School Climate

The Tripod School Climate Index is comprised of seven question items across two commonly accepted dimensions of school climate, safety and relationships. Each question item is answered on a 5-point Likert scale by students in grade 6 though grade 12.

This revised version of the School Climate Measure (SCM) is a 42-item measure comprised of 10 subscales, all rated on a 5-point Likert scale. An additional 2 subscales, Parental Involvement and Opportunities for Student Engagement, have been added to the original 8 subscales (Positive Student-Teacher Relationships, School Connectedness, Academic Support, Order and Discipline, Physical Environment, Social Environment, Perceived Exclusion, and Academic Satisfaction) from the first version of the SCM.

The California School Climate and Safety Survey-Short Form is a self-student reported questionnaire created to assist the state of California in monitoring the creation of safe schools as required by the 2001 federal law, No Child Left Behind. It measures overall school climate and personal-safety related experiences.

The Classroom Climate Scale was created to gauge elementary students' perceptions of school climate. It measures four key dimensions of school climate to help teachers improve school climate and classroom management. It builds on a previous school climate measure used in Chilean public schools by giving the survey robust psychometric qualities.

The Meriden School Climate Survey-Student Version is a 47-item survey of students’ perception of adult support at school, school safety, respect for differences, adult support at home, including academic support, student aggression toward others, and peer support.

The My Class Inventory-Short form, adapted from the longer form version of the My Class Inventory contains 25 yes or no questions written at a low reading level suitable for children. The MCI-SF asks respondents about their perceptions of five different dimensions of their actual classroom environment: Satisfaction, Friction, Competitiveness, Difficulty (with classroom work) and Cohesiveness.

The EDSCLS national benchmark study questionnaires designed for students, instructional staff, and non-instructional staff/principal cover 3 domains and 13 topics. The ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) are a suite of survey instruments that were developed for schools, districts, and states by NCES. This NCES effort extends activities to measure and support school climate by ED’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS). Through the EDSCLS, schools nationwide have access to survey instruments and a survey platform that allows for the collection and reporting of school climate data across stakeholders at the local level. The surveys can be used to produce school-, district-, and state-level scores on various indicators of school climate from the perspectives of students, teachers, non-instructional school staff, principals, and parents/guardians. NCES has also developed psychometric benchmarks to enable meaningful comparisons between student subgroups, and between schools.

The 5Essentials Survey from the University of Chicago's Consortium on School Research is an improvement framework and diagnostic survey tool used to assess a school's strengths while highlighting areas and opportunities for improvement across five essential factors for school improvement (Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment, and Ambitious Instruction).

The What's Happening in This School Questionnaire (WHITS) is a six scale survey measuring school climate designed for use with students ranging from grades 8 through grade 12. The six scales comprising this survey include, teacher support, peer connectedness, school connectedness, affirming diversity, rule clarity, and reporting and seeking help. Respondents answer all 48 items within this survey on a five-point Likert scale.

The Virginia Secondary School Climate Survey also known as the Authoritative School Climate Survey is administered to students and teachers/staff to assess disciplinary structure and student support, two school climate factors that are thought to inlfluence school climate outcomes such as student engagement and prevalence of testing and bullying in school.