Bullying remains a pervasive problem in schools across the nation. Various detrimental social, psychological, emotional, and academic effects can result from involvement in bullying regardless of whether a student is the perpetrator, victim, witness, or a combination of the three. Recent literature has made significant connections between a school’s overall climate and bullying behaviors, suggesting the need for school-wide interventions to combat the problem. As a part of school climate, unstructured areas such as the playground, have been targeted as a critical area in need of support. Researchers attribute poor safety on the playground to lack of adequate and trained supervision. Fortunately, Systematic Supervision is a training program based in empirically supported principles that shows likelihood for success to improve climate and reduce bullying behaviors on the playground and the school as a whole (Smith, & Sprague, 2011). Yet, this program has not been thoroughly evaluated in peer reviewed journals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Systematic Supervision for improving playground safety, reducing bullying behavior, and enhancing school climate. Behavioral observations and student and teacher school climate surveys collected from 35 schools over two years were assessed. Comparisons were made between schools that received the intervention with those that were wait-listed controls. Results of the study suggest that Systematic Supervision is an effective means of training playground monitors to use active supervision behaviors. Unfortunately, no significant connections could be made with regard to the implementation of Systematic Supervision and subsequent changes in student or teacher perceptions of safety, in perceptions of school climate, or in bulling behaviors. A discussion of the results and their implications is included in detail.

The grounded theory presented in this study describes practices elementary principals utilize in influencing new teachers to remain in education. Eleven teachers and three elementary principals from one school division in Virginia participated in this study. Interview data were collected, elementary principals were shadowed, and documents were analyzed. Thematic categories and sub categories were formed through data analysis. The grounded theory that resulted from this study is: principals who create an atmosphere of trust, of mutual respect, and of service to children within a school foster teachers who state they feel successful, valued, safe, loyal, and professional and want to and expect to continue teaching. New teachers reported three themes that created their sense of success, value, safety, loyalty, and professionalism. Those themes are: (a) support; (b) communication; (c) first year success stories. Principals stated they employed a variety of practices to create the climate identified by the new teachers. The practices are: maintaining an open door policy, utilizing positive communication, developing leadership teams, encouraging professional development, designing and implementing support structures, providing opportunities for professional development, participating in decision making, encouraging and expecting peer collaboration and child centered instructional and behavioral programs. / Ed. D.

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BACKGROUND: Low rates of physical activity and high rates of cannabis use among adolescents are concerning given the health outcomes associated with these health behaviours. Although individual-level characteristics are strongly associated with physical activity and cannabis use, research also suggests that the school setting may influence these health behaviours. PURPOSE: To: 1) Determine the extent to which students’ cannabis use and physical activity vary across school and classroom settings, 2) Identify characteristics of the school setting that are associated with cannabis use and physical activity among students in grades 6-12 in Ontario. METHODS: This study used data from the School Mental Health Surveys, a cross-sectional school-based survey of 31,124 students, 3,373 teachers, and 206 principals from 248 schools across Ontario. Multilevel modelling was used to explore school and class effects while controlling for student compositional effects. RESULTS: About 5% of the variability in student physical activity and 14% of the variability in student cannabis use was attributable to between school and classroom differences. Students’ perception of school climate was positively associated with physical activity, and negatively associated with cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the potential influence of the school and classroom environment on students’ physical activity and cannabis use. School and classroom contexts may be important environments for targeted interventions, policies and programs. / Thesis / Master of Public Health (MPH) / Despite the known benefits of physical activity and harms associated with cannabis use, physical activity rates are low while cannabis use is high among Canadian youth. Previous research has highlighted the potential for the school environment to influence students’ health behaviours. The current study examined the extent to which physical activity and cannabis use varied across school and classroom settings and identified characteristics of the school environment that were associated with these health behaviours. There was significant between school and classroom variability in levels of physical activity and cannabis use. School climate was positively associated with physical activity, and negatively associated with cannabis use. Identifying modifiable characteristics of the school environment that are associated with students’ health behaviours can inform development of interventions, policies, and programs to increase physical activity and reduce cannabis use.

Studies suggest a relationship exists between school climate and student achievement (Hoy & Woolfolk, 1993; Smith, 2005; Warren, 2007). This study investigated the relationship between school climate and student achievement in elementary schools located in a school division in Virginia. School climate is defined operationally as the perceptions of stakeholders, students, parents and educators in regard to instructional programming, interpersonal relationships, communication/collaboration, safety/discipline, and physical environment. The factors that shape school climate and the perceptions of students, parents, and educators in regard to school climate were also investigated. The population for this study was 55 elementary schools in the selected school division. The study used hierarchical clustering to cluster the schools into four clusters. The clusters were analyzed to determine if a relationship existed between school climate and student achievement. Regression analysis was completed on school climate and student achievement data from each school. The purpose of this analysis was to investigate the relationship between the factors of school climate and student achievement. Of additional interest was the relationship between student achievement and the perspective of stakeholders in regard to school climate. This study used data from the 2007-2008 fifth grade Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in reading and math to measure student achievement. Data collected from the school division's 2008 Annual School Climate Survey was used to measured school climate In the content areas of reading and math lower pass percentages on the Virginia SOL tests related to lower agree percentages in response to the School Climate Survey. Conversely, in the content areas of reading and math higher pass percentages on the Virginia SOL tests related to higher agree percentages in response to the School Climate Survey. Based on these findings schools that have a negative school climate as perceived by its stakeholders can expect to have lower student achievement scores, whereas, schools with a positive school climate as perceived by its stakeholders can expect to have higher student achievement scores. The analysis of data representative of school climate and student achievement found a relationship exists between school climate and student achievement. / Ph. D.

Research suggested that academic achievement can be directly impacted by a positive school climate (Bulach Malone, and Castleman, 1995; Bulach, 1994; Freiberg, 1999; MacNeil, Prater, and Busch, 2009; Thapa, Cohen, Higgins-D'Alessandro, and Guffey, 2012; Zakrzewski, 2013; Kutsyuruba, Klinger, and Hussain, 2015). When schools focus on improving school climate, it is suggested that student academic achievement will increase (USDOE 2016). The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between school climate and academic achievement at the high school level. This quantitative study used multiple regression analysis to identify the relationship between school climate and academic achievement of Virginia high schools (N=314). The data for this study was extracted from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) School Quality Profiles (SQP) website on school attendance, school size, Free and Reduced Meal Eligibility (FRME), pupil/teacher ratios, provisionally licensed teachers and school discipline. Academic achievement measures were also taken from the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) results for English/reading and mathematics found on the VDOE SQP website for Virginia high schools. The results of this study identified school size, percentage of low SES, attendance, discipline and provisionally licensed teachers as the significant factors having the biggest impact on learning. In an era of continued accountability, educational leaders will have a process to examine the effect of school climate factors on their students' academic performance at the high school level. / Doctor of Education / Research suggested that academic achievement can be directly impacted by a positive school climate (Bulach Malone, & Castleman, 1995; Bulach, 1994; Freiberg, 1999; MacNeil, Prater, & Busch, 2009; Thapa, Cohen, Higgins-D’Alessandro, & Guffey, 2012; Zakrzewski, 2013; Kutsyuruba, Klinger, & Hussain, 2015). When schools focus on improving school climate, it is suggested that student academic achievement will improve (USDOE 2016). The purpose of this study was to determine what impact school climate indicators such as: attendance, school size, percentage of low social economic status, discipline, pupil/teacher ratio, and provisionally licensed teachers have on academic achievement of Virginia high schools. This study looked at the best way to examine the relationship between school climate and academic achievement in Virginia high schools. The population was 314 high schools. The data for the school climate factors for this study was taken from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) School Quality Profiles (SQP) website. The Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) results for English/reading and mathematics were used as the academic achievement measures. The SOL data for Virginia high schools was also taken from the VDOE SQP website. The results of this study identified school size, percentage of low SES, attendance, discipline and provisionally licensed teachers as the significant climate factors having the biggest impact on student learning. In an era of continued accountability, this study provided educational leaders with a process to examine the impact of the school climate factors on their students’ academic performance at the high school level.

The purpose of this study was to compare school climate in a sampling of four Title I and four Non-Title I elementary schools in one school division in Virginia with varied accreditation statuses. The Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire-Revised Elementary (OCDQ-RE), created by Hoy (1990) was utilized to measure school climate. The OCDQ-RE questionnaire were handed out during a regularly scheduled faculty meeting at each of the eight schools selected for the study. Of the 255 surveys that were distributed collectively, 165 participant surveys were collected for a return rate of 65%. In measuring school climate, the mean and standard deviation were computed for each of the six subtests of school climate: Supportive Principal Behavior, Directive Principal Behavior, Restrictive Principal Behavior, Collegial Teacher Behavior, Intimate Teacher Behavior, and Disengaged Teacher Behavior. These subtests were combined to determine teacher openness, principal openness and overall school climate. Descriptive and inferential statistics did not reveal significant differences in principal openness, teacher openness or overall school climate in schools of varying Title I and accreditation status. However, descriptive and inferential statistics revealed differences in component subtests of the OCDQ-RE. Specifically, a comparison of the standardized mean scores for each subset based on Title I status and accreditation status revealed some variations. Using inferential statistics, significant differences were found among school climate in the areas of supportive principal behavior, restrictive principal behavior and intimate teacher behavior. / Ed. D.

In the past decade, teachers and researchers have gradually recognized the vital role school climate plays in the public-school setting (Thaps, Cohen, Guffey, and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013). One of the greatest indicators of achievement is the relationship between school and student socioeconomic status (Sirin, 2005). According to Bryk and Schneider (2003), if schools create positive learning environments, students will achieve at a higher level than what their socioeconomic background would otherwise predict. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the relationship between school climate and academic achievement at the elementary school level. The researcher examined extant data from the 2018-2019 school year, which included Grade 5 Mathematics and Reading Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rate and school climate surveys from two school districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The first, referred to as the Central VA Division, had 46 elementary schools. The second, referred to as the Northern VA Division, had 51 elementary schools. The findings indicated that the relationship school climate dimension had the strongest correlation to the Reading and Mathematics SOL pass rates in both school districts. School leaders and building-level principals could use these findings to better understand the importance of school climate and make it a priority; this, in turn, could affect student achievement throughout the school and the community. / Doctor of Education / In the past decade, teachers and researchers have gradually recognized the vital role school climate plays in the public-school setting (Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, and Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013). One of the greatest indicators of achievement is the relationship between school and student socioeconomic status (Sirin, 2005). According to Bryk and Schneider (2003), if schools create positive learning environments, students will achieve at a higher level than what their socioeconomic background would otherwise predict. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether there was a relationship between school climate and academic achievement at the elementary school level. The researcher used the Pearson Correlation Coefficient to examine extant data from the 2018-19 school year, including Grade 5 Mathematics and Reading Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates and school climate surveys from two districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The first, referred to in this study as the Central VA Division, had 46 elementary schools. The second, referred to as the Northern VA Division, had 51 elementary schools. The relationship school climate dimension had the strongest correlation to the Reading and Mathematics SOL pass rates in both school districts. School leaders and building-level principals could use these findings to better understand the importance of school climate and make it a priority; this, in turn, could affect student achievement throughout the school and the community.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The educational landscape in South Africa is unique and has also seen many changes since the dawn of democracy more than 20 years ago. The apartheid education system was marred by severe inequalities between schools and, for this reason, the democratic government post 1994 established a number of policies and interventions in an attempt to improve access, equity and quality between schools. The country has made significant advances in improving access to education. This is reflected in the Millennium Development Goals progress indicators showing that, as of 2013, almost all learners between the ages of 7 and 15 were enrolled in schools. While great strides have also been made with regard to equity, evidence shows that many schools in South Africa are still largely inequitable. Education quality, however, is an area that is still of grave concern and the matter requires much attention from educational stakeholders. International studies, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), use learner performance to measure the quality of the system. Such studies consistently report that South Africa is performing poorly and that large inequalities still exist between schools in the country. Improved quality is associated with effective schools and, in South Africa, only 20% of schools have been found to be functional or effective. Much of research focussed on school effectiveness, both nationally and internationally, however has been explained by factors in the school, including the appropriateness of curriculum content, infrastructure, resources in the school and teacher content knowledge. These factors have been found to be strongly correlated with effective schools.

School climate has been established as an important construct to measure because of its connections to student psychological, social, and academic outcomes. Existing research has examined school climate in relation to individual (i.e., race and gender) and school level (i.e., teacher characteristics or school size) variables. The current paper presents a cultural-ecological model for research on school climate. The cultural-ecological model of school climate supports future research incorporating a broadened view of culture, extending beyond race and ethnicity, and a more comprehensive examination of ecological contexts such as the family and community in understanding student perceptions of school climate. Within this model, individual, family, school, and community variables that may influence student perceptions of school climate are described and a research agenda is presented for utilizing the cultural-ecological model of school climate in future school climate research and for developing, implementing and evaluating strategies designed to enhance school climate and school performance based on prevention and intervention. The current study examined the relationship between cultural and ecological variables at the individual, school, and community levels and student perceptions of school climate. A multi-level (HLM) model examining the relationships between individual, cultural, and ecological variables and school climate was evaluated. Results of the current study indicated that for the relationship between student and school characteristics and school climate remain relatively consistent for both groups. Specifically, both individual and school variables influenced student perceptions of school climate. However, this data also confirms the need to further examine additional cultural and ecological variables in order to increase our understanding of how such variables are related to perceptions of climate.