35 Ways Leaders Can Improve School Culture

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This article was originally published in Choice Literacy. I recommend subscribing to the site - a wealth of content for literacy teachers and leaders.

The school culture is defined as

• the school’s unwritten rules and traditions, 

• customs, and

• expectations (Deal & Peterson, 2016). 

It’s what we do on a regular basis. (For clarity, a school climate is how we feel, which is a measure of school culture.)

And what we do is best described as behaviors. All schools have a culture. It is heavily influenced by the leaders of the school, both positional and perceived. So, beyond publicly listing the shared beliefs and values of the school, literacy leaders can most effectively improve the school culture by demonstrating and modeling the behaviors we expect in everyone else. 

Over the years, I have found 35 ways to positively influence the school culture that other literacy leaders can also try and apply. They are organized within the three elements of school culture shared previously. If this is new to you, use the list below to implement one action per week of a school year.