A Review and Analysis of Selected School Climate Measures

In this article, we follow up on recommendations from the Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) for providing school mental health (SMH) services by offering additional implementation suggestions for teachers and school staff. We highlight the need for and urgency of SMH services, particularly during and after the pandemic, and also consider broad issues that interfere with the success of SMH. We then provide a number of specific recommendations for integrating the delivery of SMH services within a tiered system of supports that are intended to empower school staff to move toward implementation. Last, we address how effective implementation can be facilitated by strong administrative support along with capacity building.

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“…Educators might consider a recent review of school climate measures. Olsen et al (2018) (Gage et al, 2016).…”

Section: General Recommendations and Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowering School Staff to Implement Effective School Mental Health Services

Kern

Weist

Mathur

et al. 2021

Behavioral Disorders

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“…36, nº 1 (january) 2013; Wang & Degol, 2015) have summarized four domains commonly addressed in school climate research: a) Physical and socio-emotional safety, supported by rules and norms; b) Relationships between various groups (e.g., teacher-student and student-student relationships); c) Conception of teaching-learning processes; and, d) Institutional environment, defined by physical environment and educational resources. However, a great deal of school climate measures target student perceptions (for a school climate surveys review see Olsen et al, 2017).…”

Section: School Climate: Dimensions and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is no universal definition and, often, these definitions are so broad that they have led to inconsistencies when it comes to measuring this construct (Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, & Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013). Moreover, most of the school climate measures were initially developed to assess student perceptions and not validated surveys continue to be used by schools (Cohen, Mccabe, Michelli, & Pickeral, 2009;Olsen, Preston, Algozzine, Algozzine, & Cusumano, 2017). Therefore, research efforts aimed at measuring school climate and developing useful and reliable tools are still needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and validation of the School Climate Questionnaire for Secondary and High School Teachers (SCQ-SHST).

et al. 2019

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Título: Desarrollo y validación del Cuestionario de Clima Escolar para Profesores de Secundaria y Bachillerato (CES-PSB). Resumen: El presente estudio se centra en el desarrollo y validación inicial de una medida del clima escolar basada en las percepciones de los profesores. La medida fue desarrollada para integrar aquellos aspectos del clima escolar destacados en la literatura existente, incluyendo la estructura de metas escolar. Se realizaron análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios con una muestra de 581 profesores de secundaria y bachillerato. El uso de modelos de ecuaciones estructurales proporcionó evidencia sobre la validez concurrente a través de correlaciones con una medida criterio sobre la satisfacción laboral de los profesores. La estructura de metas escolar demostró ser un aspecto relevante para definir el clima escolar relacionándose sustancialmente con otros aspectos del mismo tales como la calidad del liderazgo o el apoyo entre profesores. Estos resultados proporcionaron evidencias empíricas a favor del uso del cuestionario propuesto entre las escuelas, especialmente en aquellas interesadas en articular intervenciones encaminadas a mejorar el entorno de aprendizaje a través de las siete dimensiones del clima escolar abordadas. Palabras clave: Clima escolar; Estructura de metas escolar; Percepciones de los profesores; Satisfacción docente; Evaluación del clima escolar. Abstract:The present study focuses on the development and initial validation of a measure of school climate based on teachers' perceptions. The measure was developed to integrate those aspects of the school climate highlighted in the existing literature and that proved relevant for teachers' efficacy, including the school goal structure. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on a sample of 581 high school teachers. Results showed that a seven-correlated factor structure better represented the data, in comparison with a second-order model and a bifactor model. Structural equation modeling techniques provided evidence of the concurrent validity through correlations with a criterion measure of teacher job satisfaction. School goal structure proved to be an important aspect of school climate substantially related to other school climate factors such as school management quality and relationships among teachers. These findings provided some empirical support for the use of the questionnaire in schools, especially for those interested in articulating interventions aimed at improving the learning environment through the seven school climate dimensions addressed.

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“…The importance of school climate to child and adolescent adjustment as well as to overall academic and behavioral outcomes mandates the need for comprehensive and psychometrically strong assessment measures for this construct, particularly for schools ( Lindstrom Johnson et al, 2019 ). A full review of school climate assessments is beyond the scope of this article (for reviews, see Ramelow et al, 2015 ; Olsen et al, 2018 ). These measures focus primarily on various dimensions of school climate described earlier in addition to ancillary variables such as substance use, school-community relations, and school identification (e.g., Lee et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the availability of instruments to measure school climate, researchers have noted shortcomings with respect to many of these measures and their associated psychometric properties ( Ramelow et al, 2015 ; Olsen et al, 2018 ). First, many measures in this area are not particularly comprehensive, instead focusing on limited numbers of constructs and items related only to safety, student-teacher relationships, and connectedness ( Berkowitz et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The School Climate and Academic Mindset Inventory (SCAMI): Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Invariance Across Demographic Groups

2020

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School climate is a multidimensional construct of the quality of a student's academic environment, often subsuming dimensions such as safety, instructional practices, social relationships, school facilities, and school connectedness. Positive school climate has beneficial effects on a wide range of adjustment variables in youth, including academic achievement, mental health, school attendance and graduation, and school-based behavior. Studies regarding school climate assessment have burgeoned in recent years but remain marked by limited sample sizes, narrow developmental levels, restricted items, unclear psychometric strength across multiple demographic groups, and lack of integration with key student education contextual factors such as academic mindset and social emotional learning. The present study evaluated a comprehensive measure of aspects of school climate, academic mindset, and social emotional learning in a sample of 105,379 diverse students (M age = 13.47 years; SD = 2.47). The 9-factor structure of the School Climate and Academic Mindset Inventory was supported via confirmatory factor analysis. A trimmed model displayed adequate goodness-of-fit for males and females, younger age groups, and European American, biracial/multiracial, Hispanic, Native American, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students. The trimmed model was slightly less strong for older age groups as well as for African American and Asian American students. The scale may be useful for assessing school climate interventions, longitudinal climate patterns, and school-based algorithms of future performance, though additional validation of the scale remains necessary.

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A Review and Analysis of Selected School Climate Measures

Cited by 27 publications

References 20 publications

Empowering School Staff to Implement Effective School Mental Health Services

Empowering School Staff to Implement Effective School Mental Health Services

Development and validation of the School Climate Questionnaire for Secondary and High School Teachers (SCQ-SHST).

The School Climate and Academic Mindset Inventory (SCAMI): Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Invariance Across Demographic Groups

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