0.3 Lindahl, r. (february 2009). school climate differences between  (Page 3/10)

Feigenberg’s (2007) study found a moderate positive relationship between a healthy school climate and student reading achievement. Smith (2008) found a moderate positive relationship between school climate and English achievement, but failed to find any significant relationship between climate and mathematics achievement. Smith, Hoy, and Sweetland (2003) found a positive relationship between overall school climate and student achievement. However, they found that the climate element, academic emphasis, was even more highly related than the overall climate measure. This finding was not surprising, for, as Taylor (2008) pointed out, although climate is often studied as a single construct, further study is needed on how the various elements of climate relate to student performance.

For example, Taylor (2008) found reading achievement to be particularly related to student discipline and school safety. Pendergast (2007) found a weak, positive relationship between expectations for students and their achievement. Rutter, Mauhan, Mortimore, Ouston, and Smith (1979) and Brookover and Lezotte (1979) found a positive relationship between teacher morale and attendance and student performance.

McDill and Rigsby (1973), Rutter et al. (1979), and Weber (1971) found no relationship between the age of the school buildings and student achievement, attendance, or behavior. However, Rutter et al. and the 1980 Phi Delta Kappa study did find that the decoration and care of schools and classrooms were positively related to student achievement.

The relationships among administrators, faculty, and staff have also been found to be related to student achievement (Ellett&Walberg, 1979; New York State Department of Education, 1976). Feldvebel (1964), Hale (1965), and Miller (1968) found a negative relationship between principals’ assignment of paperwork to teachers and student achievement. Feldvebel, Maxwell (1967), and Miller found a positive relationship between principal consideration and student achievement. Ellet and Walberg, Rutter et al. (1979), and Xie (2008) found a positive relationship between teacher shared decision making and student achievement.

Goddard (2001) defined collective efficacy as the perceptions of teachers in a school that the faculty as a group can employ actions to increase student achievement. Goddard (2001), Goddard, Hoy, and Hoy (2000), and Tschannen-Moran and Barr (2004) found this element of climate related to increases in student achievement. Goddard also found that social networks with high trust and high academic engagement fostered high student achievement.

Taylor (2008) advocated examining the differential relationships climate may have with achievement among varied student populations. The present study focused on high-poverty student populations. Research on similar populations has found that students who live in poverty experience school differently from more affluent students (Caldas&Bankston, 1997; Comer, 2001; Griffith, 2002; Williams, 2003). However, students in high-minority and high-poverty schools can perform well (Hauser-Cram, Warfield, Stadler,&Sirin, 2005; Haynes, Gebreyesus,&Comer, 1993; Kannapel&Clements, 2005; Simon&Izumi, 2003). Students from elementary schools with positive climates progress to middle schools with greater success (Hauser-Cram et al.)