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Directional Links between Students' Perceptions of School Climate and Academic Performance in Urban Schools

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Title: Directional Links between Students' Perceptions of School Climate and Academic Performance in Urban Schools
Language: English
Authors: Adam Voight, Regina Giraldo-García, Laura Fogarty, Steven Sanders, Alexandrea R. Golden, Matthew Linick, Elisabeth Davis
Source: Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. 2024 17(2):211-225.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 15
Publication Date: 2024
Sponsoring Agency: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Contract Number: R305H170068
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Descriptors: Educational Environment, Urban Schools, Academic Achievement, Elementary Secondary Education, Student Attitudes, Standardized Tests, Scores, Student Experience, Predictor Variables
DOI: 10.1080/19345747.2023.2189895
ISSN: 1934-5747
1934-5739
Abstract: School climate is theoretically important for the academic achievement of students in urban schools because safety and support at school may compensate for negative structural forces experienced elsewhere. There is strong evidence for an association between school climate and student achievement, but little suggests the association's directionality. This study uses a unique longitudinal, student-level data set from a large urban district that combines standardized test scores, student survey data, and cross-lagged panel modeling to build evidence for this directionality. In general, findings suggest that in the elementary and middle grades, perceptions of school climate are better predictors of later academic achievement than the reverse. However, the directionality reverses in high school, with achievement predicting later school-climate perceptions.
Abstractor: As Provided
IES Funded: Yes
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1419802
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0176405359;[5ew9]01apr.24;2024Apr05.04:36;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0176405359-1">Directional Links Between Students' Perceptions of School Climate and Academic Performance in Urban Schools </title> <p>School climate is theoretically important for the academic achievement of students in urban schools because safety and support at school may compensate for negative structural forces experienced elsewhere. There is strong evidence for an association between school climate and student achievement, but little suggests the association's directionality. This study uses a unique longitudinal, student-level data set from a large urban district that combines standardized test scores, student survey data, and cross-lagged panel modeling to build evidence for this directionality. In general, findings suggest that in the elementary and middle grades, perceptions of school climate are better predictors of later academic achievement than the reverse. However, the directionality reverses in high school, with achievement predicting later school-climate perceptions.</p> <p>Keywords: School climate; academic achievement; urban education; social and emotional learning</p> <p>Students and schools in the urban United States face a number of obstacles to academic success. In this article, we use the term <emph>urban</emph> to refer to students and schools in densely populated metropolitan areas characterized by high poverty; racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; and mobility (Milner & Lomotey, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref1">32</reflink>]). Some of the most significant challenges to urban education are located outside of schools, including generational poverty, housing instability, and violence. Solutions to these structural problems must be long-term and multifaceted, and require the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders (Berliner, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref2">6</reflink>]; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, 2019). In the short term, though, urban schools must forge ahead with strategies that are at least partially within their control.</p> <p>One such strategy is to improve the social climate of the school (Blankstein & Noguera, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref3">7</reflink>]; Bryk et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref4">12</reflink>]). School climate refers to the social environment of a school, including its culture and norms and social processes (Cohen et al., [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref5">14</reflink>]). There is ample empirical evidence of an association between school climate and student academic performance (Berkowitz et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref6">5</reflink>]; Thapa et al., [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref7">39</reflink>]), though little of it is causal. Several recent studies have sought to establish the directionality of the climate-academics association through longitudinal analyses of statewide student survey data in California (Benbenishty et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref8">4</reflink>]; Voight & Hanson, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref9">42</reflink>]). The results of these studies provided evidence that academic performance causes school climate, rather than the reverse. Voight and Hanson only examined one causal direction, with climate predicting later academic performance, and found a significant positive association.</p> <p>The present study uses similar longitudinal analyses of student survey data to assess the directionality of the climate-academics relationship in urban schools, in particular. Ecological and resilience theories (Cantor et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref10">13</reflink>]; Masten et al., [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref11">31</reflink>]) and empirical evidence (Brand et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref12">10</reflink>]; O'Malley et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref13">35</reflink>]) suggest that a positive school climate may be especially beneficial for urban students subject to the structural forces noted above. Positive relationships, support, and care at school—the components of a positive school climate—may compensate for a lack of stability, connection, and safety in students' out-of-school lives.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-2">Literature Review</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0176405359-3">School Climate</hd> <p>School climate is a relatively young area of study. Prior to 2000, only 96 peer-reviewed journal articles included the term in their titles, according to the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); there have been over five times that number in the years since. Several definitional frameworks of school climate have emerged in the past decades (e.g., Brand et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref14">10</reflink>]; Cohen et al., [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref15">14</reflink>]) and have informed a comprehensive framework endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE, [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref16">40</reflink>]) to guide its school climate improvement initiatives. More specifically, the USDOE model defines several dimensions of school climate, including safety, supportiveness, and student social and behavioral competencies. Our operational definition in this study adheres to the USDOE model. In the past decade, school climate has received increased attention in education policy and practice, including in the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—the Every Student Succeeds Act—which recommended school climate as a nonacademic measure that states include in their school accountability systems.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-4">The Directional Link Between School Climate and Education Outcomes</hd> <p>The directionality of the relationship between school climate and student achievement matters because it has implications for where schools invest. It should be said that many educational agencies consider both climate and achievement as ends in themselves—that is, it is common for schools to include in their missions the promotion of both students' academic abilities and their social and emotional development and well-being. The era of high-stakes testing in the United States has put an accountability mandate mostly on the former, however (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref17">15</reflink>]), and while school climate is increasingly becoming a priority in K–12 education (as noted above), evidence that school climate improvements drive academic ones would likely hasten the degree to which schools commit more of their budgets to it. If administrators saw school-climate programming as both a wellness intervention and a contributor to academic improvement, such programs would likely gain in popularity. Common strategies for school climate improvement include schoolwide positive behavioral supports, social and emotional learning, and restorative practices, and there is evidence that these interventions positively affect students' perceptions of school climate (Voight & Nation, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref18">44</reflink>]).</p> <p>School-effectiveness scholars have long acknowledged that there may be a reciprocal relationship between student achievement and social and behavioral dimensions of the school (Anderson, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref19">2</reflink>]; Levin, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref20">29</reflink>]). Levin ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref21">29</reflink>]), for example, argued that teachers' educational expectations for a student will affect the student's academic performance, but the student's performance will affect the teacher's educational aspirations for her. Hallinan and Sorensen ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref22">19</reflink>]) explained that students' achievement dictated the types of learning opportunities they were afforded, but that their learning opportunities also drove their achievement.</p> <p>But the preponderance of school-climate theory posits that it precedes student achievement in the causal chain. Social-ecological theories are often cited as the basis for correlational research on school climate and student outcomes (Wang & Degol, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref23">45</reflink>]), positing that students who perceive their schools to be safer, more supportive, and characterized by prosocial behavior will find better fit and connection, have higher levels of academic behaviors (e.g., attendance, classroom engagement) and, in turn, better academic outcomes (e.g., learning and achievement in reading, writing, math, and science; Bonell et al., [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref24">8</reflink>]; Farrington et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref25">18</reflink>]; Haynes et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref26">22</reflink>]). Bronfenbrenner's ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref27">11</reflink>]) ecological-developmental theory and Masten and colleagues' ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref28">31</reflink>]) resilience theory suggest that the effect of a positive school environment may be even more pronounced for students who experience risk in other contexts. Extra support and security at school may compensate for a lack of such assets in other, nonschool settings (Hopson & Lee, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref29">23</reflink>]).</p> <p>Recent reviews of school-climate theory and research (Berkowitz et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref30">5</reflink>]; Rudasill et al., [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref31">37</reflink>]; Wang & Degol, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref32">45</reflink>]) make no mention of theoretical explanations for how school climate may be caused by student achievement—only the reverse. However, some theory and research on teacher expectations and job satisfaction offers such an explanation. Jussim ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref33">25</reflink>]) proposed and provided evidence for a model wherein students' achievement predicted teachers' judgments of and expectations for students, which has direct implications for the way teachers interact with students. More recent work by Kaiser and colleagues ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref34">26</reflink>]) supports this causal path, showing that students' achievement predicted the degree to which teachers viewed students to be engaged. On a more macro scale, there is evidence that teachers are more likely to be dissatisfied and leave the profession in schools where students have low achievement (Falch & Ronning, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref35">17</reflink>]). The theoretical explanation for how student achievement affects school climate is therefore largely mediated through teachers.</p> <p>Virtually all the empirical evidence on the school climate–achievement association is cross-sectional and correlational (Berkowitz et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref36">5</reflink>]; Wang & Degol, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref37">45</reflink>]). These studies have shown a direct relationship between school-level climate and average student academic achievement at the middle (Brand et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref38">10</reflink>]; Hanson & Voight, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref39">20</reflink>]; Ma & Klinger, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref40">30</reflink>]) and high (Lee & Bryk, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref41">28</reflink>]; Voight et al., [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref42">41</reflink>]) school levels. There is also cross-sectional evidence for associations between school-level climate and average student academic behaviors like attendance (Hanson & Voight, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref43">20</reflink>]) and classroom engagement (Brand et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref44">10</reflink>]; Way et al., [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref45">46</reflink>]). Moreover, treating students as the unit of analysis, studies have shown that individual students' perceptions of their middle and high schools' climates are significantly related to their achievement (Hopson & Lee, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref46">23</reflink>]; O'Malley et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref47">35</reflink>]; Ruus et al., [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref48">38</reflink>]). Finally, cross-sectional survey research shows that the relationship between climate and achievement may be stronger for low-SES and racial-minority students (Hopson & Lee, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref49">23</reflink>]; Nation et al., [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref50">33</reflink>]; O'Malley et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref51">35</reflink>]), supporting the notion that a positive school climate may have a compensatory function for students disadvantaged by out-of-school factors like poverty and racism.</p> <p>Most studies examining the relationship between school climate and academic achievement are based on cross-sectional data and compare academic achievement across schools with different levels of school climate (Berkowitz et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref52">5</reflink>]). Other studies have examined changes in achievement as the outcome predicted by school climate (Hart et al., [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref53">21</reflink>]). Two studies that used longitudinal, within-school approaches analyzed the same data from California to show that changes in a given secondary school's student-reported climate were directly associated with changes in academic performance (Benbenishty et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref54">4</reflink>]; Voight & Hanson, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref55">42</reflink>]). The estimation of 2-year lagged effects in the Benbenishty and colleagues study provided more evidence for a school performance-to-school climate directional relationship rather than the reverse—contrary to what most developmental theories posit. To explain their findings, Benbenishty and colleagues ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref56">4</reflink>]) cited Košir and Tement ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref57">27</reflink>]), who note that students' academic achievement may influence the ways teachers perceive their students and the degree to which they prefer them, which in turn may lead teachers to confer more or less care and support to students.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-5">The Present Study</hd> <p>The present study used a similar longitudinal, lagged-effect modeling approach to these two studies but with several differences. First, instead of a 2-year gap between school climate and academic achievement measurement points, our data were collected three times per school year, with roughly 3-month gaps between measurement points. We believe that these shorter intervals are sensitive to the more immediate effect that a students' experience of her school environment may have on her academic achievement (i.e., it likely does not take 2 years for a student's feelings of safety or support to translate to changes in academic behaviors and outcomes). Second, our analyses were conducted at the individual student level rather than the school level. There is ample evidence of significant within-school variation in students' reports of school climate (e.g., Hanson & Voight, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref58">20</reflink>]), including on the basis of race and ethnicity (Bottiani et al., [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref59">9</reflink>]; Voight et al., [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref60">43</reflink>]) that may cloud school-level examinations of climate. Third, our study was conducted exclusively in urban schools where there is reason to believe, per the ecological and resilience theories noted above, that school climate may have a particularly strong effect on student outcomes.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-6">Methods</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0176405359-7">Site and Sample</hd> <p>The research was conducted in one large, urban school district. Student data from two consecutive school years—2014–2015 and 2015–2016—were used in this study. During this 2-year period, there were 37,155 unique students in the district: 65% of students were African American or Black, 16% Latinx, and 15% White. About one fifth (21%) of district students had a disability, and 12% had limited English proficiency. The district has universal free meals, the typical indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage in education research. According to the most recent Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) of the U.S. Census Bureau, 43% of school-aged children residing in the district catchment area live in poverty (though not all of these children necessarily attend district schools). Schools in the district generally include grades K–8 or 9–12, and the analyses in the present study were conducted separately for students in grades 2–4 (i.e., elementary; 33% of the sample), 5–8 (i.e., middle; 37%), and 9–12 (i.e., high; 40%; note that the percentages do not sum to 100 since some students were in two different grade bands during the 2 years of the study). Students in kindergarten and grade 1 do not participate in the administration of the district's school climate survey and therefore are not included in this study.</p> <p>As with many large, urban districts in the United States, the study district scores poorly on state performance measures. It consistently places in the bottom 5% of all districts in the state's composite measure of student academic performance. In addition to the regular collection of school-climate survey data from its students—described below—the district implemented a number of school climate–related initiatives in the years surrounding those examined in this study. They include training and resources (though no requirement) to implement a social and emotional learning curriculum in the elementary and middle grades; a "resource center" in high schools that is supposed to serve as an alternative to in-school suspension; and an anti-bullying program that designates student leaders in each district school to raise awareness and plan actions to prevent bullying.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-8">Measures</hd> <p>All data derived from district records and were shared with the research team through an agreement approved by the lead author's institutional review board. During the two analytic school years, school-climate student survey data and math and reading achievement test data were collected approximately once every 3 months of the school year (in October, January, and April) from all students in grades 2–12 in the district. This schedule resulted in three measurement points per year and six measurement points total over the two school years examined in the study. We refer to the time scale of these measurement point as "marking periods"—although they do not exactly align with the sample district's official marking period calendar, we use the term for simplicity.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-9">School climate</hd> <p>Four dimensions of school climate were measured using the Conditions for Learning Survey: school safety, teacher expectations, teacher support, and peer social and emotional competence. These dimensions align neatly with those in the USDOE school climate model noted above. For grades 5–12, students completed the survey by reading and scoring each item themselves. For these grades, 15 four-point Likert-type survey items were used to measure school safety (sample items include, "I feel safe in the hallways and bathrooms of the school" and "Students at my school are bullied"); 17 items measured teacher expectations ("My teachers give me work that is interesting" and "My teachers ask me to explain my answers"); 14 items measured teacher support ("My teachers really care about me" and "My teachers notice if I have trouble learning something"); and 11 items measured peer social and emotional competence ("Most students in my school stop and think before they get too angry" and "Most students in my school do their best, even when their school work is hard"). For grades 2–4, a teacher reads instructions and questions aloud to student who then choose a response. The survey form for grades 2–4 is shorter (six items for school safety, five for teacher expectations, seven for teacher support, five for peer social and emotional competence) and includes select items from the grades 5–12 form, with wording slightly adjusted for developmental appropriateness. Earlier research using the same survey in another site showed the four scales of school-climate dimensions to have good reliability and validity when item means were used to create scores (Osher et al., [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref61">36</reflink>]), which was the approach to calculating scores on the four dimensions of climate used in this study.</p> <p>For the typical elementary school student, the mean scores across all measurement points on the four dimensions ranged from 2.84 to 3.38; for the typical middle school student, they ranged from 2.58 to 2.90; and for the typical high school student they ranged from 2.47 to 2.81 (Table 1). At each grade band, there was meaningful variation in all dimensions of school-climate perceptions from marking period to marking period, with the percent of total variance attributable to within-student variance ranging from 38% (for safety among high school students) to 65% (for teacher expectations among elementary school students).</p> <p>Table 1. Student sample descriptive statistics.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>Variable</td><td>Elementary (<italic>n</italic> = 12,303)</td><td>Middle (<italic>n</italic> = 13,793)</td><td>High (<italic>n</italic> = 15,029)</td></tr><tr><td>Mean<sub>W</sub></td><td><italic>SD</italic><sub>W</sub></td><td>1−<italic>ρ</italic></td><td>Mean<sub>W</sub></td><td><italic>SD</italic><sub>W</sub></td><td>1−<italic>ρ</italic></td><td>Mean<sub>W</sub></td><td><italic>SD</italic><sub>W</sub></td><td>1−<italic>ρ</italic></td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>School safety</td><td char=".">2.88</td><td char=".">0.49</td><td char=".">51%</td><td char=".">2.73</td><td char=".">0.34</td><td char=".">40%</td><td char=".">2.73</td><td char=".">0.32</td><td char=".">38%</td></tr><tr><td>Teacher expectations</td><td char=".">3.37</td><td char=".">0.44</td><td char=".">65%</td><td char=".">2.90</td><td char=".">0.34</td><td char=".">55%</td><td char=".">2.81</td><td char=".">0.31</td><td char=".">52%</td></tr><tr><td>Teacher support</td><td char=".">3.38</td><td char=".">0.41</td><td char=".">59%</td><td char=".">2.78</td><td char=".">0.35</td><td char=".">50%</td><td char=".">2.60</td><td char=".">0.34</td><td char=".">48%</td></tr><tr><td>Peer SE competence</td><td char=".">2.84</td><td char=".">0.53</td><td char=".">61%</td><td char=".">2.58</td><td char=".">0.38</td><td char=".">45%</td><td char=".">2.47</td><td char=".">0.33</td><td char=".">42%</td></tr><tr><td>Math achievement</td><td char=".">28.57</td><td char=".">14.69</td><td char=".">31%</td><td char=".">26.41</td><td char=".">11.50</td><td char=".">24%</td><td char=".">29.85</td><td char=".">11.14</td><td char=".">19%</td></tr><tr><td>Reading achievement</td><td char=".">30.42</td><td char=".">14.94</td><td char=".">33%</td><td char=".">28.31</td><td char=".">13.63</td><td char=".">29%</td><td char=".">31.05</td><td char=".">13.26</td><td char=".">25%</td></tr><tr><td /><td><bold>%</bold></td><td><bold>%</bold></td><td><bold>%</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Male</td><td>51.4</td><td>50.6</td><td>50.2</td></tr><tr><td>African American or Black</td><td>64.9</td><td>63.8</td><td>64.5</td></tr><tr><td>Latinx</td><td>15.6</td><td>17.0</td><td>17.6</td></tr><tr><td>Other race</td><td>15.6</td><td>14.5</td><td>13.4</td></tr><tr><td>White</td><td>3.9</td><td>4.7</td><td>4.4</td></tr><tr><td>Disability</td><td>20.3</td><td>22.4</td><td>21.3</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 <emph>Note</emph>. Mean<subs>W</subs> : within-student mean; <emph>SD</emph><subs>W</subs>: within-student standard deviation; 1−<emph>ρ</emph>: percent of total variance made up of within- (versus between-) student variance.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-10">Academic Performance</hd> <p>Math and reading performance were measured with student standardized-test percentile scores (nationally normed by grade level) on the math and reading forms of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test of the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The MAP test is aligned with grade-level standards, and is designed to assess growth in content knowledge over short intervals. On average, sample students' percentile scores in reading and math across grade bands were in the high 20s to low 30s (Table 1). There was less variance within students (versus between) in the academic measures compared to the school-climate measures, ranging from 19% for high school math to 33% for elementary school reading.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-11">Demographics</hd> <p>Model control variables included binary gender, a series of dummy variables for race/ethnicity, and binary disability status (as indicated by receipt of special education services).</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-12">Data Analysis</hd> <p>For each combination of academic subject (i.e., math and reading) and each dimension of school climate (i.e., safety, expectations, support, and peer social and emotional competence), separate cross-lagged panel models were estimated to assess the directionality of the association between school climate and academic performance. Separate models were estimated, too, for elementary, middle, and high school grades. This resulted in 24 total cross-lagged panel models.</p> <p>We employed Allison and colleagues' (Allison et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref62">1</reflink>]) recommended estimation procedure for cross-lagged panel models using fixed effects. Cross-lagged panel models have long been used to explore causal direction between two variables, <emph>x</emph> and <emph>y</emph>, where <emph>x</emph> and <emph>y</emph> at time <emph>t</emph> affect both <emph>x</emph> and <emph>y</emph> at time <emph>t</emph> + 1 (Arellano & Bond, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref63">3</reflink>]; Duncan, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref64">16</reflink>]). These models provide estimates of one variable's effect on another at a later time point, while controlling for earlier values of the dependent variable (i.e., the "autoregressive effect"). The most common approach to estimating such models uses lagged variables as instruments in the generalized method of moments (GMM), but this approach is prone to inefficiency and bias, especially when an autoregressive effect is near 1.0 (Allison et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref65">1</reflink>]). Allison and colleagues proposed using maximum likelihood estimation via structural equation modeling with fixed effects to attenuate these limitations.</p> <p>The following generic equation describes our estimated models:</p> <p>Graph</p> <p> <ephtml> <math display="block" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mrow><mi>y</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>t</mi></mrow></msub><mo>=</mo><msub><mrow><mi>μ</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>t</mi></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>β</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>x</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>t</mi><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>β</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>y</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>t</mi><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>δ</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>w</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>t</mi></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>γ</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>z</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>α</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi></mrow></msub><mo>+</mo><msub><mrow><mi>ε</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>i</mi><mi>t</mi></mrow></msub><mo>,</mo></math> </ephtml> </p> <p>where <emph>y</emph> is either math or reading achievement for student <emph>i</emph> at measurement point <emph>t</emph>; <emph>µ</emph> is an intercept that varies with time; <emph>β</emph><subs>1</subs> is the coefficient for either safety, expectations, support, or peer social and emotional competence lagged one measurement point (i.e., the prior marking period), and <emph>β</emph><subs>2</subs> is the coefficient for the lagged achievement outcome; <emph>w</emph> is the binary disability variable that varies over both students and time, and <emph>z</emph> is a vector of the time-invariant controls; <emph>ε</emph> is a random disturbance, and <emph>α</emph> is a fixed effect or the combined effects on <emph>y</emph> of all unmeasured variables that are both constant over time and have constant effects. For each combination of achievement-test and school-climate dimensions, a parallel model swapped the <emph>x</emph> and <emph>y</emph> variables (i.e., the "cross" in cross-lagged panel modeling) and kept all other variables the same. The models were estimated in Stata using Allison and colleagues' ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref66">1</reflink>]) xtdpdml package.</p> <p>Our main models included six measurement points for each student, but we estimated two parallel sets of models, each unique to one of the two school years in the data, to determine whether the effects from the main models held up for each individual school year. In an additional set of sensitivity analyses, we limited the sample to only those students who did not change schools during a school year (comprising 79% of elementary school, 81% of middle school, and 82% of high school students) to determine whether any observed effects are due to students' changing perceptions of a single school's climate versus changing from one school to another. Full-information maximum likelihood was used to address missing data. The incidence of missing data in the overall sample, however, was very low due to both instruments—the MAP tests and school climate surveys—being requirements of students in the participating district. Analyses were performed in Stata.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-13">Results</hd> <p>In general, we found stronger evidence for school climate influencing future academic achievement than the reverse, particularly in the elementary and middle grades. The results are organized here by grade band and then by subject area. All coefficients presented herein are standardized on both the academic-achievement and school-climate variable within-student standard deviations for the sample to allow for ease of comparison of coefficients in the cross-lagged models. Though not the primary focus of this study, we noted general improvements in both school-climate domains and math and reading achievement throughout the course of each school year, with a return to near baseline scores at the start of the second school year. Also, of note, there were no significant effects in either direction for the sets of models that isolated each of the two school years. Effect sizes in these models were attenuated but generally in the same direction as those presented below with six measurement points. Finally, for all three levels of schooling, our findings were consistent when isolating the analytic sample to only those students who did not change schools during a school year, with two exceptions noted below.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-14">Elementary Grades</hd> <p>For grades 2–4, all four dimensions of school climate—school safety, teacher expectations, teacher support, and peer social and emotional competence—significantly predicted both math and reading achievement one marking period (i.e., about three school-year months) later (see Table 2). The magnitude of the coefficients ranged from a low of 0.020, for peer social and emotional competence predicting later reading, to a high of 0.048, for teacher support predicting later reading. There was only one significant association of achievement predicting later school-climate perceptions—reading achievement predicted later school safety, and the coefficient was smaller than any for school climate predicting achievement (0.018). In sum, there was more evidence for school climate predicting achievement at the elementary level than the reverse.</p> <p>Table 2. Cross-lagged effects of school climate and academic achievement among elementary school (grades 2–4) students (<emph>N</emph> = 12,303).</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>Cross-lagged</td></tr><tr><td>Path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td><td>Reciprocal path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Safety → math</td><td char=".">0.025**</td><td>0.007</td><td>Math → safety</td><td char=".">0.003</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Safety → reading</td><td char=".">0.024***</td><td>0.007</td><td>Reading → safety</td><td char=".">0.018*</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → math</td><td char=".">0.039***</td><td>0.007</td><td>Math → expectations</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → reading</td><td char=".">0.022**</td><td>0.007</td><td>Reading → expectations</td><td char=".">−0.003</td><td char=".">0.007</td></tr><tr><td>Support → math</td><td char=".">0.043***</td><td>0.007</td><td>Math → support</td><td char=".">0.008</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Support → reading</td><td char=".">0.048***</td><td>0.007</td><td>Reading → support</td><td char=".">−0.006</td><td char=".">0.007</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → math</td><td char=".">0.024**</td><td>0.007</td><td>Math → SEC</td><td char=".">0.008</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → reading</td><td char=".">0.020**</td><td>0.007</td><td>Reading → SEC</td><td char=".">0.008</td><td char=".">0.007</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 <emph>Note</emph>. All models control for gender, race/ethnicity, and disability status, and the outcome variable measured one marking period prior. *<emph>p</emph> <.05; **<emph>p</emph> <.01; ***<emph>p</emph> <.001.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-15">Middle Grades</hd> <p>For grades 5–8, all four dimensions of school climate significantly predicted reading achievement one marking period later, but there were two nonsignificant effects on math achievement (i.e., of teacher expectations and support on math achievement; Table 3). The magnitude of the six significant effects of school climate predicting achievement were comparable, but generally somewhat smaller, to those at the elementary level. The effect of peer social and emotional competence was comparable in size but nonsignificant in the sensitivity analysis that examined only students who did not change schools. There were no significant effects of achievement—math or reading—predicting later school-climate perceptions across all four dimensions. In sum, as with the elementary grades, there was more evidence for school climate predicting achievement at the middle school level than the reverse.</p> <p>Table 3. Cross-lagged effects of school climate and academic achievement among middle school (grades 5–8) students (<emph>N</emph> = 13,793).</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td /><td>Cross-lagged</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>Path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td><td>Reciprocal path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Safety → math</td><td char=".">0.027***</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Math → safety</td><td char=".">0.004</td><td char=".">0.009</td></tr><tr><td>Safety → reading</td><td char=".">0.024**</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Reading → safety</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td char=".">0.009</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → math</td><td char=".">0.002</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Math → expectations</td><td char=".">0.001</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → reading</td><td char=".">0.022**</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Reading → expectations</td><td char=".">−0.005</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>Support → math</td><td char=".">0.009</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Math → support</td><td char=".">0.010</td><td char=".">0.009</td></tr><tr><td>Support → reading</td><td char=".">0.030***</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Reading → support</td><td char=".">−0.006</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → math</td><td char=".">0.020**</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Math → SEC</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td char=".">0.009</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → reading</td><td char=".">0.017*</td><td char=".">0.007</td><td>Reading → SEC</td><td char=".">−0.016</td><td char=".">0.008</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>3 <emph>Note</emph>. All models control for gender, race/ethnicity, and disability status, and the outcome variable measured one marking period prior. *<emph>p</emph> <.05; **<emph>p</emph> <.01; ***<emph>p</emph> <.001.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-16">High School Grades</hd> <p>For grades 9–12, there were no significant effects of any school-climate dimension on later math or reading achievement (Table 4). There were three significant effects of achievement on later school-climate perceptions: reading achievement predicted later teacher expectations and support; and math achievement predicted later peer social and emotional competence. The magnitude of these significant effects was comparable to the significant effects of school climate on achievement at the elementary and middle school levels. The effect of math achievement on later peer social-emotional competence was comparable in size but nonsignificant in the analysis of only students who did not change schools. In sum, and in contradistinction to the elementary and middle school grades, there was more evidence for achievement predicting school climate perceptions at the high school level than the reverse.</p> <p>Table 4. Cross-lagged effects of school climate and academic achievement among high school (grades 9–12) students (<emph>N</emph> = 15,029).</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td /><td>Cross-lagged</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>Path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td><td>Reciprocal path</td><td><italic>β</italic></td><td><italic>SE</italic></td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Safety → math</td><td char=".">−–0.014</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Math → safety</td><td char=".">0.015</td><td char=".">0.011</td></tr><tr><td>Safety → reading</td><td char=".">−0.009</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Reading → safety</td><td char=".">0.003</td><td char=".">0.004</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → math</td><td char=".">0.004</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Math → expectations</td><td char=".">0.022</td><td char=".">0.012</td></tr><tr><td>Expectations → reading</td><td char=".">−0.008</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Reading → expectations</td><td char=".">0.033*</td><td char=".">0.013</td></tr><tr><td>Support → math</td><td char=".">−0.003</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Math → support</td><td char=".">0.032**</td><td char=".">0.012</td></tr><tr><td>Support → reading</td><td char=".">−0.017</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Reading → support</td><td char=".">0.022</td><td char=".">0.015</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → math</td><td char=".">−0.002</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Math → SEC</td><td char=".">0.027*</td><td char=".">0.012</td></tr><tr><td>SEC → reading</td><td char=".">−0.006</td><td char=".">0.011</td><td>Reading → SEC</td><td char=".">−0.008</td><td char=".">0.010</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>4 <emph>Note.</emph> All models control for gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, and the outcome variable measured one marking period prior. *<emph>p</emph> <.05; **<emph>p</emph> <.01; ***<emph>p</emph> <.001.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-17">Discussion</hd> <p>Prior research has firmly established that there is a connection between students' experience of the social climate of their schools and their academic achievement. The only study of which we are aware that used methods that allow for an assessment of the directionality of that relationship (Benbenishty et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref67">4</reflink>]) found more evidence for school-level academic performance predicting subsequent school-aggregate student reports of school climate. The results of this study challenge those findings by showing a clear pattern of evidence in the elementary and middle grades that students' school-climate perceptions are a better predictor of math and reading achievement than the reverse. Our findings from the high school analyses are more in line with the earlier study's findings. The notable differences between this study and the Benbenishty and colleagues study is that ours employed six measurement points (versus three), with roughly 3-month intervals (versus 2-year intervals) of student-level data (versus school-level data) from one urban school district (versus a statewide sample). Our measurement of school climate was slightly different, as well (our school safety and teacher support measures closely mirror two of Benbenishty and colleagues'; our teacher expectations share some items in common with their school participation measures; their study has no parallel to our peer social and emotional competence measure).</p> <p>Further, no dimension of school climate emerged as a clearly better predictor of achievement than another. For example, teacher support had the strongest predictive effect on math achievement at the elementary level and on math and reading achievement at the middle school level, but it also had a nonsignificant effect on math achievement at the middle school level. School safety significantly predicted later math and reading achievement in both the elementary and middle grades, though the coefficients were lower than for other dimensions. Our findings supported that a positive school climate is beneficial for students subject to the structural disadvantages inherent to urban education settings and may compensate for lack of stability, connection, and safety in students' out-of-school lives (Brand et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref68">10</reflink>]; O'Malley et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref69">35</reflink>]). Further, the consistent findings between the full-sample analyses and the analyses with only students who did not change schools shows that changes in students' perceptions of the climate in the same school building can explain variance in later achievement (and vice-versa for high school).</p> <p>Why might there be differences in the directionality of the school climate-achievement association from elementary and middle grades to high school? The theoretical explanations for why students' achievement may affect their perceptions of teacher support and expectations, such as they are, center the mediating role of the teacher. Benbenishty and colleagues ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref70">4</reflink>]) explained their findings by arguing that a student's academic performance may influence the way teachers perceive them and thus support and challenge them. This is corroborated by research on teacher expectations and judgments (Jussim, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref71">25</reflink>]; Kaiser et al., [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref72">26</reflink>]), which shows that the way teachers perceive and interact with students is a function of students' prior achievement. This phenomenon may be particularly pronounced in high schools, where classes are often tracked based on performance and whole classes of students may be treated differently based on their performance and teachers' subsequent expectations for and judgments of them. Further, high school teachers typically see a greater number of students per day and thus may have less opportunity to get to know them on a personal level, basing their impressions instead on students' achievement and engagement. As for non-teacher-related explanations, there is no empirical evidence of which we are aware, but plausibly high school students may adopt negative attitudes toward their teachers or school, in general, if they receive poor academic scores. Peer academic socialization may play a role as well, wherein high school students may tend to gravitate toward like-performing peers and adopt similar stances toward school.</p> <p>Conversely, at the elementary and middle grades, teachers typically spend more time with their group of students who are more heterogeneous in terms of academic performance. In these circumstances, the directionality inherent to ecological developmental theory—wherein school climate creates conditions for more effective learning—may play out. Finally, the high school findings may be in part an artifact of the survey measure itself because high school students may use different teachers and classrooms as their referent from one survey administration to the next.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-18">Limitations and Directions for Future Research</hd> <p>While this study has unique strengths with its exploration of the relationship between school climate and academic outcomes, there are several limitations that we acknowledge in the study's design. While this study aimed to establish a causal link between students' perceptions of school climate and their academic performance, the method relied on collecting and analyzing existing district data. To determine true causality between variables, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) would be considered the "gold standard" of determining the effect of one variable on another. Because of the complex nature and multifaceted definition of school climate, this construct is challenging to study using an RCT design. However, future researchers who take interest in expanding this work using more stringent methods could consider measuring specific school-climate interventions (e.g. restorative practices; positive behavioral intervention and supports) and their impact on academic achievement outcomes.</p> <p>Our design presumes that experiences of school climate at one point in time may matter several months later for the purposes of academic performance, and vice-versa. The use of six measurement points per student over two school years further presumes that these lagged effects carry over the summer period (i.e., from spring to fall). Many of the schools in the sample employed year-round calendars, but most did not. Our approach assumed the lagged effect to be the same from fall to winter and from winter to spring as it is from spring to fall of the following school year.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-19">Practical Implications</hd> <p>If, as the study results suggest, school climate is a predictor of student achievement in urban elementary and middle schools, then these schools should consider investments in teacher-student relationships, safety, and prosocial behavior as part of their efforts to improvement academic performance. Of course, students feeling safe and supported is an important end in itself (even if not instrumental to academic achievement)—indeed, a recent study found that students' social and emotional development may be a better predictor of longer-term outcomes like college enrollment and persistence than academic achievement (Jackson et al., [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref73">24</reflink>]). But administrators whose own performance is often staked to standardized tests may often view school-climate improvement as "extra," and not contributive to academics. At the elementary and middle school levels, this study suggests that investing in school climate may have returns for academic achievement. Approaches to school-climate intervention have coalesced around several general strategies, including schoolwide positive behavioral supports, social and emotional learning, and restorative practices (Voight & Nation, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref74">44</reflink>]). The What Works Clearinghouse includes 17 interventions with positive or potentially positive effects on "behavior" in the elementary and middle grades, including Caring School Community and Positive Action.</p> <p>At the high school level, there is less evidence that school climate improvements drive academic gains. Rather, performing well on tests may drive the degree to which students feel encouraged and supported by their teachers and perceive their peers to be socially competent and motivated to do well in school. The main theoretical mechanism through which achievement affects climate, per our review, is teachers favoring students who perform well academically (and vice-versa). In terms of implications, our findings suggest that teachers should self-monitor their attitudes toward students based on their academic performance and endeavor to treat equally students at all performance levels and actively encourage and support students who perform worse academically. This would promote equity in school-climate perceptions for all students regardless of levels of achievement. Overall, our study findings show that, for urban students, the social climate of their schools and their academic performance are intertwined and important foci for intervention.</p> <hd id="AN0176405359-20">Open Research Statements</hd> <p>This manuscript was not required to disclose open research practices because it was initially submitted prior to JREE mandating open research statements in April 2022.</p> <ref id="AN0176405359-21"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref62" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Additional affiliation: Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref19" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Additional affiliation: University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0176405359-22"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibtext> Allison, P. D., Williams, R., & Moral-Benito, E. (2017). Maximum likelihood for cross-lagged panel models with fixed effects. 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  Data: Directional Links between Students' Perceptions of School Climate and Academic Performance in Urban Schools
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Adam+Voight%22">Adam Voight</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Regina+Giraldo-García%22">Regina Giraldo-García</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Laura+Fogarty%22">Laura Fogarty</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Steven+Sanders%22">Steven Sanders</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Alexandrea+R%2E+Golden%22">Alexandrea R. Golden</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Matthew+Linick%22">Matthew Linick</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Elisabeth+Davis%22">Elisabeth Davis</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Research+on+Educational+Effectiveness%22"><i>Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness</i></searchLink>. 2024 17(2):211-225.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: 15
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  Data: 2024
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  Data: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
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  Data: R305H170068
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Label: Education Level
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Environment%22">Educational Environment</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Urban+Schools%22">Urban Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Academic+Achievement%22">Academic Achievement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Standardized+Tests%22">Standardized Tests</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Scores%22">Scores</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Experience%22">Student Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Predictor+Variables%22">Predictor Variables</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1080/19345747.2023.2189895
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  Data: 1934-5747<br />1934-5739
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: School climate is theoretically important for the academic achievement of students in urban schools because safety and support at school may compensate for negative structural forces experienced elsewhere. There is strong evidence for an association between school climate and student achievement, but little suggests the association's directionality. This study uses a unique longitudinal, student-level data set from a large urban district that combines standardized test scores, student survey data, and cross-lagged panel modeling to build evidence for this directionality. In general, findings suggest that in the elementary and middle grades, perceptions of school climate are better predictors of later academic achievement than the reverse. However, the directionality reverses in high school, with achievement predicting later school-climate perceptions.
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  Data: 2024
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  Data: EJ1419802
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        Value: 10.1080/19345747.2023.2189895
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      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 15
        StartPage: 211
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Educational Environment
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Urban Schools
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Academic Achievement
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Elementary Secondary Education
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      – SubjectFull: Student Attitudes
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      – SubjectFull: Standardized Tests
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      – SubjectFull: Student Experience
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      – SubjectFull: Predictor Variables
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      – TitleFull: Directional Links between Students' Perceptions of School Climate and Academic Performance in Urban Schools
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