Learning Environment

Experience shows that academic excellence and school environments conducive to learning go hand in hand. A school culture where diversity is respected, and where discipline and safety are handled effectively, is essential to provide the physical and emotional security for learning to take place.

"We need to push decision making closer to where the customer resides, to allow teachers, students, parents, and adminitrators to come together and establish a plan of attack, to decide wht is going to happen." —Mike Fernandez, Vice President, U S West, former Commissioner, Rochester Board of Education

In the National School Boards Foundation's national poll urban public school parents, according to the national poll, believe that urban schools are not currently dealing effectively with these issues.

In fact, the largest gaps between the opinions of urban school board members and those of the public were on school safety and violence. The urban public is convinced that not enough is being done to ensure safety and discipline in schools, and, among all the options they considered in the poll, addressing these issues would be their number one strategy for increasing student achievement.

By focusing on the first three areas of recommendations in this report (academic expectations, resources, and accountability; encouraging parent and public involvement; and teachers), many of the school environment issues will be addressed. For example, providing educational equity for all students, developing and communicating clear expectations, delegating appropriate authority to school-level leaders, and implementing two-way accountability systems are actions that also will create a positive learning environment. Similarly, quality teachers and the significant involvement of parents and the larger community are essential attributes of a positive learning environment. Ultimately, a positive learning environment is created when every part of the system values and has a similar way of looking at learning and models the behavior expected of others throughout the system.

Discipline and Safety

It is a fundamental responsibility of school boards to establish safe, clean schools that provide needed services and materials, agreed project participants. Urban school boards must seek legislative support and aid, if necessary, in their efforts to create an orderly learning environment for all students. Just as it is important to set clear academic expectations for all students, it is critical to have a rigorous code of conduct that applies to all schools and spells out sanctions, especially for dangerous behavior. In a climate of public concern about safety and discipline, it is also essential that school boards have accurate data on dropouts and suspensions, violence, attendance, and other school environment issues, to gauge progress and take effective actions.

Diversity

The National School Boards Foundation's national poll indicates that, along with discipline and safety, respect for diversity in schools is a top concern of the urban public. Teachers must understand how to help all children learn and must be given adequate resources and professional development to create teaching strategies that can reach diverse groups of students. School boards must help foster a school culture that respects and values diversity, by nurturing a team culture that encourages a sense of trust among students, teachers, and administrators.

Questions

1. What have we done to provide a learning environment that improves teaching and learning in our schools?

2. When have we last reviewed our standards for behavior in our schools, and what happens if students violate those standards?

3. What mechanisms do we have to create an environment that respects diversity?

4. In what ways are we vigilant in controlling violence and drug abuse in our schools? How have we informed the public about what we've done to address these issues?

5. What are the quality and quantity of special support programs (teen pregnancy prevention programs, for example) to help students stay in school?

6. Have we offered individual schools the flexibility to establish their own school environment improvement plans, in collaboration with students, teachers, parents, and other members of the community?

7. What have we done to develop relationships with outside services that can provide services we cannot? How do we help families get these services?

8. How do we know that our students are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century—not just in an academic sense, but also in terms of the technological, organizational, and sociocultural demands of the next century?