KQED News Mind/Shift – Kat Lonsdorf
“That assembly — and the many other things this school does to create a sense of community and happiness — is part of what experts call school climate. “It’s a feeling in a building,” Hogue explains. “When you walk in here, it just feels right. It looks like a place where learning is happening.” And, like a feeling, school climate is hard to define, difficult to measure and can swing positive or negative. A study published in the Review of Educational Research today suggests that school climate is something educators and communities should prioritize — especially as a way to bridge the elusive achievement gap. The authors analyzed more than 15 years of research on schools worldwide, and found that positive school climate had a significant impact on academics..”(more)