Abstract

The academic achievement gap and high dropout rates early in high school are of great concern. Knowing the disengagement occurs prior to the beginning of high school, more needs to be understood about perceptions of the school climate during middle school. This study investigated urban students' perceptions of the school climate (i.e., school liking and fairness and respect) across the middle school years and how their perceptions differed by student's gender and ethnicity. In addition, exploratory analyses investigated how differences in perceptions by ethnicity were influenced by the ethnic composition of the school (Majority African American, Majority Latino, and Diverse). Piecewise growth modeling analyzed the self-reported perceptions of school climate for Latino (n= 670) and African American ( n= 242) students who remained in the sample from the Fall of sixth grade until the Spring of Eighth grade. Students reported twice each year, for a total of six waves of data Findings indicated a developmental trend in perceptions of school climate. Regardless of students' ethnicity, gender, or school ethnic composition, their perceptions dropped from the Fall of sixth grade to the Fall of seventh grade for both school liking and fairness and respect. Students' perceptions of school liking slightly recovered from the Fall of seventh grade to the Spring of eighth grade. On the other hand, students' perceptions of fairness and respect never recovered.

Students' perceptions of the school climate varied by both gender and ethnicity. Females reported more positive perceptions of school liking as well as fairness and respect for the duration of middle school. More complex differences developed by ethnicity in perceptions especially when a school's ethnic composition was incorporated. African American students perceived the school climate more negatively than Latino students. The Majority Latino school context yielded the most positive perceptions for both Latino and African American students, whereas the Majority African American school context revealed the most negative perceptions of fairness and respect. Findings suggest the need for further research into why students differ in perceptions of school climate, especially the role of the ethnic composition of the school.