The School Climate Survey is now available on PBIS Assessment. Coordinators set up windows for students in your building to take the survey according to your evaluation schedule. Here’s some information to help get you started with the latest survey added to PBIS Assessment.
What is the School Climate Survey?
The School Climate Survey is a set of multi-dimensional surveys to measure student perceptions of school climate. The surveys are brief, reliable, and valid for assessing perceived school climate among students in grades 3-12. Each survey includes a set of demographic questions about the participant and a number of questions related to school climate with Likert-type response options. Surveys include:
- School Climate Survey: Elementary
- School Climate Survey: Middle/High
Who Uses the School Climate Survey?
School teams wanting to gain a student perspective on the overall climate in the building will use the School Climate Survey. To know which survey a school should administer – the Elementary vs. the Middle/High – follow the guidance below:
- Elementary: Survey students between grades 3-5. (If the elementary school includes grade 6, these students should also complete the elementary survey.)
- Middle/High: Survey students between grades 6-12.
Note: For schools spanning grade ranges (e.g., K-8 schools), it is best to administer the elementary survey to students in grades 3-5 and the middle/high survey to students in grades 6 and above as each survey has been validated only with these grades.
How Do You Take the School Climate Survey?
Each multiple-response survey is to be completed individually by every student under the guidance of teachers or other appropriate school personnel. For schools with larger enrollment, it is recommended to sample a minimum of 100 students each time the survey is administered.
PBIS Assessment coordinators work with school teams to:
Schedule the Survey
Each time schools decide to administer the School Climate Survey, coordinators can help teams determine how they will administer the survey and who will take it. It is important to follow district procedures to notify parents about the survey and offer them the opportunity to opt their student out of the administration. Example notifications are provided in the survey’s manual if no district form is available.
Establish Open/Close Dates for the Survey Window
Once the survey window opens, all students will use the available link to the School Climate Survey in PBIS Assessment along with instructions for submitting their responses ahead of the close date. The survey window should allow respondents enough time to complete the survey and should close at least 24 hours before the reports are needed for decision making. When the survey window closes, PBIS Assessment summarizes the individual responses providing a summary available to view the next day.
When Do You Take the School Climate Survey Suite?
As an outcome tool, the School Climate Survey is typically taken annually. If a school opts to take it twice in a year, the first administration should happen in the first 45 days of school and the last administration should happen in the last 45 days of school.
Available Reports
The School Climate Survey provides seven reports within PBIS Assessment. The option to download information is not available.
- Total Score
- Mean Scores by Ethnicity/Race
- Mean Scores by Gender
- Mean Scores by Grade
- Mean Scores by Question
- Mean Scores by Sexual Orientation
- Items