School Climate: Principal and Teachers Perception

Jessica Gomez EDUC 6031 Dr. Michael Weinman May, 2013

Purpose
The main purpose for this research was to determine the schools climate and the administrations and teaching staffs openness.

The survey was not intended to find solutions to the causes of closed school climate, but its purpose was to bring out the status of the current climate, principal and teacher openness.

Dimensions Definitions
Supportive Principal Behavior (S): Reflects a basic concern for teachers. The principal listens and is
open to teacher suggestions. Praise is given genuinely and frequently, and criticism is handled constructively. The competence of the faculty is respected, and the principal exhibits both a personal and professional interest in teachers. Directive Principal Behavior: Is rigid, close supervision. The principal maintains constant monitoring and control over all teacher and school activities, down to the smallest detail. Restrictive Principal Behavior: Is Behavior that hinders rather than facilitates teacher work. The principal burdens teachers with paper work, committee requirements, routine duties, and other demands that interfere with their teaching responsibilities. Collegial Teacher Behavior: Supports open and professional interactions among teachers. Teachers are proud of their school, enjoy working with their colleagues, and are enthusiastic, accepting, and mutually respectful of their colleagues. Intimate Teacher Behavior: Is cohesive and strong social relations among teachers. Teachers know each other well, are close personal friends, socialize together regularly, and provide strong socialsupport for each other. Disengaged Teacher Behavior: Signifies a lack of meaning and focus to professional activities. Teachers are simply putting in time in non-productive group efforts; they have no common goals. In fact, their behavior is often negative and critical of their colleagues and the school. (Hoy)

New Jersey Sample and Greater Houston Elementary Means and Standard deviations
Standard deviations tell us how close most schools are to the average; the smaller the standard deviation, the closer most schools are to the typical school (Hoy, W, 2005, p.3).

New Jersey Sample

N.J. Mean (M) G.H Mean (M)

Greater Houston Elementary

N.J. Std. Deviation (SD) G.H Std. Deviation (SD) -1.11 1.99

Supportive Behavior (SB) Directive Behavior (DB) Restrictive Behavior (RB) Collegial Behavior (CB) Intimate Behavior (IB)

23.34 19.34 12.98 23.11 17.23

22.23 21.33 11.59 21.63 17.54

Supportive Behavior (SB) Directive Behavior (DB) Restrictive Behavior (RB) Collegial Behavior (CB) Intimate Behavior (IB)

4.85 3.20

1.55
2.69 2.14

-1.39
-1.48 0.31

Dimensions (Subtests of the OCDQ-RE) Standardized Scores

Dimensions (S) (D) (R) (C) (I) (Dis)
200

Scores 477 562 410 444 514 491

lower than 99% of the schools lower than 97% of the schools lower than 84% of the schools Average higher than 84% of the schools higher than 97% of the schools higher than 99% of the schools

300 400 500 600 700 800

School Climate Findings

Overall the survey shows that teachers perception of the school is a closed climate.

Openness Indices
An interpersonal condition that exists between people when: (1) facts, ideas, values, beliefs, and feelings are readily transmitted; and (2) the recipient of a transmission is willing to listen to that transmission.
Principal 501 Average Teachers 489 Slightly below average

Summary
Strengths: Anonymity of participants, time limit to return
surveys.

Limitations: Number of returned surveys, only professional

personnel participated, honesty.

Recommendations: Full participation from all participants,

hold a meeting with all participants to orally provide a brief description of the study and hand pass the survey.

References
Slide 7- (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~cbulach/sclimate/op entrust_article2.htm Hoy, W. K. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.waynekhoy.com/ocdq-re.html