From laughter in the hallways to snoring in the classroom and everything in between, the atmosphere of Clarke Central High School is a collection of students and staff’s infinitesimally small actions every day.
What most don’t know is that the seemingly intangible atmosphere has a tangible impact on CCHS in the form of two words: school climate.
School climate is the social, behavioral and educational environment within a school, according to SchoolSafety.gov. When a positive climate is cultivated, the goals and norms of the school are reflected in the relationships of students, teachers, parents and community members. A school’s climate is impacted by everyone who is involved in their community, especially leaders.
“Positive energy throughout the staff, from teachers to custodial staff to coaches to students, makes up the climate. Creating the atmosphere you want in your classroom can go throughout the school,” Clarke Central High School Assistant Principal Terry Liggin said. “It’s up to the adults to bring the positive energy into the school and that will permeate throughout the building,”
Clarke Central High School students attend the Fall Sports Pep Rally in the CCHS Competition Gym on Oct. 23, 2024. CCHS Assistant Principal Tamika Henson wanted to encourage positive student behavior to improve the school climate. “Constant reflection of your own behaviors will help you to bring a more positive attitude into the school. If we bring that type of energy to the atmosphere, then it’s just going to permeate to students and help the culture here at CCHS,” Henson said. Photo from the ODYSSEY archives
However, in the state of Georgia, a school’s climate isn’t just guessed, but is measured by professional assessments. Public schools are evaluated using the School Climate Star Rating, a system which measures factors such as a school’s safety, support offered and community involvement.
The rating is obtained through a state survey and then analyzed to provide schools with their appropriate score. This system helps educators across the state gauge if schools are developing as safe environments. CCHS Assistant Principal Tamika Henson feels that the CCHS administration’s efforts to provide students with resources is pushing the climate in a positive direction.
“When we have a concern about a student, we work really hard to get all stakeholders to the table. We try to create a culture where students know that they have multiple supports in the building, and also inviting parents to the table, not just to talk to them, but to ask them to enlighten us on the things that we need to know to help support students,” Henson said.
The rating does not evaluate academic achievement, but instead the environment that encourages it. The SCSR was put on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but made a return in 2022, though scores from the return are yet to be released.
The Clarke County School District had used the tenants of Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a framework designed to improve school climate. James Barlament, the CCSD Executive Director of Innovation, Strategy, and Governance created the dashboard on the CCSD Data Analytics website in 2019 that synthesizes information from SCSR evaluations, using CASEL as a basis.
“Self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills and social awareness are the tenants of the CASEL model. There was a curriculum that was used that would help students increase their skills or abilities in those areas, and we were using the Georgia Student Health Survey as an evaluative measure on how well the CASEL model was working,” Barlament said.
It’s up to the adults to bring the positive energy into the school and that will permeate throughout the building.
–Terry Liggin
CCHS Assistant Principal
It’s up to the adults to bring the positive energy into the school and that will permeate throughout the building.
–Terry Liggin
CCHS Assistant Principal
The last time scoring from this rating was released was in 2019 and CCSD received three out of five stars. Scores for the 2023-24 school year are to be released this year in January and a large component of these scores are student, teacher and community contentment.
“I have kids that I battle with on behaviors on a daily basis sometimes, but those kids still trust me, and so they may not like what I’m doing with them, but they know I’m firm, I’m fair. The trust goes back to customer satisfaction, with students, staff, parents, stakeholders,” CCHS Assistant Principal Everett Nealy said. “Sometimes, we have to make decisions that are not always accepted by parents, by students, by district personnel, but it’s ultimately our job to make sure that you have a nice opportunity to come to school and learn.”
School climate isn’t just shaped in the classroom or by administrators but also at practices, clubs and events. Students feeling like they have a positive place within the school environment is formative to their happiness within the climate.
“We take our schools very seriously, it’s very inclusive. There’s all kinds of clubs for everybody to join, everybody’s welcome,” CCHS junior Class President Laila Bolton said. “Everything is positive. We want to do more out of school activities to involve everybody. It doesn’t have to be all about school, everybody can communicate with each other.”
“When we have a concern about a student, we work really hard to get all stakeholders to the table. We try to create a culture where students know that they have multiple supports in the building, and also inviting parents to the table, not just to talk to them, but to ask them to enlighten us on the things that we need to know to help support students.”
— Tamika Henson,
CCHS Assistant Principal
From an analytical perspective, it is also essential to analyze school climate data in a compounded manner because one piece without the other does not accurately represent the climate as a whole.
“There are questions that pertain to school safety, social support or cultural acceptance, and it’s interesting to me to group them together versus looking at them all in isolation,” Barlament said. “There were these groups of questions that added up to a curriculum, and it was a needs assessment on how to implement that curriculum.”
This data analysis has proved to pay off through the interpersonal relationships of everyone in the CCHS climate.
“The social aspect between teachers and students, not even just teachers but CCHS employees, so, janitors, security guards, is actually really good and not something that you see at other schools,” CCHS sophomore Macie Richardson said. “I know a couple officers who interact with the kids and who genuinely are building personal relationships. I think that that’s super cool, that’s something that you can only experience here.”
