Culture and Climate Network

Suspension data speaks to the notion of belonging to a community, and while we have seen a decrease in the number of suspensions/expulsions, we continue to have marginalized student groups who are disproportionately represented in discipline data across our education system. The most current data for San Diego County shows marginalized student groups with suspension rates two to six times higher than the countywide average of 2.8%.

The Culture and Climate Network (CCN) focuses on improving the experiences for students by specifically increasing student belonging in classrooms and schools. This network proactively addresses the root causes that influence student behavior, intentionally identifies ways to enhance student belonging, and aims to decrease suspensions and expulsions.

The following areas have been identified as areas to explore and grow:

• Asset Based Systems 
  • How do our systems of support, policies, and structures support all students, including historically marginalized student groups?
  • How might we leverage our community’s cultures, languages, and celebrate the strengths, gifts, and talents our students bring to the classroom?
• Relationships
  • How might we build meaningful relationships with students, staff, and community that are rooted in trust, authentic care, and mutual respect?
  • How might we create spaces for listening, healing, and relationship building with students, staff, and community?
• Voice and Agency
  • How might we create intentional, systemic, and ongoing ways to critically listen to students, staff, and community?
  • How might we create ongoing opportunities to actively engage students, staff, and community to study, analyze, and discuss school policies and structures?
     

Participating in this network is a two-year commitment:

Year 1  

• Teams participate in four in-person professional learning session designed to prepare teams to conduct a system investigation
• Teams engage in four action periods where they conduct a system investigation and gain deeper insight into how their current systems, structures, and routines shape students’ experiences, school culture and climate
• Teams are assigned a CCN coach who supports system investigation and implementation of change ideas 
• Teams develop an action plan for implementation in preparation for Year 2

Year 2

• Teams participate in four in-person professional learning sessions that support teams’ implementation of change ideas
• Teams will be assigned a CCN coach who will coach site teams with implementation of change ideas
   

Learn more:

Download CCN flyer.

Contact:

Valentin Escanuela: vescanuela@sdcoe.net
Denise Falkenthal: denise.falkenthal@sdcoe.net