This dissertation in practice focuses on a review of literature to answer the guiding question, what can teachers and other educational stakeholders do to help address their sources of dissatisfaction in order to build a positive school climate? The author used a modified frame analysis from Bolman and Deal, other published literature, and personal experience to identify seven different, but sometimes related, domains that affect teachers and school climate. These seven domains include operations/management, contract application, professional development, classroom management, interpersonal, financial, and unanticipated events. The modified frame analysis was used to help empower teachers to solve problems that affect their performance and motivation, to prevent burnout, attrition, as well as help build and maintain a positive school climate. This dissertation promotes the notion that school climate is composed of and constructed from these seven domains as constituent parts that combine to create the school climate. The author-created tool, Tools for Teachers to Address Domains of Dissatisfaction, enables teachers to quickly reference potential solutions to problems faced. The tool is a prototype, created based on professional literature sources focusing on research-based strategies to identify problems and methods a teacher can use to solve a problem, thus preventing a negative school environment for the students, staff as well as other stakeholders. The domains of dissatisfaction were tested against real-life issues submitted to a Faculty Advisory Committee in order to provide veracity and justification of the domains.

Trauma-informed care is a relatively new construct in K-12 education, and districts across the United States are seeking avenues to meet the needs of their students. The COVID-19 pandemic elevated the need for districts to develop appropriate supports to address student and adult trauma. Traumatic events can affect a child’s mental, physical, social-emotional, and/or spiritual well-being (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, 2011). Furthermore, children with an elevated risk of trauma may not be able to access these supports outside of the school setting (Baweja et al., 2015). Therefore, educational systems need to develop trauma-informed care models for schools that furnish a sense of safety and community so that students receive the necessary support. This evaluation aimed to identify how the moderating factors of district administrators, site administrators, climate and culture, and teacher capacity affect trauma-informed care via a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) framework. It included a specific focus on Tier 1, universal access, to improve timely support for students. This formative program evaluation explored the impact of the moderating factors through the viewpoint of a newly created conceptual framework. I used qualitative and quantitative data sources to explore the multiple aspects of the phenomenon. The ARTIC-45 provided descriptive statistics about educators’ attitudes toward trauma-informed care. The observational data and analysis of the Panorama Education social-emotional learning (SEL) survey that assessed 3rd-12th students social-emotional well-being provided character to the evaluation. The data analysis yielded inconsistent results. The observational data strongly indicated a trauma-informed environment in which students were given clear expectations and engaged in positive reciprocal interactions with peers and adults. The ARTIC-45 data showed that administrators, teachers, and support staff responded favorably to trauma-informed care approaches. Though statistical significance could not be obtained due to the sample size constraint of being too small, the data provided context to the other data sources. For example, teacher capacity could not be quantified, but the data provided context to the overall staff capacity. The review of the archival and current SEL survey data showed that favorability among domains varied by site and grade level. The variations in students' social-emotional favorability can be related to their lived experiences and it is important to track over time to monitor how experiences, expressions, and feelings change over time. Students' perspectives regarding themselves and their environment differed from the observational data. This indicates that educators should not solely rely on observational data to determine students’ social-emotional well-being. Furthermore, an SEL survey can be used as a tool to understand students’ well-being and thus provide them with timely support. The evaluation determined that district administration, site administration, climate and culture and staff capacity can positively impact a multi-tiered, trauma-informed care environment. In these settings, student behavior and social-emotional well-being is viewed in a healing-centered manner. Districts can create a multi-tiered, trauma-sensitive culture and provide support to enhance teachers’ capacity to implement trauma-informed care, take advantage of administrative influence, develop community partnerships, and create a culture that is open to systematic change.

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[pt] Mais do que um ambiente de aprendizagem acadêmica, a escola é também espaço onde as e os jovens se desenvolvem comportamental, emocional e cognitivamente e estabelecem relacionamentos sociais positivos. Atitudes preconceituosas, como a homofobia e a misoginia, vão de encontro com os objetivos educacionais e impactam negativamente no aspecto relacional que compõe o clima escolar. A presente pesquisa busca compreender este impacto através de um estudo sobre as relações existentes entre climas escolares distintos com ambientes menos ou mais preconceituosos em relação à diversidade sexual e de gênero. Para cumprir estes objetivos, traçamos um desenho de investigação quantitativo a partir das respostas de estudantes a dois questionários. O primeiro, inserido em uma pesquisa maior sobre preconceito, forneceu dados sobre as atitudes contra a diversidade sexual e de gênero na visão de estudantes do sétimo ano de dez escolas públicas localizadas no município do Rio de Janeiro. A partir destes dados, selecionamos duas escolas com posicionamentos distintos, a Escola Iracema e a Escola Hora da Estrela, e aplicamos um segundo questionário, dessa vez voltado para todo o segundo segmento do Ensino Fundamental, com questões acerca do clima da escola, além de mais itens sobre preconceito em relação à diversidade sexual e de gênero. A partir da elaboração de índices, observamos que apesar de estarem geograficamente próximas e possuírem um corpo discente social e culturalmente parecido, oriundo dos mesmos bairros do entorno, as duas escolas possuem diferenças marcadamente significativas em relação ao clima e às visões e atitudes preconceituosas: as alunas e os alunos da Escola Iracema percebem um clima escolar menos positivo e indicam apresentar pensamentos mais preconceituosos contra a diversidade sexual e de gênero do que as e os estudantes da Escola Hora da Estrela. Observamos que as visões preconceituosas quanto à diversidade sexual e de gênero das e dos estudantes se associam positivamente com o bom relacionamento com seus pares e negativamente com: (i) a percepção do respeito à diversidade pela comunidade escolar; (ii) a compreensão do papel da gestão na resolução dos conflitos escolares; (iii) o comportamento e os sentimentos de engajamento e pertencimento na escola e (iv) a violência sofrida por bullying. Conclui-se que um ambiente escolar marcado por um clima mais positivo pode apresentar, ao mesmo tempo, estudantes menos misóginos e homofóbicos. / [en] More than an academic learning environment, the school is also a place where young people develop behaviorally, emotionally and cognitively and form positive social relationships. Prejudiced attitudes such as homophobia and misogyny are opposed to educational goals and negatively impact the school climate relational aspect. This research aimed to understand this impact through the relationships between different school climates with less or more prejudiced environments in terms to sexual and gender diversity. To fulfill these goals, we draw a quantitative research design from student responses to two surveys. The first, integrating a larger research on prejudice, provided data on attitudes against sexual and gender diversity in the view of 7th grade students from ten Rio de Janeiro city public schools. From these data, we selected two schools with different positions, Iracema School and Hora da Estrela School, and applied a second questionnaire, this time focused on the entire second segment of elementary school, with questions about the school climate, and more items on prejudice against sexual and gender diversity. Despite geographically close and with socially and culturally similar student configuration, coming from the same neighborhoods, the two schools have markedly significant differences in relation to its school climate and prejudiced views and attitudes: from the established indices, it is concluded that Iracema School students perceive a less positive school climate whereas indicate more prejudiced thoughts against sexual and gender diversity than Hora da Estrela School students. We observed that the prejudiced students’ views regarding sexual and gender diversity are positively associated with good peer relationships and negatively associated with: (i) the perception of respect for diversity by the school community; (ii) the school management role on conflict resolution; (iii) the behavior and the feelings of engagement and belonging at school and (iv) the peer victimization through bullying. It is concluded that a school environment marked by a more positive climate can have, at the same time, less misogynist and homophobic students.