A Cultural-Ecological Model of School Climate

Abstract

School climate has been established as an important construct to measure because of its connections to student psychological, social, and academic outcomes (Anderson, 1982; Koth, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2008; Kuperminc, Leadbeater, Emmons, & Blatt, 1997). Prior research has also established relationships between student perceptions of school climate and individual (i.e., race and ethnicity, gender), classroom (i.e., class size, academic environment), and school (i.e., school size, teacher characteristics) cultural factors. While these variables provide insight into the ways that students come to experience school climate differently, there still remains a need to examine the effect of additional cultural and ecological variables that also have a proximal effect on students' school experiences and perceptions of climate. The current paper presents the Cultural-Ecological Model of School Climate as a method for understanding the interrelationships between personal characteristics, culture, ecological contexts, and school climate, and describes a methodological framework for examining the CEMSC model with individual, family, school, and community variables using multilevel methodologies. Future directions for research will describe how the application of the Cultural-Ecological Model of School Climate can help guide future research aimed at identifying culture-specific prevention and intervention strategies to promote a positive school climate for all students.