How to Change School Cultures: From Definition to Transformation

Introduction

School culture is the set of shared beliefs, values, expectations, and routines that shape how students, educators, families, and community members experience life at a school.

To intentionally strengthen school culture, as a school leader, you need to clearly define your school’s values and mission, measure the current state, and take systematic steps in relationship building, communication, and peer support. This post offers practical indicators on how to assess school culture and outlines strategic actions for school leaders towards transforming school cultures. 

How to Define School Culture?

Harvard Professor, Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell, says that an important first step before making changes to school’s culture is to “understand what constitutes culture — once they learn to see it not as a hazy mass of intangibles, but as something that can be pinpointed and designed — they can start to execute a cultural vision.”

Dr. Ryan Daniel, principal of Fort Foote Elementary School tells Edutopia, “People should see the climate of a building, and they should feel the culture when they walk into it.”

Michael Fullan defines school culture as the guiding beliefs and values evident in the operation of a school. The concept “school culture” incorporates the attitudes, values, and expected behaviors that directly influence how the school operates. 

Another simple definition offered by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy is, “Culture refers to the underlying values, norms, and rules (both written and unwritten) that shape observed outcomes and behavior.”

Signs of Positive School Culture

According to the National School Climate Center (NSCC), a positive school climate, which is often considered equal to school culture, encompasses:

• Norms, values, and expectations that support people feeling socially, emotionally, and physically safe.
• People are engaged and respected.
• Students, families, and educators work together to develop, live, and contribute to a shared school vision.
• Educators model and nurture attitudes that emphasize the benefits and satisfaction gained from learning.
• Each person contributes to the operations of the school and the care of the physical environment.

This definition highlights how positive school culture works. School leaders can also consider the above list as a checklist to think through areas of strength and weakness. For example, the school may adequately enforce norms and rules that create a safe space. However, the school may need to improve communication of a shared school vision to the school community. 

Research on school improvement offers a complementary perspective. Instead of defining culture broadly, it looks at the conditions that are consistently present in schools where students are successful.

Sam Redding and Julie Corbett (2018), in Shifting School Culture to Spark Rapid Improvement, identify patterns in schools that are able to improve outcomes. These schools tend to operate with:

• High standards
• Clear expectations for both staff and students
• A well-defined structure with shared goals
• Respect for multicultural students and families
• Active community involvement

Redding and Corbett emphasize that trust and respect are what sustain these conditions over time. Without them, expectations weaken, alignment breaks down, and involvement becomes uneven.

What Positive School Culture Looks Like in Practice

The positive school indicators are visible in how the school operates day to day. For example:

• When high expectations are clear, students hear the same message in every classroom—not different rules from one teacher to another.
• When families are respected and included, communication is consistent and accessible for all families, and families feel represented in the school.
• When the school vision is shaped together, staff can attend to the goals the school is working toward without hesitation.
• When community engagement is strong, families are not only informed but also take part in school activities and initiatives.
  
  
  

Steps Towards Transforming School Culture

School culture is not static, and it can be strategically improved through better school communication planning, gaining insight with systematic parent feedback, assessing and improving family engagement with surveys and family engagement teams, focusing on the needs of ESL families for inclusion, introducing new educational programs such as Project Based Learning (PBL) and integrative learning, trying out new student-led parent-teacher conference models that benefit students, investing in teacher support, building value-based reward programs, and building community partnerships.

Transforming a school culture does not happen over night but systematic steps will move the needle to the right direction, towards transformation. Let’s look in detail to the following four steps to improve school culture:

1. Investing in school climate assessment
2. Supporting parent-led initiatives
3. Committing to inclusion and cultural sensitivity training
4. Setting high expectations for both students and staff
5. Living mission-driven language
6. Creating a value-based reward system
   
   

Invest in School Climate Assessment

According to Johns Hopkins School of Education, one of the first and most important steps a school leader or administrator can take when working to improve their overall school culture is to conduct an audit of school practices to ensure consistency between the school’s mission and its institutional practices, including:

• Curriculum implementation and scaffolding
• Teacher professional development
• The use of discipline
• Grading policies
• Parent communication
• Community building

Dr. Ryan Daniel, principal of Fort Foote Elementary School in Fort Washington, Maryland recommends using surveys to learn from students and teachers what they like about their school and areas where they’d like to see change. Specifically, she suggests that leaders ask,

‘How much do the adults in this school like being here?’

“When the school climate is truly positive, staff like to be there, students perceive this, and we often see a virtuous cycle of student–staff interactions,” she explains. 

Professor Maurice J. Elias suggests concrete steps for evaluating school culture and climate (SCC). The foundation recommends forming a school climate team who meet monthly to assess the climate. Including the entire community (including the school board) in building efforts is essential. The SCC team should communicate all plans, actions, and the resulting data, emphasizing “why” the school will take the actions and what role each stakeholder plays in implementation. 

Surveying students, parents, and staff is a starting point in the evaluation. Additionally, the school should evaluate all bullying and other negative incidents. Only after identifying the issues and the current climate can the school develop a practical plan to address the school culture and take reasonable steps towards improvement through responsibility sharing and accountability.

Various organizations, such as Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy School Culture 360™ Survey and National School Climate Center School Climate Survey, support schools with resources such as surveys that can help identify a school’s strengths and areas for improvement related to school culture.

Engagement by all stakeholders includes not only staff but the entire school community. Research shows that schools that effectively communicate and involve families, and the community at large, are more successful at cultural changes. Both  Dr. Joyce. L. Epstein and Dr. Karen L. Mapp are pioneers on this topic in the field of education community, and given workshops on school-family engagement models.

Therefore ensure that the school climate survey also includes questions that assess family engagement.

Support Parent-Led Initiatives

While leadership is responsible for setting a clear vision for the school and its culture, you cannot achieve strong results without involving all stakeholders, including parents. When you get families to rally around the students and teachers, the school’s mission is strengthened.

A concrete example is supporting parents in shaping the school’s mission statement and policies, and providing parent organizations with the space and support to create programs for students and teachers that align with the school’s values. Parent organizations can be behind creating annual school traditions, supporting teachers and staff by volunteering, providing funds for programs that benefit the entire school community, and creating powerful value-driven reward programs that reinforce the school culture.

Foster Inclusion with Cultural Sensitivity Training

Inclusion inside the classroom has a positive effect on student performance. It increases confidence when students individuality (culture especially) is openly recognized and discussed within the classroom. (Learn more of the study here.)

Administrators can utilize teacher training to reinforce the ideas of a positive school culture. The training can cover a variety of topics, including cultural sensitivity, inclusion within the classroom, and the importance of consistency within each classroom.

Teachers often want to see the “why” behind what they are being asked to do. So, using the most up-to-date research while training teachers is important. Administrators should also encourage informal conversations during training sessions where honesty is encouraged and never punished.

Creating a culture of inclusivity within the staff often will trickle down and have a positive effect inside the classroom.

Set High Expectations for Both Teachers and Students

Holding teachers to high standards, including requiring them to follow all culture-related processes such as how to strengthen relationships with ESL families, will help improve culture throughout the school.

Creating a school culture where student expectations are consistently communicated in every classroom (because all the teachers are being held to the same standard as well) creates a clear message of goals throughout the school.

For example, this can be as simple as the rule “respect your peers”, and within every classroom there is an expectation to have a respectful environment. While students are working and while teachers are instructing, an overarching theme is always respect, in all that happens. This one single rule, if reinforced properly in all classrooms, can have a profound effect on the culture within the school.

Foster Mission-driven Language

Spread the culture in visible ways throughout the school. One concrete way is to post the school’s mission statement that fosters inclusivity, in the school lobby where families see it daily. When every classroom and hallway has the school’s mission phrase posted, with examples of what respecting your peers looked like, this becomes an overarching cultural theme. This along with continuous language of reinforcement from staff, can improve school culture through clearly communicating the concept of respect.

Create a Value-Based Reward System

High expectations for the entire community can also be strengthened with a value-based reward system. Identify what the school’s values are, such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and recognize teachers and students who live these values in an exemplary manner. Your school may look into existing programs, such as Jostens Renaissance’s school culture and climate program, for ideas and insights. Whether you use a third-party-crafted program or create your own, it’s important to be consistent and to include all stakeholders to promote the mission and drive positive cultural change for it to take place.

The Takeaway

“A school’s culture is a powerful force that will work for or against improvement efforts,” Sam Redding and Julie Corbett of the Center on School Turn Around assert. In other words, making the effort to build a positive school culture can have wide-reaching and significant impacts. 

Students who attend schools with positive school cultures are more likely to have higher academic achievement, be more engaged in activities, and have a positive attitude towards learning. Teachers are also more likely to retain their jobs when working at a school with a positive and supportive culture. With consistency and a clear plan, schools can set students, and the organization as a whole, on a path toward success.