Multi-level multi-informant structure of the Authoritative School Climate Survey

The Authoritative School Climate Survey was developed to offer schools a concise evaluation of two primary characteristics of school climate: disciplinary structure and student support. These characteristics are hypothesized to influence two crucial school climate outcomes: student engagement and the prevalence of teasing and bullying within the school. The factor structure of these four constructs was investigated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. This was conducted on a statewide sample of 39,364 students in grades 7 and 8, attending 423 schools. A notable aspect of the analysis was the use of a multilevel structural approach. This method modeled the nesting of students within schools to assess the factor structure, demonstrate convergent and concurrent validity, and gauge the structural invariance of concurrent validity coefficients across gender. The findings from this research provide schools with a core set of school climate measures guided by authoritative discipline theory.

School Psychology Quarterly, 35, 181-191