Research Partnerships to Identify Disengaged Students: A Descriptive Case Analysis of School Climate

• In Event: Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: School Climate Factors: An Examination of Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

Educators have long recognized that school climate fosters or undermines students’ development, learning, and achievement. The present study describes a cooperative endeavor between a university-based research center, and a high school and elementary school district to examine factors associated with students’ perceptions of the high school environment (n = 1,606). This partnership also examined students’ school climate perceptions during the middle-to-high school transition (n = 275). Findings demonstrated variations among students’ high school climate perceptions, where males, eleventh graders, and students with at least one suspension reported fewer positive experiences relative to their counterparts. The transition to ninth grade had a positive influence on the eighth grade students who reported low average perceptions of overall care in their middle school.

Authors

• Manuelito Biag, Stanford University

• Monika Sanchez, Stanford University