Is improving school safety a focus of the Department of Education’s agenda?
Yes, school safety aligns with two of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s overarching goals. The first goal is to adopt rigorous standards across the board within our school system. In addition to academic standards, we need to set equally rigorous standards for school climate. The second goal is to build data systems that help measure and track student achievement. In the same way, we will require measurements of school climate that capture how safe students feel in America’s classrooms. I like to remind my colleagues that “what gets measured is what gets done.” We can’t successfully address the school climate challenges we face without accurately assessing the extent of our problems. • What are some strategies in making schools safer? I like to refer to our plan to make schools safer as the 3 P’s. POLICY Examples of policies that address safety issues include school-wide rules and sanctions – a control strategy – and setting climate standards that address the school culture. PROGRAM
