MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL CLIMATE SURVEY ACROSS RACE AND GENDER: A FOCUS ON BLACK GIRLS

Abstract

School climate is a construct frequently explored in educational research (Lee, Cornell, Gregory, & Fan, 2011; Wang & Degol, 2016) and is associated positive several outcomes including with improved student-teacher relationships (Croninger & Lee, 2001) and reduced school dropout risk (Jia, Konold, & Cornell, 2016). Unfortunately, emerging research indicates that racial differences in schools’ penal practices may be negatively coupled with Black students’ experience of a supportive school climate (Bottiani, Bradshaw, & Mendelson, 2017). Black students are disproportionately subjected to exclusionary disciplinary practices (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) in the learning environment (Fenning & Rose, 2007) and Black girls disproportionally encounter more adverse disciplinary outcomes in their educational setting (National Black Women’s Justice Institute, 2018) relative to their White peers (Blake, Butler, Lewis, & Darensbourg, 2011; Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015; Epstein, Blake, & González, 2017; Hines-Datiri & Carter Andrews, 2017). Persistent use of punitive practices may hinder Black girls’ racial identity, academic, and social-emotional development in the classroom (Chavous, Rivas-Drake, Smalls, Griffin, & Cogburn, 2008; Leath, Mathews, Harrison, & Chavous, 2019) and consequently detrimentally impact their school climate. Researchers have called for evidence-based and culturally relevant interventions that promote positive academic outcomes for Black girls (Jones et al., 2018). However, evidence-based interventions are dependent on the use of empirically supported assessments with diverse student groups (Pendergast et al., 2017). Evidence-based assessments are necessary to identify students’ needs in the educational setting and provide baseline data that allow for the evaluation of intervention effectiveness. Moreover, school climate assessments for Black girls may facilitate the development of evidence-based interventions for Black girls - who are disproportionally disciplined and may be at risk of experiencing a negative school climate. This study investigated the structural validity and reliability of scores from a school climate measurement tool. The study examined measurement invariance of the Student Connection Survey, with a specific focus on Black girls’ scores. Results indicated the Student Connection Survey is represented by five-latent factors and is equivalent between Black and White middle school girls. Implications, strengths, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.