Comprehensive School Transformation:

Our Approach to Transforming Your School

What is CST? PSVI’s approach to comprehensive school transformation (CST) was developed by the Illinois School Bullying Prevention Task Force in 2011. The CST approach offers a vision of the kinds of places we want schools to be in order to provide emotionally and physically safe and supportive climates to all members of their community.

Is CST a program? The CST approach is process, not a program.  Although the approach has been informed by empirical research and best practices, it is neither proscriptive, nor does it recommend specific programs. Instead, CST highlights specific kinds of policies and practices that schools can use to use to improve their climates and subsequently reduce bullying, including bias-based bullying, harassment, and school violence.

cst’s foundation and domains

An examination of a school with a positive climate reveals a core of healthy and productive relationships between and among all members of the school community. For this reason, PSVI’s CST approach to positive school climate transformation is grounded in the practice of social and emotional skill building to support a culture of respect and provide tools for effectively negotiating conflict. CST’s foundation, then, is infused in six domains of effective school practice.  The six CST domains are:

(1) Stakeholder Engagement

(2) Data-Informed Decision Making

(3) Policy and Practice

(4) Professional Learning

(5) Student Supports and Services

(6) Restorative Discipline

Each of these six CST domains contributes to developing and sustaining healthy, productive, positive relationships in a school community. Taken together in a coordinated fashion, they characterize a set of practices that constitute an ideal environment for transforming school climate and thereby reducing bullying and harassment.