UCLA

Background

School climate is an integral part of a comprehensive approach to improving the well-being of students; however, little is known about the relationships between its different domains and measures. We examined the relationships between student, staff, and administrative measures of school climate to understand the extent to which they were related to each other and student outcomes.

Methods

The sample included 33,572 secondary school students from 121 schools in Los Angeles County during the 2014-2015 academic year. A multilevel regression model was constructed to examine the association between the domains and measures of school climate and 5 outcomes of student well-being: depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation, tobacco use, alcohol use, marijuana use, and grades.

Results

Student, staff, and administrative measures of school climate were weakly correlated. Strong associations were found between student outcomes and student reports of engagement and safety, while school staff reports and administrative measures of school climate showed limited associations with student outcomes.

Conclusions

As schools seek to measure and implement interventions aimed at improving school climate, consideration should be given to grounding these efforts in a multidimensional conceptualization of climate that values student perspectives and includes elements of both engagement and safety.