School Culture and Climate

About

CDE is committed to collaboratively addressing school climate with school districts to guide our collective work through the School Climate Transformation Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This grant provides the opportunity to bring districts and CDE’s internal offices together to support the development of an integrated multi-tiered framework that addresses school climate and connectedness, student engagement, behavioral/mental health, and social emotional learning to effectively meet the needs of all students in Colorado. 

Positive School Climate: A positive school climate is foundational to the academic promise of the school and refers to the work of a school community to create a quality experience for all students, staff, and families. This is done by collectively fostering social, emotional, physical academic and identity safety and promoting a supportive academic environment that encourages and maintains respectful, empathetic, and trusting, relationships; resulting in a sense of belonging for all. – Colorado Department of Education

Sense of Belonging: A sense that one has a rightful place in a given academic setting and can claim full membership in a school and classroom community – Turnaround for Children

Theory of Action about School Climate Work

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School Climate Transformation Design Collaborative

During the spring 2020, a group of 13 districts came together to help define and identify the components that best lead to a positive school climate, assess the extent to which a comprehensive school climate framework exists, and put forward recommendations to CDE about how to best move forward with our school climate work. Here is what they put forward:

1. Outline the best practices to create a positive school climate. This is being done in conjunction with Colorado State University, Prevention Research Center through a literature review.
2. Create common definitions for key terms including: social emotional learning, equity, and belonging.
3. Integrate school climate best practices into existing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
4. Put forward useful tools and resources that provide additional guidance on implementation.
5. Provide relevant training and coaching to support implementation of all components of a positive school climate.

**Please review the school climate web page to see how we are putting these recommendations into action. 

Professional Development - Foundational Trauma Informed Practices for Elementary and Secondary Educators

The School Climate Team is pleased to offer a training series on Trauma-Informed Strategies for Elementary and Secondary Educators. This training will be led by the talented team at Resilient Futures and is available to any school or district staff person in Colorado. The trainings are as follows: 

Please see the Resilient Futures Flyer for more information 

To register, please click here

Contact Us

For more information, please contact:

Andrea Pulskamp
pulskamp_a@cde.state.co.us
303-866-6302