| dc.description |
The purpose of this study was to (a) determine the adequacy of survey items in assessing a recently proposed model of school climate; and (b) examine the utility of the model-based climate measures by testing several hypotheses regarding relations among school climate, school structural characteristics, and student performance. A sample of 8,609 students in Grades 3 through 6 completed questionnaires. Schools represented approximately one third of 122 elementary schools in a large, suburban school district located near a major metropolitan area. Scales corresponding to the model's component parts (i.e., social order-social action crossed by instrumental-expressive) were constructed. Scale items loaded on separate factors in factor analyses and showed moderate to high internal consistency. As expected, there was greater agreement on scales for students (a) when assigned to their schools, compared to being pooled with all students, and (b) who had been in the school longer, compared to those who have been in school a shorter time. Only the Social Order scales reliably identified student membership in ethnically similar schools (i.e., students who only spoke English). Factor scales showed significant relations with school structural characteristics: Schools having larger student class sizes and student-teacher ratios tended to have lower levels of classroom climate (scored lower on the Social Action-Instrumental [AI] and Social Action-Expressive [AE] scales) and higher levels of school climate (scored higher on the Social Order-Instrumental [OI] and Social Order-Expressive JOEl scales). Schools having higher levels of OI and OE and lower levels of AI and AE had higher criterion-referenced test (CRT) scores. OI was most predictive of the school CRT scores. More racially uniform schools, compared to racially mixed schools, had lower AI and AE scores. However, AI appeared to benefit racially mixed, rather than racially uniform, schools in predicting CRT scores. |
