Positive School Climate

School Climate Framework

School Climate Team can provide training and technical assistance to all schools and districts in the areas of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Trauma-Informed Training, Prevention Topics, Mental Health Awareness, and Opioid/Substance Abuse Prevention.

School Climate Transformation Grant 

In 2018, the Oklahoma State Department of Education was awarded the U.S. Department of Education's School Climate Transformation. The Oklahoma School Climate Transformation Grant (SCTG)  provides training and technical assistance to schools and districts to implement a multi-tiered system of supports to improve school climate. The sustainable school climate transformation framework integrates the Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) and Pyramid Model with trauma-informed practices and prevention curriculum to enhance the school's overall climate.

School Climate Specialists can provide training and technical assistance to all schools and districts in the areas of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Pyramid Model, Trauma-Informed Training, Prevention Topics, Mental Health Awareness, Opioid/Substance Abuse Prevention, and Equity. Specialists are field-based and serve nine regions across the state.

Click here to learn more about the School Climate Transformation Grant school outcome data.

What is School Climate?

An equitable school climate supports each student’s path to a prosocial identity by being culturally responsive to the patterns and wide range of norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, leadership practices, and organizational structures within the school and broader community.

Students learn best when they are in an environment where they feel safe, supported, challenged, and accepted. When school communities focus on improving school climate, students are more likely to engage in the curriculum, develop positive relationships, and demonstrate positive behaviors.

Strengthening school climate can help school communities with the following:

• Boost student achievement and close achievement gaps, 

• Increase attendance,

• Decrease teacher turnover and increase teacher satisfaction,

• Turn around low-performing schools, 

• Lower dropout rates and increased high school graduation rates, 

• Improve school safety and student morale.

Multi-Tiered System of Support

MTSS is a prevention-based framework structured to serve the needs of all students, and it is not a one-size-fits-all program. In equity-based MTSS, tiers organize students' needs and the allocation of available resources. An equity-based MTSS framework should build upon the school community's strengths, align to the students' needs while honoring all cultures, and moving the future of education forward (McCart & Miller, 2020). 

Schools implementing an MTSS framework should focus on embedding trauma-informed principles and strategies to address students and school communities'  behavioral, and learning needs in these four core components:

• Data-Based Decision Making 
• Sustainable Teaming System
• Evidence-Based Practices
• Continuous Improvement Cycle

Using MTSS is both a prevention and intervention framework. MTSS is used to address all students and school communities' biological, behavioral functioning and learning needs. The framework is scientifically proven to be highly effective for improving all student outcomes, addressing limited resources, and providing improved professional development in rural and suburban schools.  The goals of trauma-informed and multi-tiered behavioral supports are similar in science. Both practices and interventions create a safe and predictable school climate, enhance the social environment, and reduce problematic behavior (McIntosh, Ty, & Miller, 2014).

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