Student-Level Associations of School Climate Perceptions and Achievement: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis

• In Event: Leveraging Research-Practice Partnerships for Insights Into School Climate Experiences and Impacts in Racially Diverse Districts

Abstract

Purpose. This study represents one of the most rigorous examinations of the relationship between school climate and student achievement. The purpose of the study is to assert the association between school climate and academic achievement while controlling for all unchanging features of students and schools (and several features that do change). It also suggests at the direction of the relationship. It answers the question, how does a change in students’ perception of school climate from one season (i.e., fall, winter, spring) to another correlate with changes in academic achievement? It further addresses how an analysis like this can serve the practical needs of a school district.
Theoretical framework. School climate refers to the safety and supportiveness of a school. Ample research, most of which was conducted cross-sectionally, shows that a positive school climate predicts higher levels of academic achievement. Theoretically, when students feel safer and more supported at school, they are more engaged in their classes, learn more, and perform better on tests. A major drawback of cross-sectional school climate research is that is cannot account for confounding variables that may underlie the relationship climate and achievement. Two studies (Benbenishty, Astor, Roziner, & Wrable, 2016; Voight & Hanson, 2017) used school climate student survey and school performance data collected once every two years to control for time-invariant characteristics of schools in their assessment of the climate-achievement link. This study takes this approach a step further by conducting student-level analysis and using data collected at three-month intervals.
Method. This study uses student survey data from the Conditions for Learning (CFL) school climate survey and math and reading achievement data from the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) tests, each measured contemporaneously, from over 30,000 students in a large urban district. For a given sample student, up to 15 measurement points (three administrations per year for five years) of climate and achievement data were available. The CFL measures four dimensions of climate: (a) safety, (b) teacher support, (c) teacher expectations, and (d) and peer social-emotional competence. A series of fixed-effects cross-lagged panel models assessed the within-student association of each combination of the four climate dimensions, on the one hand, and math and reading achievement, on the other. Separate models were estimated for three grade bands: 2-4, 5-8, and 9-12.
Results. Results show that there is a significant within-student association of climate and achievement, across all four dimensions of climate (the association is generally strongest for teacher support and weakest for peer social-emotional competence), all three grade bands (strongest in 2-4, weakest in 9-12), and both math and reading. The direction of the relationship suggests that climate is better predictor of achievement rather than the reverse.
Significance. These findings represent some of the strongest yet evidence of the relationship between school climate and achievement. We discuss the practicalities of presenting the results of complex analyses like these to school personnel to inform decision making.

Author

• Adam Voight, Cleveland State University