Date of Submission

2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

Department Chair

Robert A DiTomasso, PhD, ABPP, Chair, Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Jessica Kendorski, PhD, Chairperson

Second Advisor

Yuma Tomes, PhD

Third Advisor

Barbara B Williams, PhD

Abstract

School climate is an aspect of school life that has been examined closely in recent literature as it related to student interactions, behavior, and student achievement. A number of factors that affect school climate have been identified; these include student/teacher relationships, school safety and student relations, clarity of a school’s expectations, perceived fairness of school rules, and the presence of a strong, welldeveloped and widely-accepted behavior program in a school. Both Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) programs and Responsive Classroom (RC) programs have been identified as having a positive impact on school climate at multiple grade levels and across demographics. The Delaware School Climate Survey (DSCS) is a tool that has been used across the state over multiple years to examine perceptions of school climate in multiple informant groups: teachers and staff members, parents and guardians, and students. This study evaluates the Delaware School Climate Survey results both in a PBIS elementary school and in a RC elementary school to examine the perceptions of school climate between informant groups and across the two school intervention programs. Results of the study found that perceptions of school climate were predominantly higher overall in the PBIS school, compared with the RC school. At the domain level, results showed that teachers, parents, and students in the PBIS school reported higher scores in the areas of Teacher/Student Relations, Student Relations and Safety, Fairness of Rules, and Clarity of Expectations domains.

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