Essential Supports or Expendable Supports: The Causal Effects of High School Organizational Climate on Student Outcomes

• In Event: 585 - Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. School, Teacher, and Peer Effects

Abstract

Many educational researchers use survey measures of schools’ organizational climates and practices to examine how schools affect student outcomes. Unfortunately, most of these studies are unable to rigorously assess the causal effects of school organization. This study attempts to do so by taking data on seven cohorts of first-time ninth graders in Chicago Public Schools, 1997-2009, when their schools’ organization climates were measured with surveys. The findings show that changes in high schools’ organizational climates had no-to-minimal effect on students’ graduation rates, on-time 10th grade promotion rates, and test scores.

Author

• Joshua Klugman, Temple University