How to Improve School Culture: 10 Strategies That Work

I've walked into a lot of school buildings over the last 15 years. Within about five minutes, I can usually feel the culture.

It's in the hallway. It's in how the front office greets a parent. It's in whether a student looks up when an adult says their name, or keeps looking at the floor.

Culture isn't your mission statement on the wall. Culture is what students and staff experience on a regular Tuesday when nobody's watching.

The good news is that culture can change. I've seen it change in a semester. I've watched it start to shift during a single assembly. But it doesn't change by accident. Here's what I've seen work in schools across the country, including on our recent Next Level Students Tour across Atlanta.

1. Start With the Student in the Back Row

Every school has students who've decided school isn't for them. Hood up, arms crossed, and already checked out.

Most culture plans are built for the students who are already engaged. Build yours for the student in the back row. When that student starts to believe, everybody notices, and that's when culture tips.

Ask your staff this: "Which student do we talk about the most, and what would it mean for our building if they changed?"

2. Make Belonging Something Students Can See

Students don't rise to expectations. They rise to belief. Belonging can't just be a value you talk about. It has to be visible:

• Greet students at the door by name.

• Make sure every student has at least one adult who checks on them.

• Celebrate growth, not just honor roll.

• Put student voices on the walls, the announcements, and the stage. When a student feels seen, behavior and attendance often follow.

3. Take Care of the Adults First

You can't pour from an empty cup, and right now a lot of teachers are running on empty.

A school's culture will never be healthier than its staff room. Before you launch anything for students, ask what your teachers need to feel supported, heard, and reminded of why they started.

I teach a framework called Occupational Integrity. It's the idea that how we show up when nobody's measuring us shapes our classrooms more than any curriculum does. When adults reconnect with their purpose, students feel it.

4. Give Everyone a Shared Language

The strongest cultures I've seen have phrases that everyone, from the principal to the custodian to the sixth grader, knows and uses.

"We don't give up on each other." "Next level." "Your past doesn't determine your destiny."

A shared language turns a one-time moment into a daily habit. Pick a few phrases, put them everywhere, and use them on purpose.

5. Connect Every Event to a Real Priority

Here's an honest truth: many school assemblies don't lead to lasting change. That's not because the message was bad. It's because nothing happened on Monday.

Before any assembly, speaker, or spirit week, decide:

• What priority does this support (attendance, behavior, literacy, belonging)?

• How will staff prepare students beforehand?

• What will we do the following week to keep it going?

An assembly is the spark. The culture is the fire. Leaders keep the fire going.

6. Build Student Leaders, Not Just Student Council

Your best culture builders might not be your top students. Sometimes they're the influencers: the students others follow, for better or worse.

Invite them in. Give them real responsibility. When a student who used to lead people in the wrong direction starts leading them in the right one, the whole building shifts.

7. Treat Relationships as Your Discipline Strategy

A student acting out is often a student crying out. Before we ask, "What's wrong with you?", we can ask, "What happened to you, and who's in your corner?" Discipline still matters. But consequences without relationships rarely change behavior. Relationships combined with clear expectations often do.

8. Make Literacy About Dignity

Many students who struggle with reading have learned how to hide it. They crack jokes, act tough, or disappear in plain sight.

When reading becomes a source of shame, culture suffers. When it becomes a source of confidence, students stand taller everywhere. Make it safe to struggle, and celebrate every step forward.

9. Plan for the Spring Slump Now

Every school year has a dip. From late January through March, energy drops, behavior issues rise, testing pressure builds, and morale slips.

The leaders who have the best springs plan for them in the fall. Schedule your culture reset moments, staff renewal, and student events before winter break, not after.

10. Celebrate Out Loud

Culture grows where it's celebrated. Share wins in staff meetings, on social media, in the parent newsletter, and on the morning announcements. Name the teacher who stayed late. Name the student who turned it around. What gets celebrated gets repeated.

The Bottom Line

Improving school culture isn't about one big program. It's about belief, repeated every day by every adult, until every student, including the one in the back row, believes it too.

That's the work I've given my life to. I watched students who'd checked out lean back in. I've seen it in schools across the country, and I believe it can happen in yours.

Is your school ready for a culture reset this spring? I partner with schools and districts nationwide through student assemblies, teacher professional development, and district keynotes built around your priorities. Spring 2027 dates are limited. Start the Conversation →