Great School Leaders Set the Tone for Culture (Leadership Matters Part 3)

Imagine a school that has a great culture. What do you see?

Do you see classrooms and hallways decorated with colorful posters and student work? Clean hallways and organized spaces? Students sitting on the edge of their seats, raising their hands and hoping the teacher calls on them? Teachers and students smiling and greeting one another between classes?

Now think about your school.

Chances are, you see all of these things–sometimes. There are bright spots across the campus, but they are sporadic.

As a great school leader, you want a positive school climate, but the “weather” in that climate might depend on the teacher, or the day, or the season. And the weeks leading up to testing, when everybody’s stress level is through the roof? What does your school’s culture look like then?

Promoting a positive culture makes it easy for teachers and students to make good decisions that align with your school goals, even when they don’t feel like making them.

One of the five core values that we use at our school is Stay Positive. Teachers talk to students about how to stay positive, even in the face of friction with peers and difficult schoolwork.

The best school leaders recognize that a consistently positive school culture doesn’t just happen. They are intentional about orchestrating events and managing details to maintain their school’s culture.

Here are three ways to set the tone for culture at your school.

Include culture as part of the planning process.

To create a positive school culture, it is important to set the tone early. Over the summer, in addition to scheduling and setting academic goals, think about ways to improve your school’s culture.

Start with the low-hanging fruit. Improving school culture is an ongoing process, but there are some things that can easily be addressed with little effort.

• Could you implement whole-school assemblies aimed at creating togetherness and school pride? In addition to our pep rally, our school has PAWS rallies. PAWS stands for Positive Attitudes Will Succeed, and students are encouraged to get excited about school culture.

• Do you have dress up days for students planned throughout the year (not just for homecoming week)? At Sebastopol Attendance Center, students are allowed to wear hats on Fridays. This ongoing fundraiser is a simple but effective way for students to join in a whole-school effort.

• Does your school have ways to regularly recognize student achievement and positive behavior? Consider coming up with a student of the month program to help motivate students.

Yearly Planning

I would caution any school leader to maintain the Goldilocks principle when planning events aimed at improving school culture.

Try not to do too much, where you overwhelm your teachers or cut into instruction time too often, or too little, where your students become demotivated at events because they come so few and far between.

Instead, use the school’s yearly calendar to get it just right. Planning with the yearly calendar in mind helps to balance your events and activities to keep your culture strong.

October can be a busy month–we found out this year that nine weeks tests, district benchmarks, Homecoming week, and planning for Halloween all at the same time can get very overwhelming. Plan extra whole-school activities during this time at your peril.

On the other hand, February is a short month, but it can last an eternity for educators with no breaks until mid-March on the horizon. Work with your team to plan fun school events and activities around the natural busyness and downtimes in the school year.

If you do decide to push an initiative, don’t just promote it in August and forget about it in September! Nothing hurts a school’s culture like poor follow-through. Always lead by example, and be consistent in your leadership. Be sure about what initiatives you want to promote, and then follow through throughout the school year.

Include others to get more buy-in.

One year at Lake High School, our instructional coach, Danielle Yarbrough, attended a summer conference and learned a schoolwide program that would encompass many aspects of the school and help incentivize academics and good behavior. The principal, Victor Gilstrap, was interested, and he had the foresight to give her leeway with the program.

When I became the instructional coach, I inherited that program. I quickly learned that the best way to get students interested in the program was to get the teachers interested first. The best way to get the teachers involved is to include them in planning the activities.

Consider forming teams to handle different aspects of the school that lead to great culture. At the schools I’ve led, we have a number of Action Teams that have specific responsibilities. For instance, the School News Team creates a newsletter and handles many recurring social media posts, and the Design Team creates digital and physical displays to enhance the look of the campus.

Next, talk about your expectations for creating a positive school culture at the beginning of the school year, and model those expectations for your teachers throughout the year. For example, if you think having teachers stand in the hallway between classes and warmly greet students as they arrive is a good idea, say it–and then make sure to be standing outside of classrooms yourself greeting students.

It’s just like in the classroom–people will do what they see modeled for them.

Another important way to get buy-in across the campus is to ask for input from students. Alan Lumpkin, my current superintendent, implemented meetings with each district school’s student council twice a year.

After sitting in on some of these meetings, I decided to start meeting with my student council to get more input. Students have interesting ideas about ways to improve culture. Ask what they think, and use their ideas.

Also, encourage teachers when they do things on their own to enhance the culture of the school.

When teachers go above and beyond to create a bulletin board or to display student work, praise them for it. You may plan school-wide initiatives, but never take responsibility away from teachers to plan their own incentives and decorate their own classrooms.

Make the physical space work to enhance culture.

You can sense a school’s culture before you even walk in the door. But you can grow accustomed to it when you’ve walked the same hallway one hundred times.

Discipline yourself to look at the physical space of the school with fresh eyes, and always work to make the school look more inviting.

As you assess the physical space, intentionally look for culture indicators. Does your school show a sense of pride in academics or athletics? Are visitors comfortable when they visit? Is there clutter within view? Is student work on display? Do you have a place to recognize teachers and students for outstanding achievements? Does that old bulletin board need updating? What should be done to enhance the look of the school?

High school students like to compare schools and prisons–and some schools I’ve seen share the same bare cinderblock walls. Make sure the physical space at your school matches the tone you are trying to set.

One year at Scott Central Attendance Center, the staff chose to theme the decorations at the school for the beginning of the year. As a school leader, encourage these kinds of efforts to help everyone be able to pitch in to make the school’s culture great.

Regardless of your role, take steps this month to make an impact on your school’s culture. Great school leaders recognize the importance of positivity and constantly work to increase positivity.

What about you? What are some ways you can help to set the tone for culture in your school?

Let me know in the comments below!