A personalized school environment is one of the guiding principles of many recent school reform plans. One useful model of school personalization, school membership, is proposed by Wehlage as part of his theory of drop-out prevention. Recently, Goodenow (1993) constructed a measure of school membership, the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM). The PSSM was employed with two samples of adolescents to investigate the scale's reliability and delineate its factor structure, while also extending its use to high school age youth. Consistent with the author's hypotheses, the PSSM was associated closely with students' self-concepts and ratings of school climate. Findings were integrated into Wehlage's model of school membership, and the relevance of this model for typical secondary school youth is described.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bracken, B. A., & Crain, R. M. (1994). Children's and adolescents' interpersonal relations: Do age, race, and gender define normalcy?Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 12, 14-32.
2.
Braddock, J. H. II, & McPartland, J. M. (1993). Education of early adolescents. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Review of Research in Education - Volume 19 (pp. 135-170). Washington: American Educational Research Association.
3.
Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989). Turning points: Preparing American youth for the 21st century. Washington: Carnegie Council.
4.
Coovert, M. D., & McNelis, K. (1988). Determining the number of common factors in factor analysis: A review and program. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48, 687-692.
5.
Eccles, J. S., & Midgley, C. (1990). Changes in academic motivation during adolescence. In R. Montemayor, G. R. Adams, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), From childhood to adolescence (pp. 134-155). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
6.
Epstein, J. L., & McPartland, J. M. (1978). Quality of School Life Scale: Administration and technical manual. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
7.
Fine, M. (1990). Framing dropouts. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
8.
Finn, J. D. (1989). Withdrawing from school. Review of Educational Research, 59, 117-142.
9.
Goodenow, C. (1992, April). School motivation, engagement, and sense of belonging among urban adolescent students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.
10.
Goodenow, C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: Scale development and educational correlates. Psychology in the Schools, 30, 79-90.
11.
Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A place called school: Prospects for the future. New York: McGraw-Hill.
12.
Hagborg, W. J. (1991). A study of homework time of a high school sample. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 73, 103-106.
13.
Hagborg, W. J. (1992). Grades and motivational orientation among high school students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 10, 355-361.
14.
Hagborg, W. J. (1993). Gender differences on Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 8, 141-148.
15.
Harter, S. (1981). A new self-report scale of intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation in the classroom: Motivational and informational components. Developmental Psychology, 17, 300-312.
16.
Harter, S. (1985). Manual for the Self-Perception Profile for Children. Denver: University of Denver.
17.
Harter, S. (1988). Manual for the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Denver: University of Denver.
18.
Harter, S. (1989). Causes, correlates, and the functional role of global self-worth: A life-span perspective. In J. Kolligan & R. Sternberg (Eds.), Perceptions of competence and incompetence across the life-span. (pp. 67-97). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
19.
Kagan, D. (1990). How schools alienate students at risk: A model examining proximal clasroom variables. Educational Psychologist, 25, 105-125.
20.
Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure equality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
21.
Powell, A. G., Farrar, E., & Cohen, D. K. (1985). The shopping mall high school: Winners and losers in the educational marketplace. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rumberger, R. W. (1987). High school dropouts: A review of issues and evidence. Review of Educational Research, 57, 101-121.
24.
Simmons, R. G., & Blyth, D. A. (1987). Moving into adolescence: The impact of pubertal change and school context. Hawthorn, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
25.
Sizer, T. R. (1984). Horace's compromise: The dilemma of the American high school. Boston: Houghton Mißn.
26.
Wehlage, G. G., & Rutter, R. A. (1986). Dropping out: How much do schools contribute to the problem?Teachers College Record, 87, 374-392.
27.
Wehlage, G. G., Rutter, R. A., Smith, G. A., Lesko, N., & Fernandez, R. R. (1989). Reducing the risk: Schools as communities of support. Philadelphia: Falmer Press.
