Student and Parent Perceptions of School Social Environment: Are They Group Based?

In this study I employed statistical procedures used in organizational psychology to evaluate whether measurements of school social environment showed group consensus and, further, whether relations between school social environment and parent satisfaction and student enjoyment of classroom activities were related to school membership. Employing scales of school social environment, I obtained perceptions from 26,904 students and 33,153 parents of students who attended 122 elementary schools located in a large, suburban school district. Scale data were analyzed using several statistics that showed the extent of within-school and between-school agreement on the scales and covariation between Parent Overall Satisfaction and Student Enjoyment and the social environment scales. Scales that showed greatest within-school consensus for parents were School Safety and Parent Involvement, and for students, School Facilities, School Safety, School Staff Helpfulness, and Diversity of Friendships. The relation of Parent Overall Satisfaction to school social environment was best explained by aggregate (school) scores on the School Climate, School-Parent Communication, and School Empowerment of Parents scales. The relation of Student Enjoyment to school social environment was best explained by aggregate (school) scores on the scales of School Staff Helpfulness, Student-Teacher Relationships, Academic Instruction, and Diversity of Friendships.