Caring Safe Schools Ontario

Assessments may reveal areas of concern – “gaps” – that school leaders werepreviously unaware of, and this information will provide a useful starting pointfor rethinking practices in these areas. For example, if student responses indicatethat students are reluctant to report incidents of bullying and harassment, schoolleaders will know that they need to identify specific barriers to student reportingand develop procedures and protocols to address them.Examples of assessment instruments include the following:✦✦school climate surveys: Sample surveys for students, teachers, and parentshave been developed by the ministry and are available online. The surveys aredesigned to assess the school’s effectiveness in promoting equity and ensuringthe safety of teachers and students.✦✦cultural audits: Interviews and group discussions can be used to help schoolsdetermine to what extent the goals identified in the school’s mission statementand safety and equity policies are achieved in practice.✦✦action research: An inquiry process in the field, involving a group of educatorsor all members of the school community, can be used to assess the effectivenessof specific strategies for ensuring a caring and safe school culture.School culture may be assessed using one or a combination of the strategiesoutlined above. Whatever strategy or strategies they use, schools will need toidentify specific attributes – or indicators – of a caring and safe school culturein order to determine which are present in their school, and to what degree. It isimportant to invite responses from a variety of school stakeholders – includingparents, students, staff, and community members – in order to reach agreement onthe values and beliefs that are essential to a caring and safe school and to gain anaccurate picture of what is working well and where improvements are needed.The checklist provided in Figure 2 identifies some indicators that system and schoolleaders may find useful for assessing school culture. (The indicators can be assessedon a sliding scale – for example, as true or applicable “rarely, sometimes, or always”.)The list is not intended to be exhaustive.Caring and Safe Schools14