An Exploration of Children’s Motivation, Reading Achievement, and School Climate Within and Across Schools

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  In Roundtable Session: Achievement Goals and Motivations in Context

Abstract

The effects of school climate and school characteristics are important to consider in examining how it can affect achievement across schools and the relationship between motivation and achievement. For example, some schools might foster a more positive school climate than others, which may enhance the relationship between a child’s motivation and achievement. The study draws from a sub-sample of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) dataset with approximately 3000 students from 200 schools. Using HLM, the study showed that children’s motivation and characteristics, and school climate and characteristics are related to reading achievement, and that the relationship between students’ motivation and reading achievement is affected by the school climate. These results will be further discussed in the paper.

Author

• Amy N. Ho, University of Maryland - College Park