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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/92004 |
| Date | 26 July 2019 |
| Creators | Nichols, Thomas M. |
| Contributors | Counselor Education, Mallory, Walter D., Cash, Carol S., Vernimb, Peter Jon, Glenn, William Joseph |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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