Stress can have a serious impact on your teachers, students, and school culture. Research finds that students and educators are increasingly more stressed and that stressed teachers can negatively impact student behavior and achievement.
As an academic administrator, you can’t expect to alleviate all stress in your school.
However, you can certainly take steps to ensure your school structure causes as little stress as possible, and best supports faculty, staff, and students.
Here are some places to start when it comes to helping reduce stress in your school.
Develop and administer student and faculty surveys. Surveying your students and faculty helps you better understand what’s working and what can stand improvement. It’s important to receive feedback from both groups—they can perceive things differently in your school. Implement changes based on your survey results.
Strengthen your advisory program. A key attribute of a private-independent school education is the presence of an advisory program. Families value the one-on-one attention and mentoring their children receive, providing them with academic guidance, character education, and personal development. Dedicate the time and resources to make this program strong so students can have a trusted sounding board within your school and an involved, trusted adult to lean on in times of stress.
Review your school schedule. Establish your schedule for the most efficient use of student time, attention span, and growth, while maximizing use of facilities and teachers. Ask yourself this question: What kind of academic outcome do we seek? And what schedule form best supports our faculty in delivering that outcome? This helps ensure your schedule satisfies the needs of your students, faculty, and mission.
Assess your parent education program. This program aims to create and maintain an open dialogue with parents. A parent education program helps families share what’s causing stress for their children at home, and better aligns parents and school leaders on strategies to help students succeed.
Consider your academic programs. ISM encourages academic leaders to require the rotation of teaching assignments so that all students (regular, honors, and AP) are taught by all teachers (good, very good, and excellent). This helps ensure that all students have access to your best teachers, helping them feel supported throughout their time at your school.
Stress can be tricky—and we’re all prone to it now and again. But consider how your school structure can help alleviate stress for yourself, your faculty, and your students.
Additional ISM Resources:
The Source for Private School News Vol. 17 No. 2 Stress Is Contagious: Don’t Let It Spread in Your School
The Source for Private School News Vol. 17 No. 11 Yoga Shown to Help Students Better Manage Stress and Anxiety
The Source for Academic Leadership Vol. 15 No. 10 How Teachers’ Stress Impacts Student Outcomes
Additional ISM resources for Gold members:
I&P Vol. 41 No. 11 The Rhetoric of Rigor II: Stress, Schedules, and Fun
