School climate and state standards: A study of the relationships between middle school organizational climate and student achievement on the Virginia Standards of Learning Tests

Author

Jennifer Bishop Parish, College of William & Mary - School of Education

Date Awarded

2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

Megan Tschannen-Moran

Committee Member

Michael Di Paola

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational school climate and middle school student achievement on state assessments. The author also sought to determine the relative weight of each of the factors of school organizational climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press and community engagement) in relation to student achievement. Finally, this study examined the relative effects of organizational climate and the socio-economic status (SES) of participating schools on student achievement.;Suburban, rural and urban middle schools in Virginia participated in this study. The study explored middle school teachers' perceptions regarding organizational school climate in terms of collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press, and community engagement. The School Climate Index (SCI) was used to survey 696 teachers' perceptions of these factors in 49 middle schools in Virginia. The eighth grade Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Tests in the areas of math and English were the measurement tools for student achievement in the study.;It was concluded that there was a significant relationship between organizational climate and student achievement for both English and math. When the sub-scales of school climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, academic press and community engagement) were analyzed separately, multiple regression indicated that only community engagement had a significant independent effect on student achievement on the math SOL test. Both academic press and community engagement had independent effects on student achievement on the English SOL test. Further analysis indicated that SES had a significant independent effect on student achievement in English, while both school climate and SES had independent effects on student achievement on the math SOL test. School climate and SES explained much of the variance in student achievement.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-h30k-1t95

Rights

© The Author

Recommended Citation

Parish, Jennifer Bishop, "School climate and state standards: A study of the relationships between middle school organizational climate and student achievement on the Virginia Standards of Learning Tests" (2002). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1539618697.
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-h30k-1t95