This article investigates the link between school climate and student academic progress in New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) high schools. Using a data set compiled from 2010-2011 NYCDOE school-level aggregated demographic, survey, and progress report achievement data, the authors ran ordinary least squares regressions where they found that a school’s climate significantly correlated with student academic progress; under some conditions, the school climate effects outweighed the effects of student background factors. Finally, the school climate domains of safety and respect, communication, engagement, and academic expectations all proved to be important factors that were associated with student achievement.
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