Improving the Measurement of School Climate Using Item Response Theory

The U.S. government has become increasingly focused on school climate, as recently evidenced by its inclusion as an accountability indicator in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Yet, there remains considerable variability in both conceptualizing and measuring school climate. To better inform the resea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational measurement, issues and practice issues and practice, 2019-12, Vol.38 (4), p.99-107
Main Authors: Lindstrom Johnson, Sarah, Reichenberg, Ray E., Shukla, Kathan, Waasdorp, Tracy E., Bradshaw, Catherine P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Accountability
Educational Environment
Educational Legislation
Educational tests & measurements
Federal Legislation
Individual Characteristics
Institutional Characteristics
Institutional Evaluation
Item Analysis
Item Response Theory
measurement invariance
Measurement Techniques
Psychometrics
school accountability
school climate
School environment
Secondary School Students
Secondary Schools
Test Format
Test Items
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The U.S. government has become increasingly focused on school climate, as recently evidenced by its inclusion as an accountability indicator in the Every Student Succeeds Act. Yet, there remains considerable variability in both conceptualizing and measuring school climate. To better inform the research and practice related to school climate and its measurement, we leveraged item response theory (IRT), a commonly used psychometric approach for the design of achievement assessments, to create a parsimonious measure of school climate that operates across varying individual characteristics. Students (n = 69,513) in 111 secondary schools completed a school climate assessment focused on three domains of climate (i.e., safety, engagement, and environment), as defined by the U.S. Department of Education. Item and test characteristics were estimated using the mirt package in R using unidimensional IRT. Analyses revealed measurement difficulties that resulted in a greater ability to assess less favorable perspectives on school climate. Differential item functioning analyses indicated measurement differences based on student academic success. These findings support the development of a broad measure of school climate but also highlight the importance of work to ensure precision in measuring school climate, particularly when considering use as an accountability measure.
ISSN:0731-1745
1745-3992
DOI:10.1111/emip.12296