Using Data to Foster Supportive Learning Environments and Social-Emotional Wellness in Pennsylvania Schools

The project will consist of three components that aim to make school climate data in Pennsylvania more useful and actionable. For this study, school climate refers to student and school staff perceptions of the quality of the school environment, specifically the quality of educator-student and peer relationships, support for learning and academic engagement, and the degree of safety and respect experienced within the school environment. First, REL staff will assess the psychometric properties of the elementary school climate survey, which was updated based on recommendations from analyses under the last REL contract. Second, to better understand the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and school climate, REL staff will assess changes in student and staff perceptions of school climate for middle and high schools before and during the pandemic. REL staff will also examine the association between the percentage of remote and hybrid instruction during the 2020–2021 school year and school climate in the 2021–2022 school year. Third, REL staff will work with PDE to develop a consistent scoring approach for the school climate reports that are generated for individual schools from elementary through high schools. REL staff will also help PDE modify its computer programs that analyze school climate data and provide score reports to schools. One of the goals of this project is to build Pennsylvania Department of Education’s capacity to support local education agencies (LEAs) and schools in using school climate data to understand needs and identify programs to improve the supportiveness of the school learning environment. The project also aims to increase the likelihood that LEAs and schools view the climate survey as useful, so REL staff will track school participation in the climate survey as a medium-term outcome.

The project team is working with Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE)’s Office for Safe Schools to provide research-based support in building (1) a logic model to connect initiatives that foster supportive learning environments with measurable outcomes, (2) accessible materials, such as an infographic or fact sheet, on evidence-based practices for fostering supportive learning environments for students and staff and 3) a toolkit to support the Intermediate Unit (IU) social emotional wellness leads to assess, plan, and measure social-emotional initiatives and the impact towards creating more supportive learning environments and better social-emotional wellness for students and staff.The goals of this project are to (1) increase PDE staff’s understanding of how to support Intermediate Unit (IU), local education agency (LEA), and school staff in building supportive learning environments for students and staff; (2) deepen PDE staff’s and IU liaisons’ understanding of evidence-based practices and interventions that can support student and staff social-emotional wellness; and (3) build all partners’ understanding of Pennsylvania’s initiatives about supportive learning environments, including how the initiatives relate to one another and the extent to which current evidence suggests they may foster supportive learning environments. The logic models and information on evidence-based programs and practices will be important tools for PDE and other partners when making decisions about how to use resources (including identifying initiatives to add, adjust, or scale).

This project will provide technical support (TS) to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office of School Safety (OSS) to build a clear and evidence-based statewide strategy to improve the reporting and utility of Safe Schools data to improve school climate and student and staff wellness. The REL will support OSS to (1) align on a shared definition of “school safety” (2) assess the accessibility and availability of Safe Schools data, (3) identify approaches to improve the accuracy and efficiency of collecting and reporting Safe Schools data, and (4) develop recommendations for data elements and reporting formats to use in school and district reports to best support decisions about policies and programs to improve school climate and student and staff wellness.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office for Safe Schools (OSS) revised its elementary school climate student survey in Spring 2024 based on findings from a REL Mid-Atlantic study. The study validated the elementary school student survey, but found that one domain—safe and respectful school climate—did not meet the reliability threshold. In response, OSS included a larger set of items for this domain. REL staff will now reassess the validity and reliability of the survey with the updated set of items.