Connecting School Climate to Learner Outcomes in Delaware Schools

• Kaylee Richey, Statistics, University of Delaware

• Brittany Zakszeski, School of Education, University of Delaware

School climate refers to the way students perceive their school environment. In recent decades, educational researchers have aimed to find a way to measure school climate and accurately capture its multidimensionality. The Delaware School Climate Survey (DSCS) is a brief, psychometrically sound survey developed for such a purpose. The survey contains thirty-one questions that measure seven different domains of school climate: Teacher-Student Relationships, Student-Student Relationships, Clarity of Expectations, Fairness of Rules, School Safety, Engagement Schoolwide and Bullying Schoolwide. Previous studies involving the DSCS have examined how school-level scores on these subscales correlate with school-level academic outcomes, the latest of which used academic data from the 2014-2015 school year. Using outdated data and aggregating academic data at the school-level runs the risk of oversimplifying relationships or drawing inaccurate conclusions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which school-level student perceptions of school climate are associated with student-level academic achievement. Survey data were collected from 31,843 students across 139 Delaware schools in 2025. Academic data were drawn from state-standardized achievement tests: SAT scores for 11th grade and Smarter Balanced assessments for grades 3-8. A two-level multilevel model is being used to account for students’ nesting within schools, within which academic achievement is modeled at Level 1 and school climate at Level 2. Analyses are currently underway. Results will highlight the role of student well-being on academic outcomes and be used to identify which dimensions of school climate are most strongly associated with student achievement. Demonstrating the connection between school climate and achievement can garner interest for investment in school climate improvement measures and policy changes that promote student welfare.