The Major Indicators of a Healthy School Culture

The three major indicators of the health of a school's culture are collaboration, collegiality, and efficacy.

1. COLLABORATION is characterized as the degree to which people work together, share information and instructional strategies, and are encouraged to have constructive discussions and debates.

2. COLLEGIALITY is about a sense of belonging, emotional support, and inclusion as a valued member of the organization.

3. EFFICACY, for the purpose of this process, tends to focus on how stakeholders' view themselves. Do they feel as if they have control of their destinies or do they view themselves as helpless victims of "the system?" Do they respect research-supported evidence about good teaching or are they rigidly attached to the status quo?

There now exists a significant depth of research that supports the relationship between these three indicators and levels of student achievement. Please see the PUBLICATIONS link for more information.

Now that we know what the important markers are for a healthy school culture are, the important question is:

How do we assess these markers in order to improve them?

The two methods for assessing and improving school culture include the administration, tabulation, and analysis of the School Culture Triage Survey and/or the in-depth School Culture Assessment/Profile Process. (Please see links on this website.)

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