Association Between Teacher-Perceived School Disciplinary Classes and School Climate: A Latent Class Analysis

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  In Roundtable Session: New Directions in School Climate Measurement

Abstract

Guided by the social-ecological theory, the study examined the association between school discipline classes and school climate perception among 5,087 elementary, middle and high school teachers in Delaware. A latent class analysis was conducted to uncover the number and nature of school discipline practice’ classes, and how each class relating to school climate and other demographic characteristics (i.e., grade level, gender, and ethnicity). The results indicated five disciplinary techniques classes existed based on teachers’ perception. School climate was found to be most favorable in schools with the high endorsement of the combined use of praise, rewards, and social-emotional learning techniques. Implications for promoting school climate through effective school-wide disciplinary practices are discussed.

Authors

• Maggie Chan, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Chunyan Yang, University of California, Berkeley

• Chun Chen, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Raymond Quang Vo, University of California - Santa Barbara