An Invitation to Climate Solutions, not just surveys

Last week I received an invitation to participate in the City Schools climate survey. While I’m aware of the potential ramifications poor results may cause for a school’s status and an administration’s job security, the e-mail describes the purpose and confidentiality of the survey in a less onerous manner:
“Each year we conduct this survey to learn more about school climate and changes that may have taken place within our schools during the intervening year. The survey focuses on school conditions, not on individual staff members. All surveys are kept strictly confidential.”

While I understand North Avenue’s desire to assess school climate using quantifiable methods that can quickly show trends on teaching, leadership, school safety, etc., as I clicked through Likert scale statements and tried to determine the most accurate responses, I couldn’t help but feel as though the survey is flawed in its design and also is an enabling tool of the politics that engender poor school cultures to begin with.

My hunch is that in the majority of lower performing schools, statements along the lines of: “Students learn a lot in school” and “Teachers collaboration is an effective use of time” don’t fit neatly into a strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. While answering questions such as these, a variety of variables come into play. Students may learn a lot in school if they have strong teachers for each subject. They also may learn a lot from a teacher who supplies copious amounts of book work every day—but "learn" and “a lot” here clearly are not objective measures that necessarily implies or denies quality. If the survey included a “neutral” answer option and the opportunity for free response, I think the results would be much more reflective of an individual’s specific feelings on why some aspects of school climate are wonderful, horrendous, or somewhere in between.

While I think making these revisions to the survey could provide North Avenue with more reliable data, ultimately the climate survey is another method that enables school staff to externalize issues on one another rather than take responsibility in house and work collaboratively to address the most pressing needs. To provide an common example: Imagine a teacher that does not feel safe at his school and feels undervalued by his superiors. He could express this daily to the administration or hall monitors. He could collaborate with a group of teachers bi-monthly to address common concerns. This takes time, effort and poses the potential for conflict and power struggles. If other elements of school culture are lagging, potential for solutions in these areas might appear bleak for our teacher. So instead, annually, the district provides him with the opportunity to check a box in secrecy on a climate survey. This will provide him with the opportunity for honesty—and perhaps, as I’ve heard many teachers express this week, a sense of vengeance against those on staff responsible for the continuation of a tense and unruly climate. His results will be quantified and used as a gauge of the school’s overall climate that he has taken few measures to proactively improve.

In order to empower this teacher to do more than check a box, climate surveys should be used frequently on a school level and trends that cause concern should be used immediately as a spring board for seeking solutions rather than as a method of diffusing responsibility. In current practice, climate surveys enable a nasty type of school politics—like closed door meetings, fear of speaking out of place, and the diffusion of responsibility—these are essential ingredients of negative school culture. While many staff members seek a more open and empowering environment, as long as they are used as annual accountability measures rather than a true tool for improvement, the district will find that in many city schools, climate survey results will continue to measure how politics can pollute school culture. Ultimately schools need teachers and leaders that are confident that climate issues can be solved, not just quanitified on a survey.