School Climate and Student Learning: An analysis of the relationship between school climate, student achievement, and other contributing factors

The purpose of this research study is to (1) understand what student- and school-level factors predict student perceptions of school climate; and (2) to identify if students’ perceptions of school climate predicts student achievement outcomes for high school students in Tennessee. This is important to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) as it tries to align all projects toward its goal of improving achievement outcomes for students statewide. Understanding if and how school climate efforts might further progress toward this goal will be imperative as TDOE strategizes and moves forward. Using Ordinary Least Squares regression with multiple covariates, the first part of this study shows that gender, grade level, and academic achievement are strong predictors of student perceptions of school climate. This demonstrates that different students and student groups perceive school climate in different ways. It is important to consider those differences of experience to strategically target and improve school climate for all students. The second part of this study highlights that different constructs of school climate relate to student achievement differently – an unexpected result. This indicates a need for further research. TDOE should use these findings to improve school climate in schools across the state and to improve the implementation and design of the survey instrument.