Effects of School Climate and School Social Structure on Student Academic Achievement in Selected Urban Elementary Schools

Abstract

One of most pressing educational problems which has plagued American educators during last two decades is failure of our urban public schools to educate children effectively in basic skills of reading and mathematics. Silberman reminds us that this failure is not new, the public school never has done much of a job of educating youngsters from lower class or from immigrant homes.1 Additional support for this observation comes from Michael Katz who argues that: United States has never, on any large scale, known vital urban schools which embrace and are embraced by mass of community, which formulate their goals in terms of joy of individual instead of fear of social dynamic or imperatives of economic growth.2 The public constantly has been provided with evidence of widening disparity between academic achievement of students in urban public schools and that of their peers in suburban public schools. The results of standardized achievement tests have long provided documentation of persistence and seriousness of this problem. In response to concern expressed by parents and educators, New Jersey State Legislature enacted Thorough and Effi-