An Empirical Study of Student Relationships and Academic Achievement

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Past school climate literature historically has been related to two traditions: the investigation of school effects and the study of organizational climate (Anderson, 1982). One of the earliest concepts of a school's climate, developed by Halpin and Croft (1962), envisioned climate as the personality of the organization. More recently, (Deal cited in Gondor, 1994) perceives the school climate as the physical and psychological environment with a specific link to student academic achievement. Anderson (1982), in a review of the research on school climate, utilized an organizational taxonomy to address the issue. She compared a wide range of theoretical discussions, climate instruments, and models and concluded that school climate is the total environmental quality of a school.

Viewing school climate as an antecedent rather than an outcome variable, school-effects research is concerned with the factors that affect academic achievement. This line of research examines cultural elements of climate, such as the norms shared by students (Miskel & Ogawa, 1988). Positive school climate has been shown to have an influence on student behavior, …