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School climate and student achievement during a school improvement effort
Abstract
The purpose in this study was to examine two aspects of the school improvement process. Student achievement and school climate perceptions of students and staff were studied over a two-year period from 1994-1996. The study was designed to explore the relationship between school climate and student achievement as part of the school improvement process. The site of this study was the Lexington Public Schools, in Lexington, Nebraska. This K-12 (enrollment 2,285), public school district, with a 40 percent minority population was identified as a Nebraska agricultural community with a large beef packing plant. A total of 375 (84%) of the Lexington Middle School and Morton Elementary students who attended Lexington Public Schools from 1994-1996 participated in the study. Sixty-six teachers who were continuously employed by the Lexington Public Schools from 1994-1996 participated in the study from Morton Elementary and Lexington Middle School. Analysis of the school climate survey data revealed the staff school climate total mean score decreased 5.0 percent, and the means of the other four subsections of the school climate survey--general school climate, expectations, curriculum and instruction, and discipline--decreased. The student school climate total mean score increased, and the means of the other four subsections of the school climate survey--general school climate, expectations, curriculum and instruction, and discipline--increased, No significant difference was indicated between the 1994 and 1996 Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) language mean scores. The reading and mathematics NCE mean scores decreased significantly from 1994-1996. A significant relationship was found between 1996 school climate perceptions in four areas--classroom expectations, curriculum and instruction, discipline, and school climate total scores--and 1996 student achievement--reading, language, and mathematics. A negligible relationship was found between "general" 1996 school climate perceptions and 1996 student achievement in reading, language, or mathematics.
Subject Area
School administration|Educational sociology
Recommended Citation
Farr, Dorothy M, "School climate and student achievement during a school improvement effort" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9908470.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9908470