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One study, “The Interface of School Climate and School Connectedness and Relationships with Aggression and Victimization” by Dorian Wilson, suggested that even with school climate improving, victimization continues to increase.

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The Interface of School Climate and School Connectedness and Relationships with Aggression and Victimization

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Click on the article title to read more.

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There are two dimensions of student connectedness: perceived teacher support and social belonging. Our site has worked to promote student voice and choice through a variety of activities to get them to feel connected in both dimensions. Such actions include students wearing traffic vests and greeting all other students at the door with high-fives while pop music is playing, the kindness team generating ideas for positively impacting the school including school cleanup and teacher appreciation, a buddy bench will be put on the playground for students who are looking for someone to play with. Another great way we involve our students is on Tuesday through Friday students read an article from Project Wisdom on the PA system in the mornings. These positive climate activities are designed to promote an atmosphere and opportunities students will want to be a part of. Not only will homeless and foster youth benefit from this positive atmosphere, but they are also often involved in creating it. While it never hurts to have a positive climate, maybe my energy to promote a positive educational experience might best be spent on student connectedness and let the climate follow suite.

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In another article, “School Connectedness and the Transition Into and Out of Health-Risk Behavior Among Adolescents:

A Comparison of Social Belonging and Teacher Support” by McKneely and Falci, the greatest protection from high-risk behaviors in students was teacher and peer connectedness.

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Supportive and caring relations within families promote academic achievement and protect against involvement in health-risk behaviors by adolescents. Similarly, supportive and caring relationships within schools (henceforth, school connectedness) promote academic motivation among adolescents. Much less is known, however, about the influence of school connectedness on adolescent health-risk behaviors. Previous research generally suffers from two limitations. First, most research is cross-sectional. The longitudinal research that does exist does not distinguish between initiation or escalation or reduction of health-risk behaviors. Second, school connectedness has generally been treated as a broad construct that combines students' perceptions of safety, support, belonging and engagement. Such a broad conceptualization does not provide clear guidance to policy makers and practitioners on how to increase school connectedness. This paper addresses these limitations by exploring the association between two dimensions of school connectedness--perceived teacher support and social belonging--and the initiation, escalation and reduction of participation in six adolescent health-risk behaviors. (Contains 5 tables.)

Descriptors: Motivation, Adolescents, Student Attitudes, Student Participation, School Attitudes, High Risk Students, Interpersonal Relationship, Health Behavior, Teacher Student Relationship, Social Isolation, Social Behavior, Secondary School Students, Student Characteristics, Sexuality, Suicide, Substance Abuse, Violence, Student Behavior

Blackwell Publishing. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8200; Fax: 781-388-8210; e-mail: subscrip@bos.blackwellpublishing.com; Web site: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/.

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ERIC - EJ743601 - School Connectedness and the Transition Into and Out of Health-Risk Behavior among Adolescents: A Comparison of Social Belonging and Teacher Support, Journal of School Health, 2004-Sep

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Supportive and caring relations within families promote academic achievement and protect against involvement in health-risk behaviors by adolescents. Similarly, supportive and caring relationships within schools (henceforth, school connectedness) promote academic motivation among adolescents. Much less is known, however, about the influence of school connectedness on adolescent health-risk behaviors.

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In creating a positive climate, the idea is that students feel safe, respected, and supported by their school. This would then promote a desire to attend school as frequently as possible. However, if a positive climate does not reduce the rates of physical and related aggression or victimization, then a positive climate might not be doing the whole job.

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Our PBIS team works to promote a positive climate. We acknowledge students who are doing the right think by giving them positive paws for rewards, give monthly student of the month receptions, give behavior form free students extra activities, and have awards assemblies each trimester. We positively frame our redirections, have restorative circles, and teach and reteach expectation stations. These are all examples of how to create a positive climate.

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Connell and Wellborn have noted a correlation between social support and its impact on creating a sense of belonging which promotes engagement and therefore higher performance in academics. While engagement is difficult to promote across all classrooms, creating a positive climate and student connectedness is something I believe our administration, PBIS team, staff as a whole, and students could promote. My assumption is that if a climate is a positive one, students will feel connected to the school, peers, and adults.

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The equity gap I have focused on is primarily student attendance. In my research I have discovered that our site has the poorest attendance rating in the district. The population with the highest absentee rate, second to students with special needs, are homeless and foster youth (a second equity gap). It happens that this population performs with lower test scores than the general population (a third equity gap).

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Because my impact is primarily at school on site, external factors are a bit of an issue to address. Some families have transportation needs, others might have health problems. While these families are supported by the professionals, counselors; nurses; McKinney-Vento homeless youth services, I felt that in this social and systemic aspect, I would have difficulty creating much impact.

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Homeless Youth