Term of Award

Summer 2023

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

College of Education

Committee Chair

Juliann McBrayer

Committee Member 1

Richard Cleveland

Committee Member 2

Suzanne Miller

Committee Member 3

Summer Pannell

Committee Member 3 Email

summerpannell@gmail.com

Abstract

Administrators are charged with making decisions and implementing strategies to improve a school’s climate and student achievement. Because school climate and student achievement are interrelated, it would benefit administrators to understand which areas of school climate have the greatest impact on student achievement. The State of Georgia measures school climate and achievement with its school accountability measure, College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). This study employed a quantitative research design using archival data from CCRPI over two years to examine the relationship between school climate and student achievement. The researcher used Pearson’s r correlation and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between the two components and the predictive effect of each school climate domain on student achievement for traditionally structured middle schools in the State of Georgia. Findings revealed that all four components of school climate, Survey Score, Discipline Score, Safe and Substance-Free Learning Environment Score, and Attendance Score were all related to student achievement. In addition, the Survey Score and Discipline score had the strongest relationship and was the most significant predictor of student achievement. Findings align with those identified in the literature and provide administrators with essential information to strategically make decisions involving processes and procedures that impact these areas. Future research is needed to determine whether the relationship between school climate and student achievement is similar for elementary, middle, or high schools. In addition, separating the data into rural, suburban, and urban schools and running similar tests may also help administrators specifically in those areas.

INDEX WORDS: Student achievement, school climate, attendance, discipline, perception data, middle schools, College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI).

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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