Compiled by Sarra B. Baraily (baraily@msu.edu)
& Melissa Quon Huber, Ph.D., (hubermel@msu.edu)
Michigan State University, Community Youth Development,
203 Human Ecology, East Lansing, MI  48824,
(517) 355-7732

Scope of this review:

This report provides an overview of school climate assessments that have been used to assess middle school and high school students’ perceptions of their school climate.  Some assessments have corresponding tools for use by teachers, parents, and others to assess the school climate, but those tools are not assessed in this report.

Factors to consider when selecting assessment tools

Description and Purpose – Which tools fit our school?

What are the ages of the students who will take the surveys?

Consider the age group that you are planning to survey and select assessment tools that have been used for that age group. 

How much time do you have for student to complete the surveys?

Consider how much time you will have to administer the survey.  The length of time needed to fill out the survey is provided in this section if available.  See “Cost/Copyright/Availability” for a discussion of budget issues.

Do you want to know how students compare the actual environment to what they desire?

Many surveys contain items that only ask students to rate their perceptions of the school climate as it exists, and some also ask how important these aspects are to the students. If you want to understand how students rate the environment and which aspects they would most like to improve, then you will want to select surveys that ask students to rate both the “real” and “ideal” school climate, or “what is” and “what should be.”

Scale Dimensions - What scale dimensions are relevant?

Scale dimensions 

The term “scale” is used to denote a series of questions (also called “items”), within the larger survey, that focus on a specific concept.  When selecting a survey, you will want to choose one that addresses the concepts that are most relevant to your school’s vision of school climate and are aligned with your programming goals. 

Sample items 

You can determine whether or not the scales are appropriately matched to your goals by reading the description of the scale and sample question items. Do not expect to see improvement on school climate dimensions that you are not proactively addressing in the programs or interventions.

NOTE: The positive sign (+) indicates that the question is phrased in such a way to show that a high score indicates the presence of a desired aspect of the school climate dimension. The negative sign (-) means that the question is phrased so that a high score detects the absence of that desired school climate dimension.

Reliability/Validity - How good is the scale?

Once you select scales that match your programming goals, generally speaking, you will want to select scales that have been demonstrated to have good reliability and validity.  [See Singleton, R. Jr., Straits, B. C., Straits, M. M., McAllister, R. J. (1988). Approaches to Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press.]

Reliability – This is a measure of how consistently and dependably the questions (also called “items”) contained within a scale measure the concept.  The measure of reliability ranges from zero to one (0 to 1).  Reliabilities closer to 1.0 are considered better, with a reliability of 0.8 considered ideal by some.  Cronbach’s alpha (denoted as the Greek letter α) is a commonly reported type of reliability.

Validity – This is a measure of how well the scales or questions measure what they are intended to measure.  The more valid the scales in the survey are, the more likelihood the questions in the scales are actually measuring the concept that you want to measure. 

Cost/Copyright/Availability – What are the costs or permission needed to use the survey?