Elementary Student Perceptions of School Climate and Associations with Individual and School Factors

Abstract

School climate has increasingly been recognized as an essential component of school improvement owing to the established associations between a positive school climate and academic outcomes for students. Our study examines associations among a brief measure of school climate assessing elementary student perceptions and the College and Career Ready Performance Index, Georgia's comprehensive school improvement and accountability index. Individual factors including student grade, race/ethnicity, and gender were also examined in relation to perceptions of school climate. Multilevel analyses and hierarchical linear modeling indicated that student-level variables accounted for the majority of variation in perceptions of school climate. Notably, results revealed a significant and negative interaction among school climate, school achievement, and gender. These findings suggest that personal characteristics have a notable impact on students' experiences and perceptions of climate and should be considered in the development and implementation of school climate improvement efforts.