Positive school climate is a key determinant factor of students’ psychological well-being, safety, and academic achievement. Although researchers have examined the validity of school climate measures, there is a dearth of research investigating differences in student perceptions of school climate across race and ethnicity. This study evaluated the factor stability of a widely used school climate survey using factor analyses and measurement invariance techniques across racial/ethnic groups. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis indicated a five-factor structure for a school climate survey, and weak measurement invariance was found across Hispanic, Black, and White student groups (ΔCFI = .008). According to paired t tests, significant differences were found among racial/ethnic respondent groups across two factors: teacher and school effectiveness and sense of belonging and care. Validated school climate measures that are culturally and racially responsive to students’ experiences allow for accurate interpretations of school climate data. Discussion and implications are provided.
BottianiJ. H.BradshawC. P.MendelsonT. (2016). Inequality in Black and White high school students’ perceptions of school support: An examination of race in context. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(6), 1176–1191.
3.
BradshawC. P. (2015). Translating research to practice in bullying prevention. American Psychologist, 70(4), 322–332.
4.
BrowneM. W.CudeckR. (1992). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Sociological Methods & Research, 21(2), 230–258.
5.
ByrneB. M.van de VijverF. J. (2010). Testing for measurement and structural equivalence in large-scale cross-cultural studies: Addressing the issue of nonequivalence. International Journal of Testing, 10(2), 107–132.
6.
CheungG. W.RensvoldR. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233–255.
7.
CohenJ.PickeralT.McCloskeyM. (2009). Assessing school climate. The Education Digest, 74(8), Article 45.
8.
CookA. L.ShahA.BrodskyL.MorizioL. J. (2017). Building effective school-family-community partnerships through community dialogues. Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 9(1), 9–37.
9.
EfronB. (1978). Regression and ANOVA with zero-one data: Measures of residual variation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 73(361), 113–121.
10.
EgaliteA. J.KisidaB.WintersM. A. (2015). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 45, 44–52.
11.
FrenchB. F.FinchW. H. (2006). Confirmatory factor analytic procedures for the determination of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 13(3), 378–402.
12.
GageN. A.LarsonA.ChafouleasS. M. (2016a). The Meriden School Climate Survey-Student version: Preliminary evidence of reliability and validity. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 41(2), 67–78.
13.
GageN. A.LarsonA.ChafouleasS. M. (2016b). Student perceptions of school climate as predictors of office discipline referrals. American Educational Research Journal, 53(3), 492–515. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216637349
14.
GrayD. L.HopeE. C.MatthewsJ. S. (2018). Black and belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 97–113.
15.
HuL. T.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.
16.
IppolitoJ. (2010). In(formal) conversation with minority parents and communities of a Canadian Junior School: Findings and cautions from the Field. School Community Journal, 20(1), 141–158. www.schoolcommunitynetwork.org/SCJ.aspx
17.
JonesC.CaravacaL.CizekS.HornerR.VincentC. (2006). Culturally responsive schoolwide positive behavior support: A case study in one school with a high proportion of Native American students. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 9(1), 108–119.
KloessnerS.KloppE. (2019). Explaining constraint interaction: How to interpret estimated model parameters under alternative scaling methods. Structural Equation Modeling, 26(1), 143–155.
22.
KonoldT.CornellD.ShuklaK.HuangF. (2017). Racial/ethnic differences in perceptions of school climate and its association with student engagement and peer aggression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(6), 1289–1303.
23.
KothC. W.BradshawC. P.LeafP. J. (2008). A multilevel study of predictors of student perceptions of school climate: The effect of classroom-level factors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(1), 96–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.1.96
24.
LeathS.MathewsC.HarrisonA.ChavousT. (2019). Racial identity, racial discrimination, and classroom engagement outcomes among Black girls and boys in predominantly Black and predominantly white school districts. American Educational Research Journal, 55(4), 1318–1352.
25.
LeeJ.ShuteV. J. (2010). Personal and social-contextual factors in K-12 academic performance: An integrative perspective on student learning. Educational Psychologist, 45(3), 185–202.
26.
LiC. (2013). Little’s test of missing completely at random. The Stata Journal, 13(4), 795–809.
27.
LindsayC. A.HartC. M. (2017). Exposure to same-race teachers and student disciplinary outcomes for Black students in North Carolina. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(3), 485–510.
28.
LittleT. D.CunninghamW. A.ShaharG.WidamanK. F. (2002). To parcel or not to parcel: Exploring the question, weighing the merits. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 151–173.
MacNeilA. J.PraterD. L.BuschS. (2009). The effects of school culture and climate on student achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12, 73–84.
31.
MeadeA. W.JohnsonE. C.BraddyP. W. (2008). Power and sensitivity of alternative fit indices in tests of measurement invariance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(3), 568–592.
MorrisE. W.PerryB. L. (2016). The punishment gap: School suspension and racial disparities in achievement. Social Problems, 63(1), 68–86.
34.
NathansonL.McCormickM.KempleJ. J.SypekL. (2013). Strengthening assessments of school climate: Lessons from the NYC School Survey. Research Alliance for New York City Schools.
National School Climate Council. (2007). The school climate challenge: Narrowing the gap between school climate research and school climate policy, practice guidelines and teacher education policy. http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/advocacy.php
37.
OwensJ.McLanahanS. S. (2020). Unpacking the drivers of racial disparities in school suspension and expulsion. Social Forces, 98(4), 1548–1577.
38.
ReardonS. F. (2016). School segregation and racial academic achievement gaps. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2(5), 34–57.
39.
RuusV.VeissonM.LeinoM.OtsL.PallasL.SarvE.VeissonA. (2007). Students’ well-being, coping, academic success, and school climate. Social Behavior & Personality, 35, 919–936.
40.
RStudio Team. (2016). RStudio: Integrated Development for R. RStudio, PBC, Boston, MA.
41.
SassD. A. (2011). Testing measurement invariance and comparing latent factor means within a confirmatory factor analysis framework. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(4), 347–363.
42.
SchneiderS. H.DuranL. (2010). School climate in middle schools: A cultural perspective. Journal of Research in Character Education, 8(2), 25–37.
43.
ShuklaK. D.WaasdorpT. E.Lindstrom JohnsonS.Orozco SolisM. G.NguyenA. J.RodríguezC. C.BradshawC. P. (2019). Does school climate mean the same thing in the United States as in Mexico? A focus on measurement invariance. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 37(1), 55–68.
44.
SinghK.ChangM.DikaS. (2008). School engagement and school learning: Ethnicity, self-concept, and school belonging. International Journal of Learning, 15(2).
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S.UllmanJ. B. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (Vol. 5). Pearson.
47.
ThapaA.CohenJ.GuffeyS.Higgins-D’AlessandroA. (2013). A review of school climate research. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 357–385.
48.
TuckerL. R.LewisC. (1973). A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 38(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291170
49.
VoightA.HansonT.O’MalleyM.AdekanyeL. (2015). The racial school climate gap: Within-school disparities in students’ experiences of safety, support, and connectedness. American Journal of Community Psychology, 56(3–4), 252–267.
50.
WatsonJ. C. (2017). Establishing evidence for internal structure using exploratory factor analysis. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 50(4), 232–238.
51.
What Works Clearinghouse. (2014). Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 3.0). What Works Clearinghouse; ERIC Clearinghouse.
52.
ZulligK. J.KoopmanT. M.PattonJ. M.UbbesV. A. (2010). School climate: Historical review, instrument development, and school assessment. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 28(2), 139–152.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
