School Culture Plan

Recommended Initiative 1.1

Design or strengthen a school culture plan that builds strong relationships and promotes a safe, inclusive, engaging, and joyful return to school.

Deliverables & Design Considerations

Click each deliverable below to expand its key design considerations.

TIMING: SPRING 2021

Identify a school culture working group comprised of a group of stakeholders whose mission is to set the long term vision for school culture

How will we define the purpose, composition, meeting cadence, and deliverables for a working group?
How does our student culture vision align with and support our school’s mission, vision, values, etc.?
Do the components of our culture vision tie to both academic and social-emotional development?
How will we get authentic family and community voice in developing our culture vision?

Conduct an audit of current school culture systems use survey data, observational data, student discipline data, student incentive/reward data, student and family engagement data, etc. to identify strengths and gaps and use the audit to determine priority issues that can be addressed in SY21-22 vs which require more research

What data will we gather? How will we gather the data? Consider using questions from Attuned’s readiness assessment or administering a specific school culture survey, such as those from Panorama, Johns Hopkins University and UChicago Impact.
How might we best gather constituent perspective?
Do we have internal capacity to conduct this audit, or do we need an external partner? If not, consider using ESSER funds to secure an external partner such as For Our Children or CT3.
What should we consider when examining data collected during the pandemic?
What can be addressed with changes to current systems implemented in SY21-22, and what challenges require more research and planning time in SY21-22 for SY22-23 and beyond?
Have we created expectations we cannot monitor?

Revise/create and publish schoolwide routines, procedures, and rituals that promote a joyful, engaging, inclusive, and safe school culture for execution in SY21-22

What do all members of our school community need to do in order to make each component of the culture vision come to life?
What systems and routines can/should be tight vs. loose? How should we communicate these?
Who owns the whole school culture vs. classroom routines?

Publish a student orientation plan for SY21-22 that reintroduces, reorients, and welcomes students back to school

What are the planned and intentional experiences that will help students meet the culture vision?
Who are key stakeholders that will help execute this plan?

Develop a training, observation, and feedback plan for SY21-22 to prepare all staff to execute the new/revised routines, procedures, and rituals

What does each staff member need to know and be able to do in order to execute the new/revised culture elements?
When, how, and by whom will the training be provided?

timing: SCHOOL YEAR 2021-22

Implement training on revised routines, procedures, and rituals for leaders and teachers

How will we invest our staff and leadership team to this vision? How will we onboard new staff?
How will we use summer training and yearlong PD to ground teachers in the rationale for schoolwide routines, procedures, and rituals; support practice with implementation; and provide feedback on practice?
How will we gather feedback on the training from participants in order to improve each round?

Create and implement a monitoring system to assess implementation of revised routines, procedures, and rituals and analyze the data to inform adjustments throughout the year

Who will collect what data and when?
When and by whom will the data be analyzed?
How will we communicate the data back to the broader school community?
What adjustments can we make now vs. next year based on the data?

Based on progress monitoring, revise schoolwide routines, procedures, and rituals for SY22-23

What does student culture data, as well as stakeholder feedback from teachers, students, and families indicate are the highest levers for change?

Publish a student orientation plan for SY22-23

Based on SY21-22 data, what changes to the student orientation plan will have the highest impact on student culture?

Develop a training and monitoring plan for SY22-23

What do staff need to know and be able to do in relation to the refined culture routines/procedures/rituals that we will roll out next year?
How will we define success?
How and when will we collect data to monitor implementation?

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