The Seasonality of School Climate

Abstract

Although several studies have focused on why school climate is important, the timing of the collection of climate measures should be considered. This is of particular interest to schools that gauge school improvement efforts within a school year and are interested in how climate changes from the beginning to the end of the academic year. We show that there is a tendency for school-level climate measures to fluctuate in a predictable, nontrivial manner (ds = 0.25–0.47). Findings are based on data from 26 secondary schools (using over 20,000 student responses) that had school climate measures taken in fall and spring over 18 months. We show that in the fall, on average, students consistently had a more favorable outlook of the school based on five climate measures. Impact Statement School climate has been used to guide school improvement efforts and although studies have discussed why climate is important, little attention has been paid to when school climate should be measured. We show, using data from students in the sixth to the twelfth grade from 26 schools and five measures of school climate, that school-level climate fluctuates in a predictable though nontrivial manner. Climate is consistently rated more positively in the fall compared to the spring.