Respect for All Training Program

In order to support the city-wide Respect for All initiative, New York City Department of Education’s (NYC DOE) provided a two-day training program for all secondary school educators. The training was implemented so that every secondary school in the district would have staff members who could support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students.

The five main goals of the training program were to: (1) build the capacity of school personnel to actively promote a community of inclusion in each school so that all students feel both safe and respected; (2) increase the likelihood that school personnel will intervene when witnessing anti-LGBTQ language, harassment, and/or bullying; (3) build the capacity of school personnel to serve as a resource and support for students who may be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning; (4) build the capacity of school personnel to serve as a resource for other students who may be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning; and (5) decrease hurtful, offensive, or exclusionary language and/or practices.

The program was piloted in summer 2007, and then fully implemented throughout the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 school years.

The program’s goal is to make New York City public schools safe and supportive for all students and to have staff members who could support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Research Department conducted an evaluation of the Respect for All training program for NYC secondary school educators. GLSEN surveyed 813 educators before the training, six weeks after, and six months after. Focus groups were also conducted to gain a greater understanding of participants' experiences. The following results are form the first year of the program (2007-2008).

Pre and post questionnaires revealed that educators demonstrated statistically significant increases in: knowledge of appropriate terms, access of appropriate resources, awareness of own practices, empathy for LGBTQ students, belief in the importance of intervening in anti-LGBTQ remarks, communication about LGBTQ issues, engagement in activities to make schools safer for LGBTQ students, and frequency of intervention in anti-LGBTQ name-calling, bullying, and harassment. Results were significant at either .05 or .1 level (P<.05 or P<.10).