School Climate Research Research Articles

How School Climate Relates to Other Psychosocial Perceptions and Academic Achievement across the School Year

The research literature indicates that school climate is important for student outcomes; however, research assessing school climate and achievement-related outcomes across time is limited. In this study, the relationship between school climate, students’ psychosocial perceptions, and student achievement was examined across an academic school year in a cohort of 531 9th-grade students. A series of hierarchical linear regressions indicated that school climate predicted 10.5% of the variance in both hope and academic motivation, 8% of the variance in self-efficacy, 5% of the variance in academic self-concept, 3% of the variance in goal valuation, and 2% of the variance in spring semester GPA. Further, despite school climate being operationalized as school culture, attitude toward teachers, and attitude toward school, only attitude toward teachers significantly predicted any of the outcome variables. These results suggest that some aspects of school climate contribute more than others in crafting students’ psychosocial perceptions and achievement. Impact Statement Despite the widespread belief that school climate is important for student outcomes, the existing school climate research lacks investigations across time. This study assessed the relationship between school climate, academic-oriented psychosocial perceptions, and student achievement across an academic school year. This study’s results indicate that attitude toward teachers was the only significant predictor of psychosocial perceptions and that hope and academic motivation were most influenced by school climate perceptions.

Queer punishments: School safety and youth of color in the United States

ABSTRACT Although educational research and policymaking in the United States has generally framed LGBTQ youth and youth of color as mutually exclusive groups, LGBTQ youth of color are increasingly included in discourses surrounding school safety. These discourses tend to position youth as vulnerable, at-risk subjects who are passive victims of interpersonal homophobia. Using the theoretical frameworks queer of color critique and queer necropolitics, and a situational analysis mapping strategy, we analyzed GLSEN’s 2019 National School Climate Survey report, breakout reports on LGBTQ youth of color, and related advocacy efforts. These frameworks helped us consider how school climate research and policymaking relies on carceral logics that center and uphold whiteness. The GLSEN reports function as a form of embedded science that mobilizes individual understandings of violence and queer investments in punishment. We offer queer of color critique as a strategy for researchers and policymakers to get unstuck on school safety.

‘Put students’ dreams first’: Student perspectives on secondary school climate improvement in Mongolia

Involving students in school improvement can yield many benefits for students and promote meaningful change in educational practices and policies. In this qualitative study, we centered the voices of Mongolian adolescents by soliciting their suggestions for improving safety and support in their schools. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze written comments from 810 Mongolian secondary students grades 8 through 12, yielding five themes related to student voice, food, security, relationships, and holistic development. The aims of the study were to (a) identify similarities and differences between Mongolian student experiences and Western-based school climate research and (b) contribute to the dialogue about school improvement in Mongolia and other non-Western countries. Findings point to recommendations for providing adequate nutrition, ensuring safety, and meeting the basic psychological needs of students in Mongolian secondary schools.

STUDY OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN RELATION TO SCHOOL CLIMATE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

School as the first social institute is responsible to bring about desirable change in the behaviour of the child because in the school, different kinds of individuals meet and interact this interaction is the key of learning and because of this education is regarded as a dynamic process. Thus, school develops social behaviour pattern in the child and it is for this reason that classroom is considered as a social situation, provided the atmosphere of the school is democratic, the feelings, views and ideas of each student and teacher are respected. This tone of school creates a positive relationship between the administration, teacher and the behavioural pattern of students. School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices and organizational structures. Anacceptable, positive school climate fosters student development and learning necessary for a productive human being.This climate includes norms, values and expectations that support people feelings socially, emotionally and physically. People are engaged and respected. Students, families and education work together to develop, live and contribute to a shared school vision. Education model and nurture attitude that emphasize the benefits and satisfaction gained from learning. Each person contributes to the operations of the school and the care of the physical environment. School climate research has indicated a relationship between the climate of a school and academic achievement.

Positive school climate for school staff? The roles of administrators, staff beliefs, and school organization in high and low resource school districts.

Despite continued calls for positive school climate, school staff members are rarely included in school climate research or theories. This qualitative case study explored how socioeconomic status (SES), school districts, leadership, and school contexts combine to create school climate. Four schools were selected from a sample of positive and negative climate schools in one high and one low-SES district. Data collection involved key informant interviews and observation. District and school SES did not directly dictate the quality of climate. Organizational variables such as the principal's decisions and vision were key influences on the quality of climate for staff members. Staff members often prioritize student experiences of climate above their own experiences. School organization and the influence of the principal are critical for the quality of school climate staff members experience; these along with staff voice are critical ongoing contributions to school climate research, theory, and practice.

Exploring pupils’ perspectives on school climate

ABSTRACT Background: School climate is crucial: its character can affect pupils’ academic achievement, teachers’ working conditions and the wellbeing of everyone at school. A major concern for teachers is how to prevent and manage disruptive behaviours. Against this backdrop, there is a need for thorough investigation of pupils’ perspectives to better understand their perceptions of the climate at their schools and their views about why disruptive behaviours occur. Purpose: In this small-scale, qualitative study, we aimed to contribute to the body of school climate research by exploring pupils’ perspectives on school climate, teachers and relationships at school. Method: We conducted an in-depth qualitative analysis, exploring pupils’ perspectives on these issues through focus group interviews. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted (n = 104) with grade 1–9 (7- to 15-year-old) pupils from a school in Sweden. The interview guide included questions about sense of safety, relationships at school and in classrooms, and pupils’ views of teachers. Constructivist grounded theory was used as the analytical framework. Findings: A recurrent pattern identified in the data was the focus on disruptive behaviours and how these were connected to the pupils’ learning environment, sense of safety and teachers. Three core categories were conceptualised from the pupils’ perspectives: (a) within-pupil explanations, (b) teaching style explanations and (c) peer group process explanations. We adopted a social-ecological approach to conceptualise the complexities and interplay of factors addressed by the pupils in their perspectives on disruptive behaviours. Conclusions: Our findings provide insight into the way that different factors interplay in the emergence of disruptive behaviours in the classroom, nested within both contextual and structural aspects. This analysis of pupil perspectives also points to the importance of a whole-school approach in which teachers establish a warm, responsive and confident teaching style in the classroom and in the playground to influence the social dynamics.

Evaluation of School Climate Behaviors in the School Context: CONVIVE Questionnaire

School climate research has traditionally been carried out by separating its two main components, prosocial and antisocial behaviors. This is often a partial view of the school climate. Hence, the goal of this study is to develop an evaluation instrument (CONVIVE) that takes into account both perspectives of the school climate through a dual-strategy design, psychometric and non-experimental, cross-sectional, and descriptive-comparative. The sample includes 600 Primary and Secondary Education students from a southeastern region of Spain. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factorial Analysis fit indices were used for the psychometric study. The result is a 26-item instrument (CONVIVE) made up of four scales that evaluate antisocial and prosocial behaviors, both performed toward others and received by peers: Prosocial Behavior Actor, Prosocial Behavior Receiver, Antisocial Behavior Actor, and Antisocial Behavior Receiver. These behaviors differ as a function of sex and the educational stage.

Relationship between Socio-Economic Status, Interpersonal Communication, and School Climate with Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Relationship between Socio-Economic Status, Interpersonal Communication, and School Climate with Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

School Climate Research: Italian Adaptation and Validation of a Multidimensional School Climate Questionnaire

In this article, we present a multidimensional school climate questionnaire, based on an adaptation and validation of the Socio-Educational Environment Questionnaire, which is an instrument developed in Canada, assessing several dimensions of school climate. In particular, the aim of this research was to create a Multidimensional School Climate Questionnaire, which is adding to the original measure by testing a second-order factor model. We conducted two studies with different samples of middle school students (aged from 10 to 16 years) from Northern Italy (Study 1: 575 students and Study 2: 1070 students), and collected data on the psychometric features of the instrument, its reliability and validity. In particular, in Study 1, we carried out the adaptation process and an exploratory factor analysis. In Study 2, we conducted first- and second-order confirmatory factor analysis and tested the associations with school engagement and burnout scales. Overall, our results supported the stability of the adaptation and offered further insights into the original instrument. Assessment implications are discussed.

A systematic literature review of school climate in low and middle income countries

Research on school climate has largely been conducted in high-income countries, with less focus on school climate in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). As such, there is limited understanding of how school climate may be associated with students’ socio-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes in these contexts. Five reviewers completed a two-stage review process; 35 articles met inclusion criteria for review. Results indicated a lack of consensus in the research around what constitutes or how to measure school climate, but consistent associations with socio-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes were found. Although findings suggested that school climate is associated with positive student outcomes in LMICs, additional work is needed to increase the rigor of school climate research and its impact in these settings.

The predictive value of school climate and teacher techniques on students’ just world beliefs: a comprehensive Brazilian sample

Substantial research has established the connection between students’ beliefs in a just world (BJW) and their perceptions of and behaviors in the school. While much of that research has acknowledged that the relationship between BJW and school variables must be bi-directional, little empirical evidence exists on how the school climate shapes students’ perceptions of justice. This study draws from a comprehensive sample of Brazilian students from third through twelfth grade (n = 18,514) across 122 public schools in Southern Brazil. Results reveal that school climate variables account for 12.1–19.6% of the variance of students’ BJW, with middle school being a time of strongest influence. Perceptions of rule fairness, student–student relationships, and positive and socio-emotional learning techniques were significant predictors across all grade levels. Additional analyses revealed that teachers’ positive and socio-emotional techniques can act as a moderator between school climate and students’ BJW. The results provide more tangible ways to integrate just world research into the educational context by bridging the gap between school climate research and just world theory. This study provides empirical data for the bidirectionality of BJW and school context and opens the discussion on how the school sets students’ future expectations of justice.

School Climate & Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescent Mental Health.

Sexual/gender minority (Sexual/gender minority people are also referred to as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) youth are more likely than cisgender heterosexual youth to exhibit depressive symptoms and be victimized. School climate research indicates that the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance (a Gay-Straight Alliance or Gender-Sexuality Alliance is also referred to as a GSA and is a youth group to support sexual/gender minority youth), a supportive school climate, and seeking help from teachers are associated with more positive mental health outcomes; however, they are not typically measured together. This study uses a survey that measures all four measures of school environment with a national sample of 240 sexual/gender minority high school students ages 14-18 (mean age 15.77) where 53% of participants had a Gay-Straight Alliance in their school. The sample is 53% cisgender, 100% sexual minority and 62% white. Adjusting for demographics and presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance, fewer depressive symptoms were associated with lower help-seeking intentions for suicidal thoughts. The presence of Gay-Straight Alliance was not statistically associated with past-month help-seeking intentions or behaviors. Additionally, a more supportive school climate was associated with lower anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance was not statistically associated with anxiety or depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that a supportive school climate and supportive school personnel may be important for supporting the mental health of sexual/gender minority students.

Getting Better All the Time? An Illustrative Investigation of Multilevel Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Based on School Climate Surveys

AbstractSchool climate surveys are central to school improvement and principal evaluation policies. The quality of school climate has been linked both to student achievement and to teacher retention. Oftentimes, policymakers and practitioners are concerned with monitoring change in school climate quality in each academic year. Such applications assume longitudinal factorial invariance—it is presupposed that the surveys are measuring the same things in the same metric at each time point. While there is considerable research examining the validity of inferences based on survey‐derived climate indicators, this research is almost exclusively based on cross‐sectional data. There is little literature describing procedures for gathering evidence of factorial invariance of school climate indicators. This study proposes to adapt existing methods for evaluating factorial invariance in longitudinal designs into multilevel frameworks, and in doing so, articulates a novel method for evaluating longitudinal measurement invariance in school climate research. This technique is illustrated on a widely used school climate survey.

The little kids down the hall: Associations between school climate, pre-K classroom quality, and pre-K children’s gains in receptive vocabulary and executive function

In recent years, policymakers’ and practitioners’ interest in school climate as a contributor to K-12 student learning and classroom processes has increased, both in the US and internationally. However, researchers have not yet examined the influence of school climate on the youngest learners in these contexts — prekindergartners. Using data from the Boston Public Schools, where the public prekindergarten program is housed in elementary schools, we explored associations among dimensions of school climate as reported by teachers and older peers, observed measures of prekindergarten classroom quality, and gains in children’s receptive vocabulary and executive function across the prekindergarten year. Student participants included 299 children attending full-day prekindergarten programs across 35 elementary schools in 61 classrooms. Findings indicated that school emotional climate had small positive association with prekindergarten classroom emotional support. School-level measures of teacher effectiveness also had positive associations with prekindergarten classroom levels of emotional support and classroom organization. School climate dimensions were not associated with children’s receptive vocabulary and executive function gains across the prekindergarten year. Results are discussed in the context of current school climate research and state-wide accountability efforts to assess school quality.

Advancing a Conceptual and Empirical Model of School Climate for School Staff in California

ABSTRACTSchool climate is increasingly intertwined with efforts to create safe schools and improve social-emotional learning and academic outcomes. While current definitions of school climate implicate the decisions and actions of school staff members, the majority of school climate research focuses on the perspectives of students. This study presents an adapted model of school climate that focuses on the experiences of school staff members, and is one of the first empirical studies to explore a statewide data set of responses from staff members in California public schools. Results suggest that there are meaningful differences in the experiences of school climate for different staff members and that these differences should guide the assessments of school climate and changes to policies and procedures that may influence climate.

Student representations of dyadic and global teacher-student relationships: Perceived caring, negativity, affinity, and differences across gender and race/ethnicity

This mixed-method study (N = 657) explores high school students’ representations of their relationships with teachers in both dyadic teacher-student pairs and on a “global” level with all teachers at a focal school, as well as differences in these representations by student gender and race/ethnicity. The goals are to provide greater insight into how students represent both types of relationships, blending approaches in teacher-student relationship and school climate research, and to explore the ways in which individual student differences may be associated with trends in students’ representations. Specifically, students’ representations of their dyadic relationships with teachers are explored through content analysis of qualitative student survey data, while a global measure of students’ relationships with teachers across the school are modeled through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of quantitative survey items. Both sets of data are then disaggregated by student gender and race/ethnicity. Key findings include the multidimensionality of students’ perceptions of teacher caring, the distinction of negative relationship characteristics, and the potentially unique role that perceived affinity may have in students’ representations, particularly across student sub-groups. Implications include the need for greater attention to and articulation of students’ representations of their relationship in both research and practice.

Can Schools Engage Students? Multiple Perspectives, Multidimensional School Climate Research in England and Ireland

Purpose: This article assesses how different aspects of the school climate relate to students’ intended future electoral engagement. Until now, political socialization researchers found evidence for a relation between formal citizenship education in school and students’ participation levels. There is less consensus, however, in how multiple aspects of informal political socialization can contribute to individuals' participatory acts. Method: To learn more about several aspects of informal political socialization and their relevance for student intended electoral participation this work draws on educational sciences and political socialization literature and focuses on multiple dimensions of school climate (cf. Konold, 2014; Lenzi, 2014) and their relationship to future electoral engagement. We rely on the English and Irish International Civic and Citizenship Survey (ICCS) 2009 data to operationalize multiple dimensions of the school climate. We estimate a structural equation model in which school climate is measured by indicators based on student and teacher questionnaire data aggregated at the school level. The relationship between multiple dimensions of school climate and student future electoral participation is tested. Findings: We find that in order to engage students in voting; schools should focus not only on the formal curriculum but also on more informal aspects (the school climate). Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

A multilevel analysis of the effects of disciplinary climate strength on student reading performance

Climate strength was first conceptualised in the organisational psychology literature as the within-group agreement on the perceptions of climate. In contrast to the deep study of climate level, climate strength has not been clarified by school climate research. The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to identify the main effect of disciplinary climate strength on student reading performance, and its moderating effect on the relationship between disciplinary climate level and student reading performance. A multilevel analysis was conducted on 2009 data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from Shanghai-China, Japan, and the United States (US). The result showed a significantly positive relationship between climate strength and student reading performance in Shanghai-China and the US. Moreover, a moderating effect of climate strength was found in Shanghai-China and the US. The effects of climate strength were further examined in strong and weak conditions. School-level predictors of climate strength were also examined. The differences in disciplinary climate strengths and their effects on student reading performance suggested some culture differences in these countries/areas.

A Multilevel MTMM Approach to Estimating the Influences of Contextual Factors on Trait and Informant-Based Method Effects in Assessments of School Climate

School-level contextual factors have been found to influence reports of school climate. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which these associations are related to the school climate traits being measured or the methods (i.e., informants) used to obtain them. Data from a multilevel multitrait–multimethod (MTMM) design in which structurally different and interchangeable students ( n = 45,641) and teachers ( n = 12,808), residing within 302 high schools, responded to items measuring four dimensions of school climate were evaluated through a multilevel correlated trait–correlated method (CT-CM) latent analysis that allowed for the estimation of both school-level trait and informant-based method factors. The resulting trait and method factors were regressed on several school-level contextual variables. Results indicated that the percentage of students receiving free and reduced-price meals (FRPM) in schools was associated with both school climate traits and informant-based method factors, school size and the percentage of minority students in schools were associated with some traits, and school size was associated with student method effects. Findings support the use of controlling for school-level contextual factors in school climate research.

School Climate and Academic Achievement in Suburban Schools

School climate research has indicated a relationship between the climate of a school and academic achievement. The majority of explanatory models have been developed in urban schools with less attention given to suburban schools. Due to the process of formation of suburban schools, there is a likelihood these campuses differ from the traditional urban school. The current study examined the predictive value of suburban school climate on academic achievement in a nationally representative sample of suburban campuses. The findings indicate behavior and racial/ethnic composition may impact achievement levels in suburban schools. The findings also indicate the location of the school and the surrounding crime may be a factor in suburban academic achievement.