The Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) is proud to be partnering with the Broadway musical WICKED to bring the Witches of Oz to life in classrooms across the country with critical bully prevention supports for the fall 2010 BullyBust Campaign. Elphaba, the misunderstood green witch at the heart of WICKED, will help students learn how to put an end to bullying for good as the spokesperson for BullyBust. Schools can get involved with the cause by joining the Partner School Program, which will provide classroom-based supports including WICKED-themed activities, resources, and a national “Defying Gravity” essay contest this fall.
Show your support for the cause! Use the code "CSEE" when purchasing tickets for WICKED on Broadway (online or at the box office), and a portion of the sale goes back to BullyBust! Read the full press release here.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get the latest news on BullyBust and help spread the word. Together we can create a community of positive upstanders and put an end to bullying!
"Just as we have standards around academic goals, we need standards around school climate because what gets measured is what gets done. We’re only going to put school climate at the priority level it deserves—which to me is at the top—if we have standards around it and start measuring it."
—Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Education in Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) magazine
Now is a truly exciting time for education reform as the Administration defines its priorities and sets new goals for student achievement, spending allocations, and legislative focus. Last month, President Obama released the Federal Budget projections for FY 2011, including an increase of more than $3.5 billion overall. A critical piece of this proposed spending ($410 million) is slated to go toward the new Successful, Safe and Healthy Students Program, which will consolidate programs currently offered under the Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools. These changes point to a significant shift in focus, with school climate reform becoming one of the main priorities for driving student success. CSEE is proud to have been at the forefront of this effort for many years, and we applaud the government for deepening its commitment to school climate funding and reform.
With these pivotal changes in sight, the new issue of School Climate Matters introduces several new and exciting resources from CSEE and the National School Climate Council: National School Climate Standards, a School Climate Guide for District Policy Makers and Educational Leaders; and a School Climate Implementation Road Map. The Standards present a vision and framework for a positive and sustainable school climate that is then reinforced with the supports included in the District Guide and Road Map. Together, these resources will help your school or district align current practices with the shift in federal guidelines and make real progress toward school climate improvement this year. In addition, we are launching a new periodic publication—the School Climate Briefs—which will provide detailed commentaries from experts in the field on key school climate topics. The first in this series is a 2010 School Climate Research Summary (PDF).
These tools add to CSEE’s proven supports in this area—including our leading school climate measurement tool, the CSCI—and build directly from our experience working with thousands of educators and students nationwide. In this issue, we bring this work to life with inspiring profiles of two NYC public schools dedicated to building more effective learning communities. We are also thrilled to announce that registration is now open for our 13th Annual Summer Institute, which will include a keynote by Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education, Kevin Jennings. Sign up today to learn about the most up-to-date school climate efforts and supports nationwide. We hope to see you there!
Click here to download the PDF of the newsletter. As always, we want to learn from you, too. Please tell us what your school or district is doing to actively address school climate needs and let us know how we can help. Share your thoughts at: newsletter@csee.net.
All the best for a positive and productive spring!
This past fall, CSEE began working with a network of six schools throughout the Queens borough of NY to help them assess and improve their school climate. We met with representative leadership teams from all of the schools in early October to begin the process, and each school administered the Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) to their students, parents, and staff members to get a deeper understanding of strengths and needs at their particular building. The leadership teams have been working hard since that first meeting to create more positive climates for learning, and we are proud to celebrate their efforts to date!
In our forthcoming issue of School Climate Matters, we will be sharing profiles of two network schools that developed powerful community engagement programs drawing from their training with CSEE. Here is a sneak peek of one of the school's excellent work; along with the profile, written by the school counselor, we're also sharing a video that gives you an inside look into their project and the very positive, very visible impact it had on their school environment.
PS 155: Winter Wonderland, by Tasha Kurs, School Counselor
After meeting for the first time with CSEE, we were introduced to the notion of school climate. Immediately, we formed a School Climate Team and met to discuss ways to boost the atmosphere at PS155.
In Fall 2009, CSEE launched the Stand Up to Bullying Video Contest as the first guided activity of the BullyBust Partner School Program. This activity was designed to help educators and administrators develop school-wide awareness of bullying behavior and to empower students and adults to stand up for themselves and others. By working with students in small groups to develop brief video announcements, schools used this activity to build a shared understanding of how school life should be and to introduce students to upstander behavior in a way that was fun, easy and participatory.
The school behind the winning video wins an array of free supports from CSEE. Our panel of judges reflects a variety of expert perspectives on bullying and upstander behavior: Justin Patchin and Sameer Hinduja, Directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center; Sammi Hanratty, star of the movie An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong and BullyBust advocate; Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of CSEE and co-chair of the National School Climate Council; and members of the National School Climate Youth Council, along with council assistant Doug Hart.
I am excited to share the following student videos submitted for the contest, developed by Detroit Edison Public School Academy (Detroit, MI), Yargo Elementary (Winder, GA), Bethlehem Elementary (Bethlehem, GA), New Utrecht High School (Brooklyn, NY), Bellevue Middle School (Nashville, TN), Badger Ridge Middle School (Verona, WI), and Skyline Middle School (Wilmington, DE). You will see that each video reflects creativity, effort, and understanding of upstander behavior. We hope that you’ll share these short videos with your students or colleagues to showcase this great work and use them to start the conversation about the importance of being an upstander (as opposed to passive bystander) with your students. Please enjoy, and don't forget to rate your favorites:
View more by clicking the link below.
How can your school or district develop a positive school climate that fosters teaching, learning, and the development of the whole child? ASCD Whole Child's new podcast asks this question and connects you with practical next steps:
Download Podcast Now [Right-Click to Save]
Listen to Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of CSEE and co-chair of the National School Climate Council, and Marvin Kreps, director of Curriculum and Instruction for Rhinebeck (N.Y.) Central School District, discuss how school climate standards can help educators and communities improve the quality and character of school life.
The critical link between school climate and school success has been reiterated by over 30 years of research (and common sense). A healthy school climate directly supports positive youth development, effective risk behavior, teacher retention, academic achievement and life success; nevertheless school climate is often an overlooked area in improvement plans.
Click here to download the podcast, and pick up practical supports to help you create and sustain a positive school climate.