Educational Administration

HMEF 5013

1.0 INDRODUCTION
A comparative analysis of four articles entitled below, describes about school climates in

the school as a learning organization. The four articles discuss briefly about issue in school

climate and how the researchers find the solution for that problems and so on. The feelings and

attitudes that are elicited by a schools environment are referred to as school climate (Loukas,A.

2007).

In this study, a comparative analysis and evaluation of research questions or hypotheses;

research methodology; sampling method; data analysis and the findings of each article was given

more emphasized. This is because a comparative analysis and evaluation process enables the

students to demonstrate the ability to critically analyze the research finding on school climate by

doing comparing or contrasting.

2.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

The article entitle The role of school organizational climate in occupational stress

among secondary school teachers in Tehran was written by Ghodsy Ahghar in 2008. The

General aim: to investigate the effect of the organizational climate in the school on the

occupational stress among secondary school teachers in Tehran. Specifi c objective: to determine

the rate of occupational stress in the population of secondary school teachers. Therefore, the

research questions are:

1. What is the rate of occupational stress among secondary school teachers?

2. To what extent does the organizational climate in the school have infl uence on the

occupational stress of the teachers?

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Besides that, article that written by Ibtesam Halawah on 2006. This article was designed

to study the relationship between effective communication of high school principals and school

climate. According to the author, previous research on effective schools and instructional

leadership emphasizes the impact of principal leadership on creating safe and secure learning

environment and positive nurturing school climate. That is a main purpose why the researcher is

giving more concern to find the relationship between effective communication of high school

principal and school climate in this study.

Furthermore, the article with the title Case studies of school community and climate:

success narratives of schools in challenging circumstances was written by Darlene Ciuffetelli

Parker, Heather Grenville, and Joseph Flessa in 2011, describes success stories of students and

communities affected by poverty from a diverse sample of eleven elementary schools throughout

the province of Ontario.

The objective of this case study is, to provide a close-to-the-ground description of the

attitudes, beliefs, practices, and policies of schools that are successfully working with students

and communities affected by poverty and to explore how this project contributes to the research

literature and to the practical understanding of how schools can best work with challenging

circumstances such as poverty by examining the school in terms of the community, climate, and

culture as it is perceived by parents, teaching staff, administrators, and community partners.

In 2008, Kenneth Stichter was also does investigation on school climate and come out

with the research topic entitle Students school climate perceptions as a measure of school

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district goal attainment. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether student survey

perception data collected every two years between 1999 and 2005 in one suburban district of

seven high schools could be used to effectively measure attainment of locally developed district-

wide goals. The goals focused on student academic achievement, student attendance and

behavior, quality of facilities and equipment, fiscal management of resources, effective

communication, and recognition of staff, students, parents and community members, and quality

and effectiveness of school and district support characteristics.

3.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND

SAMPLING

a) Article 1: The role of school organizational climate in occupational stress among

Secondary school teachers in Tehran

In this study, the population was all secondary schools female teachers with the age

group 32 to 50 years old and obtained Master in Education with 10 years vocational experiences

in Tehran in 2007. Using a multi-stage random sampling method, a sample volume of 220 female

teachers was determined using the Cochran formula. The samples were selected using multi-

stage sampling using the Cochran formula. Two main instruments were used to measure the

study variables: a 27-item questionnaire on organizational climate (four scales: open, engaged,

disengaged and closed organizational climate, and a 53-item occupational stress questionnaire by

Vingerhoets, employing 11 scales: Skill Discretion, Decision Authority, Task Control, Work and

Time Pressure, Role Ambiguity, Physical Exertion, Hazardous Exposure, Job Insecurity, Lack of

Meaningfulness, Social Support from Supervisor and Social Support from Coworkers.

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The questionnaire comprises 53 questions in 11 dimensions and the responses are marked

on a five degree scale (very high, high, mean, low, very low) ranked respectively as 5, 4, 3, 2,

and 1. Every subscale score can be divided into a high or low score category using the mean

value as the criterion of distribution. The cut-off point of the percentile ranks amounts to 146.

b) Article 2: The relationship between effective communication of high school principal and

school climate.

Two instruments were used in this study. The first was the Evaluation of School Climate

which was designed to assess school climate by secondary students. The instrument consisted of

42 items into 8 categories: Teacher-Student Relations (12 items); Security and Maintenance (5

items); Student Academic Orientation (4 items); Student Behavioral Values (3 items); Guidance

(4 items); Students-Peer Relationships (4 items); Instructional Management (7 items); and

Students Activities (3 items). And, each item was measured using a Likert scale that ranged from

"strongly disagree" (1 point) to "strongly agree" (5 points). The second instrument was designed

to measure communication effectiveness between school principals and teachers. This instrument

consisted of 16 Liker-type items that ranged from "strongly disagree" (1 point) to "strongly

agree" (5 points). In addition, necessary demographic information was collected from

participants.

Sampling was chosen at Abu Dhabi District, United Arab Emirates (UAE). There were 23

high schools in Abu Dubai District (11 for males and 12 for females). Six schools were selected

randomly (three males and three females) to participate in this study. Around 90 students from

each school participated in this study by responding to the climate school survey. The total was

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555 students, whereby 293 males and 262 females. The average age of students was 17. 2 years.

For the second instrument, around 35 teachers from each school of the six schools with a total of

315, whereby107 males and 208 females participated in this study by responding to the

principal's communication effectiveness survey. The average experience in teaching for these

teachers was 15.9 years.

c) Article 3: Case studies of school community and climate: Success narrative of schools in

challenging circumstances.

This study used a qualitative methodology to explore success stories in schools affected

by poverty such as the case study method; use of narrative telling and the appreciative inquiry

method. The researcher prepared for data collection before each visit, including the use of

multiple sources of data, open-ended protocol questions, systematic routine by researchers to

triangulate themes and categories, theoretical propositions via follow-up researcher meetings,

and organization for the framework for this case.

The sample of this case study included six small schools from urban areas which

approximately 140 students per school, three large schools from the same urban area that

involves about 650 students per school, one suburban school, and one rural school. The schools

selected by the Federation for participation in their project were identified from a list provided

by the Ministry of Education, which used Statistics Canada data about schools neighborhoods to

determine high incidence of poverty. The researchers used two lead researchers, with the

assistance of two graduate students, visited 11 school sites, two times each, during the 2007-2008

school years. During these visits key teachers, administrators, parents, and community groups

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were interviewed and different programmatic policies and practices were described. Specifically,

data from research participants was collected through:

22 full days of focus groups with over 100 teachers, administrators, parents, and

community partners.

Publicly available school profiles.

Over 35 unstructured interviews and conversations

Over 35 audio-taped sessions of focus groups and interview/conversation sessions

Detailed field notes from school visits

d) Article 4: Student climate perceptions as a measure of school district goal attainment.

Kenneth Stichter was gathered data from archived biennial surveys of students between

1999 and 2005. Factor analysis was used to reduce the data from each survey cycle into

composite variables. Component items for each factor scale were then analyzed over the four

survey cycles. The archived data for this study were drawn from one suburban Southern

California high school district with six comprehensive high schools and one continuation high

school serving a diverse student population of 13,000 plus students. Approximately 40% were

Hispanic/Latino, 35% White, and 11% Asian when the survey data were gathered.

The district used item analysis from biennially administered student surveys as one

source of data to evaluate attainment of four of the seven district goals. During this time period

there were no changes in the questionnaire that consisted of 50 five-point Likert-type items

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Yes, most of the time; Yes, some of the time; No, seldom; No, not at all; Does not apply.

Respondent results for each survey cycle represented cross-sectional survey data.

4.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON DATA ANALYSIS

In the research study of Ghodsy Ahghar, the descriptive statistics were performed. Then, a

multivariate regression analysis using a stepwise method was applied to study the effect of

organizational climate on the occupational stress of the teachers. The cut off points of 0.1 and

0.05 were used when entering and removing variables from the model.

But, the article on examining the relationship between effective communication of high

school principal and school climate, the researcher used reliability of the two instruments to

assess through calculating both internal and split-half reliability. For the climate school survey,

the internal reliability for each of the seven categories in the survey was also calculated. An

analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare schools and an independent t-test was used

to compare male and female schools.

On the other hand, the study Parker, D.C., Grenville, H. & Flessa, J. (2011), used a

bottom-up approach to analyze the data by culling all sources, reading and coding the issues,

coding the issue-relevant meanings as patterns, and then collapsing the codes into themes.

Finally, the collective cases were compared to provide further insight to issues. This study was a

qualitative study, not a comparative study. Thus, the researchers acknowledge that the practices

used in these case studies may or may not be different from that elsewhere in schools with

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similar challenging circumstances, or in those schools with fewer challenging circumstances.

Still, it is important to consider that the narratives presented in this paper both represent the

phenomenon of success in the schools studied and gives storied practice to those termed

successes by our participants.

Besides that, Stichter, K. (2008) used 5 steps to procedure the data analysis. There are

district goals and use of students survey data; possible school climate factors imbedded within

the questionnaire items; factor analysis; tracking the performance of factor scale items and

comparing factor constructs with district goals.

5.0 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON FINDINGS AND RESULTS.

According to the findings on ghodsy Ahghars article, an inverse relationship was noted

between the open or engaged climate and teachers occupational stress, meaning that an increase

in the level of the open or engaged climate would bring about a decrease in occupational stress.

In other words, the rate of occupational stress among teachers can be predicted using the scores

on the organizational climate in the school. This predictability is highest for the open climate and

gradually decreases through the engaged and disengaged to the closed climate. The results of this

study show that the closed organizational climate brings about job alienation, job dissatisfaction,

and mental and occupational strain and stress.

However, the results of the study emphasis on importance of effective communication

between principals and teachers in schools were found to be positively associated with principal's

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communication effectiveness. Better climate school was expected in schools where effective

communication between school principals and his/her teachers exists.

But, Parker, D.C., Grenville, H. & Flessa, J. (2011), found that positive school climate,

community, and a culture of leadership have created through: (a) teaching excellence and high-

quality collaboration amongst teachers; (b) parental engagement along with community

partnership; and (c) shared leadership amongst administrators and teachers. Although this study

focused on schools affected by challenging circumstances such as poverty, this is not to say these

findings are limited to such schools. Researchers also found that to build positive community,

climate, and a culture of leadership, schools in challenging circumstances had at their core:

excellent teaching and high-quality collaboration amongst teachers; parental engagement along

with community partnerships; and shared leadership amongst administrators and teachers.

The finding of Kenneth Sticther shows that, Factors and their component variables in this

study suggest student attitudes about their high school experience are rooted in academic, overall

experience, communication, and environmental encounters. As such, the factors reflect school

climate constructs consistent with research. However, the findings presented here reflect, in part,

the results of efforts on the part of the district to address the intent of the district goals, then one

conclusion is that over time there was an improvement in student perceptions on matters related

to all seven goals.

6.0 EVALUATION ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS

According to Hoy, W.K. & Miskel C.G. (2012) school climate is relatively enduring

quality of the school environment that is experienced by participants, affects their behaviours and

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is based on their collective perception of behaviour in schools. Schools have patterns of

behaviour that make them different from one another; that is, they have unique climates much as

individuals have different personalities, whereby this statement was indirectly mentioned by

Kenneth Stichter in his article.

Furthermore, according to the author, school climates emerge from routine organizational

practices by formal and informal activities. This comments also supported by the research of

Ghodsy Ahghar, whereby occupational stress influences by the organizational climate. And then,

Hoy, W.K. & Miskel C.G. (2012) also were revealed that the organizational climate of a school is

set of faculty perceptions of the dominant behaviors of organizational participants. This

statement was describes on these articles, where school principals behaviour, students

perception and school community perception take into account in order to become effective

schools.

In addition, openness of climate is positively related to loyalty, trust and commitment of

teachers. Academic emphasis promotes student achievement regardless of socioeconomic

conditions like poverty also mentioned by Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker and his colleagues. The

author believes that a climate of citizenship positively influences school effectiveness and

students achievement. Actually, all the researchers agreed that changing the climate of a school is

a difficult, continuous and long-term process; there are no quick fixes.

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7.0 IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE TO THE SCHOOL

IMPROVEMENT

School climate can be defined as the feelings that students and staff have about the school

environment over a period of time (Peterson, R.L & Skiba, R. (2000). The National School

Climate Council (2007) defines school climate as norms, values, and expectations that support

people feeling socially, emotionally and physically safe (National Education Association, 2013).

School climate is a product of the interpersonal relationships among students, families, teachers,

support staff, and administrators. As a technical term, it is defined as a set of measurable

properties of the work environment, based on the collective perception of the people who live

and work in the environment and demonstrated to influence their motivation and behaviour.

Climate also addresses other positive or negative feeling regarding the school

environment. A positive school climate exists when all students feel comfortable, wanted, valued,

accepted, and secure in an environment where they can interact with caring people they trust. A

positive school climate affects everyone associated with the school: students, staff, parents, and

the community. It is the belief system or culture that underlies the day-to-day operation of a

school. According to Kappan, P.H. (2008) A positive school climate contributes towards:

Continuous academic and social growth.

Respect: students and staff have high self-esteem and are considerate of others.
Trust: a sense that people can be counted on.
High morale: students and staff feel good about being there.
Cohesiveness: a sense of belonging.
Opportunities for input: being able to contribute ideas and participate.

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Renewal: openness to change and improvement.

Caring: students and staff feel that others are concerned about them.

The school climate reform is most important for students who are at risk for dropping out

of school by recognizing the social, emotional, ethical, and civic as well as intellectual needs and

aspects of learning and teaching; promoting student engagement and leadership; promoting

intrinsic motivation to learn and work together to create a safer, more supportive, engaging,

helpfully, challenging and harmonious school community (Pickeral, T. 2012).

A positive school climate is recognized as an important target for school reform and

improving behavioral, academic, and mental health outcomes for students (Thapa et al., 2012).

Specifically, schools with positive climates tend to have less student discipline problems (Cohen

& Geier, 2010) and aggressive and violent behavior (Gregory et al., 2010), and fewer high school

suspensions (Lee et al., 2011). Research has also shown associations between school climate and

lower levels of alcohol and drug use (LaRusso et al., 2008), bullying (Meyer-Adams & Conner,

2008; Bradshaw et al., 2009), and harassment (Attar-Schwartz, 2009).

In addition to reducing students exposure to risk factors, school climate can promote

positive youth development. For example, a favorable school climate has been linked with higher

student academic motivation and engagement (Eccles et al., 1993), as well as elevated

psychological well-being (Ruus et al., 2007; Shochet et al., 2006). Not surprisingly, schools

promoting engaging learning environments tend to have fewer student absences (Gottfredson et

al., 2005) and improvements in academic achievement across grade levels (Brand et al., 2003;

Stewart, 2008).

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A positive school climate also has benefits for teachers and educational staff (Bradshaw,

Waasdorp et al., 2010). Research shows that when educators feel supported by their adminis-

tration, they report higher levels of commitment and more collegiality (Singh & Billingsley,

1998). Likewise, schools where educators openly communicate with one another, feel supported

by their peers and administration, and establish strong student-educator relationships tend to

have better student academic and behavioral outcomes. Positive school climate is strongly

correlated and/or predictive of high quality teaching and student academic achievement (Cohen,

J. 2010).

The ingredients of a healthy, supportive school climate includes achievement motivation:

Students at the school believe they can learn and are willing to learn; Collaborative decision

making: Parents, students, and staff are actively involved in the decisions; affecting the school.;

Equity and fairness: Students are treated equally regardless of ethnicity, gender, and disability;

General school climate: There is a positive quality of all interactions and feelings of trust and

respect within the school community; Order and discipline: Students display appropriate

behavior in the school setting; Parent involvement: Parents participate frequently in school

activities and others (Lehr, C.A. 2006).

Besides that, a positive organizational climate is an integral component of an effective

school. School climate is consistently identified as a variable that is a characteristic of effective

schools and one that is positively associated with academic success. Eight factors characterizing

effective schools include: leadership, school climate, teacher/student relations, curriculum

instruction, resources and finance, physical environment, evaluation, and parent/community.

Other researchers suggest academically effective schools are distinguished by their culture.

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These schools are characterized by a structure, process, and a climate of values and norms that

focus on promoting successful teaching and learning. Educators who work in the schools can

play an active role in creating a positive school climate, one indicator of an effective school.

The nature of the school environment has been shown to have a strong influence on the

way students develop and learn. Many studies have documented the association of school climate

with improved student outcomes. For example, it is more likely that students will have higher

achievement, more positive self concepts, improved behavior, and higher aspirations when the

climate of the school is positive. In some cases, the link between school climate and student

outcomes is relatively direct. In other cases, school climate may have a more indirect effect, such

as promoting a positive sense of belonging, participation in school tasks and activities, and

attendance (factors directly linked to school dropout).

Furthermore, school or organizational climate is an alterable variable that can affect

various outcomes. The outcomes of a positive school climate are especially encouraging given

the many unalterable factors associated with risk of school failure. Although educators cannot

change a students socioeconomic standing, genetic predisposition to mental illness, or ability

level, changes in the learning environment can improve a students chances for success. In

addition, instruments are available to assess student, staff, parent, and community perceptions of

school climate. From this feedback, responsive interventions can be shaped, developed, and

implemented.

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Improving school climate is a preventative approach, rather than reactive or remedial. A

positive school climate is a prerequisite condition that facilitates a successful work or learning

experience. When high expectations are in place, order and discipline are clear, rules are

consistent and fair, caring and sensitivity characterize relationships between staff and students,

and reciprocal exchanges of communication with parents occur.

Then, there is a high probability that student achievement and behavior will improve. In

schools with positive school climate, suspension rates are lower, attendance rates are higher, and

students and parents have higher levels of satisfaction. School climate are useful terms

for the intangibles that can affect learning. As such, they deserve serious

attention in the effort to improve performance (Senge, P.M. 1994).

In schools with strong school climates, teachers relationships with their students

families are usually familiar and comfortable. Families and schools hold common expectations

and values for students learning and development, which prevents misunderstanding between

school and family life. A second important component of school climate is support for students

autonomy and self-regulation, which is essential to their psychological wellness and incorporates

multiple skills that students need to further their own welfare. Moreover, Effective school

climates reflect routines and practices that strengthen students goals for learning and provide

multiple opportunities for students to make decisions about their schooling. It also helps to

prevent bullying and victimization (Doll, B. 2010).

National School Climate Council (2007) reported that a sustainable, positive school

climate fosters youth development and learning necessary for a productive, contributing and

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satisfying life in a democratic society. Positive school climate also promotes student learning.

Positive school climate powerfully affects student motivation to learn. For example, activities

like community service-learning and student councils value student engagement and enhance the

learning environment by providing students with opportunities to participate in the learning

process and construct their own knowledge of social and government systems. And, to the extent

that students feel safe, cared for, appropriately supported and lovingly pushed to learn,

academic achievement should increase.

8.0 CONCLUSION

School climate is a complex construct that has been recognized as an important

component of effective schools. Definitions point to multiple dimensions including a sense of

order and discipline, parental involvement, staff dedication to student learning, high expectations

for academic performance and behavior, caring relationships, and respectful interactions between

students, staff, parents, and community members. School climate is associated with a variety of

student outcomes including achievement, absenteeism, self-concept, and behavior. Educators can

play a critical role in promoting a positive school climate. Investing time and effort in creating a

positive school climate is a preventive approach that will result in healthy academic

environments and positive outcomes for students and staff. Thus, it would seem appropriate to

assess climate simultaneously in investigating the impact of the organization on the well-being of

members. Making a climate change in organization is one of the core fundamental steps to

beginning to create a great place to work.

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