SLLA Climate and Culture

Which of the following things can school leaders do to give teachers a safe environment for expressing their ideas?

• Giving critical feedback about unusual ideas they express

• Scheduling regular, brief meeting times for original ideas

• Taking care not to let teachers undermine their authority

• Asking them how “safe” differs for teachers versus students

Among school leader responsibilities for managing daily school facility operations, which is MOST likely to involve district support for hiring expert consultants to address contemporary issues?

• Managing the food services in the school

• Managing school environmental quality

• Managing school transportation services

• Managing custodial services in a school

Regarding school buildings and grounds maintenance, for which of these are school leaders directly responsible?

• Inspection and maintenance procedure development

• Allocation of budget for inspection and maintenance

• Inspection and maintenance schedules development

• Preventive maintenance procedures implementation

Related to school safety plans, goals for school leaders include which of these?

• Leading school needs assessments, safety plan development, and implementation monitoring

• Developing a system to monitor school incidents and crime that others share with stakeholders

• Appointing personnel o design safe traffic patterns inside and outside the school environment

• Adopting emergency evacuation procedures and delegating crisis management procedure choices

Developing a school safety plan requires the participation of which of the following and for which reason?

• School leaders and staff, because only they know their school and students best

• School personnel only, because schools are for controlling as well as for learning

• The entire community, because school crime data reflect community crime data

• Law enforcement and mental health professionals, because they address crimes

Among challenges that school leaders face in their efforts to promote student mental health, which of the following descriptions most represents the category of limited resources?

• Accountability law has shifted school counselors’ duties from mental health to academic achievement

• Prevention and promotion can address most student issues, yet costly treatments are routinely prescribed

• The mental health resources available to public schools are not provided proportionately or equitably

• Owing to our society’s cultural traditions, the priority of mental health issues in schools is marginalized

What is true about school leader responsibilities for documentation related to school safety?

• They must communicate rather than document implementation monitoring feedback

• They must document their observations from monitoring safety plan implementation

• They must document school safety incidents but not related feedback to stakeholders

• They must not allow others to document the safety management procedures they adopt

To engage diverse family and community members, school leaders and staff must make efforts to bridge gaps in language, culture, literacy, education, and so on. Which strategy MOST addresses cultural differences?

• Having multilingual staff interpret at meetings, trainings, school events, and home visits

• Suggesting parents ask children about assignments rather than help with homework

• Assigning parent and community rooms for teacher and other parent meetings and information

• Hiring community liaisons to help staff understand parental beliefs about education

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) recommends that school leaders furnish comprehensive staff development in supporting student mental health. Which area of recommended training is most related to the Response to Intervention (RtI) model?

• Early identification of students having or at risk of mental disorders

• The use of referral mechanism for school and community services

• Strategies to apply in promoting school-wide positive environments

• Models for consultation, coordination, and collaboration in schools

You are the new principal of a 700-student elementary (K-5) school. The previous principal left the school in the midst of some controversy and there has been a significant turnover in teacher staff. In your first couple of weeks on the job, you notice a considerable amount of negativity among staff, in large part fomented by teachers who have been at the school for several years and have had multiple principals. In 300-600 words describe the strategies you would use to address this negativity and change the culture of the school to a more positive tone and improve teacher and staff morale.