Insights about how cultural differences condition student response on a survey of student perception of school climate

• In Event: Measuring the Difficult to Measure: School Culture and Social and Emotional Learning

Proposal

Education programming worldwide is beginning to include dedicated activities to support a positive school culture. There is evidence, mostly from high income countries, that a positive school climate is associated with improved learning outcomes and attendance, reduced violence prevalence, and a number of positive social and emotional outcomes for (Thapa et al., 2013). In order to measure the success of these education programs focusing on school climate measurement tools are likely to be sourced from instruments developed in the United States, considerably the extensive research and programming from the United States in the past two decades. Instruments for measuring school climate often consist of surveys of students’ perceptions of the various characteristics of a school, such as ‘feeling safe’ or ‘being respected by other students’ or ‘the treatment of students by teachers’ to name a few (Bear, et al 2011). Yet these tools are not easily transferable from one culture to another or from high-income to low-income settings.
In this presentation we will discuss some of the challenges we faced in adapting a school climate survey from the United States for use in an impact study for a program in Uganda that has a dedicated focus on building a positive school climate. The original school climate instrument, ‘Survey of Student Perceptions of School Climate’ is included in the Conceptual Framework for Measuring School-Related Gender-Based Violence (RTI, 2016) and largely from the Delaware Scales of School Climate, Bullying and Victimization, Student Engagement, and Positive, Punitive and Social Emotional Learning Technique (Bear et al, 2014) and other sources (e.g., ISPCAN, 2007).
The school climate survey was adapted as one of a variety of instruments to be used in the impact evaluation of the USAID/Uganda funded Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity. This Activity, a working partnership with the Uganda Ministry of Education, focuses on improving early grade reading and retention in 28 districts and 2698 schools in Uganda, with an overarching theory of change and logic model, which states:
If there is a positive and supportive school climate where teachers deliver quality-reading instruction and are themselves supported, where pupils are encouraged in both the academic and social development and there is zero tolerance for violence, then pupil retention and learning outcomes will be improved.
In this presentation, we will discuss the iterative process of adapting the school climate survey and what was learned in each stage, including: cognitive interviewing, item analyses, reliability analyses, and a review of item validity. We will discuss the inter-item discrepancies and how these were interpreted and resolved.

Though the focus of this presentation will be on the school climate survey adapted for the Activity impact evaluation, we underwent a similar process in developing a tool for measuring social and emotional learning competencies. The adaptation processes provide insight into the source of different responses of students growing up in and residing in different geographical and social contexts.
Thapa, A., et al. 2013, A Review of School Climate Research, Review of Educational Research, Vol. 83, Issue 3, AERA
Bear, et al (2014) Delaware Scales of School Climate, Bullying and Victimization, Student Engagement, and Positive, Punitive and Social Emotional Learning Technique.
ISPCAN (International Society for the Prevention of Child Abusse and Neglect) 2007. Child Abuse Screening Tool, Children’s Institutional Version or “ICAST-CI.”
RTI International (2016) Conceptual Framework for Measuring School-Related Gender-Based Violence. Washington DC: US Agency for International Development

Author

• Peter Muyingo, RTI International