The effects of school climate on students’ reading achievement

Abstract

Despite the widely acknowledged importance of reading literacy to the success of modern societies, the performance of Indonesian children in reading remains comparatively poor. With reference to interdependence theory by Harold Kelley and John thibaut (1959), which states that social interaction highly influences student outcomes, this study aims to investigate the effects of school climate on Indonesian students' reading achievements. The sample used in this study was the results of 12,098 Indonesian students’ participation in PISA 2018. Data were analysed using SPSS and AMOS software, with several data analyses conducted including a t-test, ANOVA, CFA, and SEM. The results of this study showed that Indonesian female students are significantly better at reading compared to their male counterparts. Based on year levels, students in Grade 11 achieved the highest scores, while surprisingly students in Grade 12 achieved lower scores than their counterparts in Grades 10 and 11. An important finding of this study was related to the effects of disruptive student behavior, which among the variables analysed had the strongest negative effects on reading achievements. Surprisingly, teaching practices, which were hypothesised to have a positive effect on reading performance, instead showed negative direct effects on student performance. However, the tenets of interdependence theory were supported by the finding that strong school communities have significant positive effects on student reading scores.