School Climate in Nevada

Understanding student and staff experiences provides an important tool to schools and districts as they work to improve the climate in their schools, and ultimately to improve student outcomes. The Nevada School Climate/Social Emotional Learning Survey (NV-SCSEL) is administered to students across the state of Nevada each fall and is used by schools to measure and understand their students’ perceptions of key school climate topics, including physical and emotional safety, relationships, and cultural and linguistic competence, as well as students’ perceptions of their social and emotional competencies. In addition, data from the NV-SCSEL are used by NDE to help understand student needs across the state. In 2021 an annual staff survey was introduced as a way to incorporate staff voice and experiences into school improvement efforts.

The NV-SCSEL surveys are aligned to the ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS), providing an opportunity for scores from the NV-SCSEL to be compared directly to the performance-level benchmarks developed by the U.S. Department of Education. 

After each administration, survey results are provided to all participating schools and districts, including:

• School-level survey reports. These ADA-compliant PDF reports are made available to schools shortly after the end of their survey window, these reports provide school-level scores for each of the NV-SCSEL topics overall and disaggregated by student characteristics, item-level response distributions, and links to resources. These reports are available in English and Spanish. To access the Spanish versions of the reports, select the year and choose Spanish.

• NV-SCSEL Peer Matching Tool. This online interactive tool allows users to select a school of interest and identifies the most similar schools from across the state that are most similar based on characteristics of the schools and the students they serve. The tool provides comparison data on school climate and social and emotional competencies between the target and peer schools and allows users to customize the way that matches are determined.
• NV-SCSEL Interactive Data Tool. This online interactive tool displays data at the school, district, and state levels, overall and by student subgroup. In this tool, users will find:
1. The most recent survey results, overall and by student subgroup
2. Trends over time for schools that participated in multiple survey administrations
3. A detailed breakdown of the percentage of students (overall and by student subgroup) that perceive the school environment in each performance-level benchmark category
4. Item-level results
5. Resources to assist schools in using data to drive climate improvements

Alignment to Nevada Laws and Regulations:  

The NV-SCSEL survey was initiated in response to Senate Bill 515 (2015), which created the Social Workers in Schools (SWxS) state block grant to place social workers or other licensed mental health workers “in schools with identified needs” and its requirement to award funding from the SWxS grant based on the needs of schools (and in alignment with the intent of Senate Bill 504 (2015) regarding safe and respectful learning environments)

The NV-SCSEL surveys also are aligned to Goal 6 of Nevada’s Statewide Plan for the Improvement of Pupils (STIP), which states that: All students and adults learn and work together in safe schools where identities and relationships are valued and celebrated.

Additionally, NRS 385A.650 requires school principals to submit a plan to improve the achievement of pupils, known as School Performance Plans (see also the Redesigned Continuous Improvement Process beta).  The plan must include “methods for evaluating and improving the school climate” with school climate categorized into the following topics:   

• relationships between pupils and the parents or legal guardians of pupils and educational personnel,
• the cultural and linguistic competence of instructional materials and educational personnel,  
• the emotional and physical safety of pupils and educational personnel, and the  
• social, emotional and academic development of pupils and educational personnel   

Other Resources:

The National Center for Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE) created the School Climate Improvement Resource Package to assist schools and districts to use school climate survey data to drive improvement planning and includes a variety of resources to meet a range of needs among stakeholders interested in improving school climate.

The links below provide resources that may be useful to schools as they plan for improvements across aspects of their school’s climate, including the topics measured on the NV-SCSEL. 

 Resources for Strengthening Cultural and Linguistic Competence:

• Teaching Tolerance (http://www.tolerance.org)
• Teachers College Inclusive Classrooms Project (http://www.inclusiveclassrooms.org)
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development – Multicultural Education (http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/multicultural-education-resources.aspx)
• The National Center for Safe Supportive Learning Environments (https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/engagement/cultural-linguistic-competence)  

Resources for Promoting Physical Safety:   

• Keep Schools Safe (http://www.keepschoolssafe.org)
• SaferSanerSchools (http://www.safersanerschools.org)
• The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/safety)
• The National School Safety Center (http://www.schoolsafety.us)
• OSEP TA Center for PBIS (https://www.pbis.org)  

Resources for Enhancing Emotional Safety:    

• The Learning Classroom: Feelings Count - Emotions and Learning (https://www.learner.org/series/the-learning-classroom-theory-intopractice/feelings-count-emotions-and-learning/)
• Active Minds (http://activeminds.org/index.php)
• New York State Center for School Safety (http://www.nyscfss.org)
• Promote Prevent (http://www.promoteprevent.org)
• The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/safety/emotional-safety)  

Resources for Promoting Student Social and Emotional Competencies:   

• Social Emotional Learning (http://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning)
• National School Climate Center (http://www.schoolclimate.org)
• Teaching the Whole Child: Instructional Practices That Support Social and Emotional Learning in Three Teacher Evaluation Frameworks (http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/TeachingtheWholeChild.pdf)
• Promote Prevent (http://www.promoteprevent.org/)
• Social and Emotional Learning and Character Development Certificate Program (https://psych.rutgers.edu/sel-certificate)