Essential or Expendable Supports? Assessing the Relationship between School Climate and Student Outcomes

Sociologists of education argue that school organizational practices and climates influence students’ academic outcomes. The predominant measure of school climates are aggregated student and teacher survey reports, which are diffusing into official educational statistics. Unfortunately, most studies...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Joshua Klugman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Society for Sociological Science 2017-01-01
Series:Sociological Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-v4-2-31/
Description
Summary:Sociologists of education argue that school organizational practices and climates influence students’ academic outcomes. The predominant measure of school climates are aggregated student and teacher survey reports, which are diffusing into official educational statistics. Unfortunately, most studies are unable to rigorously assess the causal effects of these measures of school organization. This study does so by examining the effects of school climate experienced in grades 4–8 by different cohorts of students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Improvement in school climates has small positive associations with students’ eighth grade test scores and null to minimal associations with students’ chances of on-time ninth grade promotion and high school graduation.
ISSN:2330-6696
2330-6696