U. S. Department of Education School Climate Survey (EDSCLS)

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.

Content

Category
Sub-Category
Domains
Institutional Environment, Safety
Grades
5th Grade,
6th Grade,
7th Grade,
8th Grade,
9th Grade,
10th Grade,
11th Grade,
12th Grade
Languages
English,
Spanish
Respondent
Student,
Teacher,
Parent

Administration Information

Length
20-30 minutes for student and instructional/non-instructional staff survey, 10-15 minutes for parent/guardian survey
Administration
Computer

Access and Use

Price
Free
Contact

EDSCLS Help Desk: 866-730-6735

Email: EDSCLS@air.org

Open Access
Yes

Psychometrics

Scoring
Computer scoring
Psychometric References

Ye, C., & Wang, Y. (2017). ED School Climate Surveys (EDSCLS) Psychometric Benchmarking Technical Report. U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics. https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/sites/default/files/EDSCLS_Psychometric_Benchmarking_Technical_Report.pdf

Ryberg, R. et al. (2020). Measuring school climate: Validating the Education Department School Climate Survey in a sample of urban middle and high school students. AREA Open, 6(3), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420948024

Psychometric Considerations

Psychometrics is the science of psychological assessment. A primary goal of EdInstruments is to provide information on crucial psychometric topics including Validity and Reliability – essential concepts of evaluation, which indicate how well an instrument measures a construct - as well as additional properties that are worthy of consideration when selecting an instrument of measurement.

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