Session: The Role of School Climate in Promoting Successful Outcomes for Youth (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

The climate of a school is profoundly important to the social, emotional, and academic successes of its students and staff. While this has been recognized for over a century, the last two decades have ushered in a new appreciation for the importance of school climate.  There is a growing body of research documenting an association between a positive school climate and prosocial motivation, academic motivation, self-esteem, conflict resolution, and altruistic behavior (Battistich et al., 1997). School climate is a significant predictor of dropout, absenteeism and truancy, suspension, drug use, and violent and aggressive behavior (Astor et al., 2002; Resnick et al., 1997). There is also emerging evidence that school climate can affect the quality with which programs are implemented as well as the outcomes achieved (Kam et al., 2003). As a result of the research linking school climate with positive public health and academic outcomes, it has become a target for many federal and local school improvement initiatives, such as the U.S. Department of Education and SAMHSA’s Safe Schools/Healthy Students Program and Safe and Supportive Schools Program. However, there is little consensus among prevention scientists, educators, and policymakers regarding the definition and measurement of school climate. Moreover, there is a need for efficient methods for assessing school climate in order to inform decision-making by school and district leadership.

This panel aims to address these gaps in the extant research regarding school climate and its measurement. Specifically, we present findings from three original, large-scale studies, each addressing a different angle on school climate. The first paper draws upon an 83 elementary school multi-site study of social and character development programs in order to isolate important aspects of school climate at the student, classroom, and school levels. The authors report findings from a multilevel analysis illustrating the significant influence of school context. The second study draws on data from 58 schools and focuses on the unique perspective school staff have in understanding school connectedness, a critical aspect of school climate. The multilevel results indicate that school staff play an important role in promoting a safe and supportive environment for students. The third paper combines different sources of school climate data, including observational methods and student self-reports in order to better understand points of connection as well as disconnect in multi-method assessments. This 58 high school study emphasized the importance of the physical environment on student outcomes, including perceptions of safety. Together, these findings highlight the significance of school climate for prevention scientists doing work in schools and on child development. Common themes across the three presentations will be identified, including issues related to efficient measurement, different perspectives on school climate, predictive validity, contextual influences, multilevel methods, and the use of data to inform collaborative decision-making. Implications for prevention science related to the adoption of research-based programs to improve school climate will be discussed.