Creating School Climates That Prevent School Violence

Abstract

ronment is supportive of learning (or teaching), is appropriately organized, and is safe. Climate may also address other positive or negative feelings regarding the school environment. We would hypothesize that comfortable and supportive feelings would support effective and efficient learning and teaching as well as positive student behavior and attitudes. Conversely, negative feelings such as concern, fear, frustration, and loneliness would negatively affect learning and behavior. Therefore, school climate is a reflection of the positive or negative feelings regarding the school environment, and it may directly or indirectly affect a variety of learning outcomes. The typical measures of school climate are surveys of students, parents, staff, and sometimes community members regarding what they think about the school. They include judgments about issues such as teacherstudent relationships, security and maintenance, administration, student academic orientation, and student behavioral values (Kelly et al., 1986). These surveys usually use some form of Likert-type rating items and attempt to identify both specific strengths and weaknesses regarding these issues. Recently, a variety of safety-oriented surveys have attempted to identify the degree to which conflict, violence, and other disruptions contribute to a negative school climate as well. Data from these surveys may be uiseful in assessing and