Summary
School climate is an integral part of a comprehensive approach to improving the well-being of students; however, little is known about the relationships between its different domains and measures. Authors examined the relationships between student, staff, and administrative measures of school climate to understand the extent to which they were related to each other and student outcomes.
The sample included 33,572 secondary school students from 121 schools in Los Angeles County during the 2014-2015 academic year. A multilevel regression model was constructed to examine the association between the domains and measures of school climate and five outcomes of student well-being: depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation, tobacco use, alcohol use, marijuana use, and grades.
The study reports that student, staff, and administrative measures of school climate were weakly correlated. Strong associations were found between student outcomes and student reports of engagement and safety, while school staff reports and administrative measures of school climate showed limited associations with student outcomes.
Publication Authors:
- Lauren N. Gase
- Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP
- et al