transitions?

Describe the system for behavior support. Does it focus on relationships first?

Describe common behavior expectations systemwide.

Describe ways we recognize and celebrate students.

Describe the staff-student relationships in the school.

Action plan:

FIGURE 1.6: Reflection on behavior system.

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Utilizing the Learning Block Process for Behavior

Learning blocks are cycles of planning, teaching, and assessing, and using results to take action. They are blocks of time in which teachers collaborate to discuss and select priority behavior standards, success criteria, and progress-monitoring tools (like behavior referrals), and to analyze data to take action. Read more about the learning block process for learning planning and assessment in chapter 3 (page 57). Here, I will discuss this process as it relates to behavior.

Schools can improve schoolwide discipline by collecting and using data to develop and monitor individual, class, and school interventions (Fleischman, 2005). Data help staff identify aspects of the school environment they should change to prevent problem behaviors (Fleischman, 2005). Researcher Mary Ann Lachat (2002) explains:

Collecting and analyzing meaningful data about the characteristics and academic performance of students, and about school organization and management, helps under-resourced, underperforming, and highly diverse schools “identify achievement gaps, address equity issues, determine the effectiveness of specific programs and courses of study, and target instructional improvement. (p. 3)

The purpose of the learning block process is to analyze data to create plans to support all students, especially students who need behavioral assistance. This assistance should not remove students from significant class instructional time. As coauthors John Hannigan, Jessica Djabrayan Hannigan, Mike Mattos, and Austin Buffum (2021) state, discipline that removes students from instruction “adds the proverbial insult to injury; it does not effectively improve the behavior, and these students fall further behind academically, which compounds behavior problems” (p. 19).

Using learning blocks for behavior management is important when creating a culture of care because every adult in the building is involved in creating a plan for the culture. Teachers and teams must regularly monitor behavior. Teams can select the length of time they want between learning units for behavior (for example, every three months). There are four steps to the learning block behavior process that align with the four PLC critical questions. 1. What priority behaviors do we expect students to display? Staff should discuss and review priority behavior standards and come up with a list of two to four. I suggest putting standards together into an acronym, like RAFT—see figure 1.7. It is also important to include success criteria for mastering the behavior standard (see figure 1.7). 2. How will we know when each student has learned the behavior expectations? To determine this, review school behavior data. 3. What will we immediately do for the students and classes who did not meet behavior standards? Collaborative teams reflect individually on their own data to improve performance. Teams then review their data, choose a priority behavior to review over the next learning block, and create an action plan. The entire staff then meets and creates an action plan. Teams also can discuss selected students who may need an intervention plan or collaborative team approach for significant behavioral needs.

Priority Behaviors (Academic and Behavior)

Respect others.

Always learn.

Follow directions.

Try hard.

Success Criteria

• Demonstrate responsible verbal and physical interactions with peers and adults. • Be kind. • Respect property and materials.

• Do not interfere with the learning of others. • Be an assessment-capable learner. • Stay focused in the classroom and complete all priority tasks.

• Attend school and be on time. • Make responsible decisions. • Demonstrate self-control.

• Be prepared for school and class. • Stay motivated and engaged. • Give your best effort daily.

FIGURE 1.7: Sample priority behaviors and success criteria.

4. How will we immediately recognize and celebrate the students and classes mastering behavior standards? Teams discuss ways to celebrate and recognize students and staff on a regular basis.

Using a Collaborative Team Approach to Assist High-Need Students

In a PLC, there is a shift from my students to our students, which is the basis of a collaborative approach to managing the behavioral issues of high-need students—or students who are experiencing behavioral or other challenges that put them in danger of failure. Question three in the preceding section discusses these students, and their need for a team-created intervention plan (see chapter 4, page 87).

Leaders must use the brilliance in the building to support these students. Search for staff who have relationships with high-need students and find ways for them to connect with these students daily. This might be an office staff member, a support staff member, a security guard, or a custodian.

For example, when I was a classroom teacher, we had some boys in the school who exhibited very challenging behaviors like fighting, swearing, and severely disrupting class on a daily basis. I decided to work with them by creating a basketball team. Most of the high-need students in grades 4–6 played on the team. The players had to attend practice. After losing our first seven games, we went on a six-year streak, winning 85 to 90 percent of our games in the city elementary league. It wasn’t about the wins, though. The wins gave students immediate gratification, but in the long term, they felt better about themselves, had more confidence, and took pride in themselves and their accomplishments. Most important, almost every student on the team improved his or her grades, behavior, and attendance. Students were no longer receiving behavior referrals. They were not getting suspended. There was a positive impact on the entire school.