Increasing school engagement is critical for improving academic achievement and reducing dropout rates. In order to increase student engagement and identify those students who are most disengaged from school, we need to conceptualize and measure student engagement appropriately. This study used a mixed method sequential exploratory design to develop and validate a student survey measure of school engagement that reflects a multidimensional conceptualization of engagement. Psychometric tests were conducted with a large racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 5th–12th graders in the United States (N = 3,632). Findings demonstrated that a bifactor multidimensional model fit the data appropriately and provided evidence of measurement invariance, construct, and predictive validity. Results provided a psychometrically sound foundation for capturing the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and social aspects of student engagement and disengagement in school.

Active engagement in secondary school promotes the skills, competencies, and values that allow adolescents to successfully transition into adulthood (Wang & Holcombe, 2010; Wigfield, Byrnes, & Eccles, 2006). School engagement refers to students’ directed and sustained participation in school as well as the observable and unobservable qualities of student interactions with learning activities and social companions (Skinner & Pitzer, 2011). The extent to which adolescents are engaged in school creates a motivational context that shapes how they manage academic difficulties and rebound from setbacks (Skinner, Kindermann, Connell, & Wellborn, 2009). Unfortunately, student engagement declines during adolescence. Failure to engage in school places students at greater risk of dropping out (Wang & Fredricks, 2014).

One of the biggest challenges facing the engagement field is how to both conceptualize and measure this construct. In order to capture the dynamic...