Secondary School Climate: A Revision of the OCDQ

A new school climate measure, the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire-Rutgers Secondary (OCDQ-RS), based on the concept of open to closed climate (Halpin & Croft, 1963), was developed expressly for secondary schools. A sample of teacher respondents from 78 New Jersey high schools was used. Exploratory and replicatory factor analyses of items aggregated to the school level were conducted using independent samples in order to assess factor stability and construct validity. Five stable and reliable first-order factors emerged: Principal Supportive Behavior, Principal Directive Behavior, Teacher Engaged Behavior, Teacher Frustrated Behavior, and Teacher Intimate Behavior. Second-order factor analysis showed that the first four factors may be used as an index of climate along a continuum of open to closed.