Assessment of School's Climate

 A school climate can really impact a student’s ability to learn, function and engage in school activities. There are a variety of assessments that can provide you with information on the student’s perception of safety, the school environment and layout, community safety, parent involvement, and many others. By completing an assessment for your school, you can create a measurement tool to better understand the baseline from which you will be starting with and further change specific to your school and your community. We have provided some examples of assessments you can use which can be done with a small group or the entire school, in a formal or informal setting, in various classroom settings and throughout different years. The assessment tool provides you with a springboard to start creating a positive, healthy and safe environment in your school!

• Action Signs Project : A toolkit to help parents, educators and health professionals identify children at behavioral and emotional risk
• Assessment of School's Climate (Welcoming Schools) : This survey for students can help you assess the climate of your school by collecting answers to these questions:Are students being teased or bullied? If so, what are the reasons behind this bullying or teasing? Are there different groups within your school? If so, are any of these groups in conflict?
• Harassment Survey and Evaluation Combo (PDF: 141KB/2 pages) : A pre and post-survey developed by Cornerstone
• Health, Mental Health and Safety Guidelines for Schools : Health, Mental Health and safety guidelines for schools
• Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Bystander Experiences:A Compendium of Assessment tools (PDF: 6.5MB/128 pages) : This compendium provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences
• National Human Trafficking Resource Center : This tool is designed to help educators identify the risk factors and indicators of human trafficking in their students and to offer guidelines on how to respond and access resources.
• School Health Index (CDC) : The SHI is a self-assessment and planning tool that schools can use to improve their health and safety policies and programs. It's easy to use and completely confidential. The eight areas of assessment are: School Health and Safety Policies and Environment, Health Education, Physical Education and Other Physical Activity Programs, Nutrition Services, Health Services, Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services, Health Promotion for Staff, and Family and Community Involvement.

---

For questions about this page, please contact the Injury and Violence Prevention program at:health.injuryprevention@state.mn.us

See also Health Promotion and Chronic Disease