In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) published recommendations for monitoring educational equity. Building on these recommendations, the Research Alliance has been working to develop a comprehensive set of equity indicators for New York City schools. 

Earlier Spotlight posts highlighted differences in access to middle and high schools with more opportunities overall; conversations with local stakeholders have underscored the importance of also assessing the extent to which students within these schools are actually benefiting from the opportunities available–for example, by taking an advanced class, avoiding being suspended, or, in this case, feeling supported at their school. In this post, we revisit which students attend middle and high schools with low, moderate, and high perceptions of school support, on average. We then examine patterns of perceived support within these schools, with a focus on differences by students’ race/ethnicity, gender, and median neighborhood income, and whether students receive special education or English Learner services.^{[1] Endnote details}

The Value of a Supportive School Climate

Research has highlighted the importance of a positive school climate in supporting students’ academic success, socioemotional well-being, and healthy development. Skills that are promoted in a positive school environment (e.g., flexibility, communication, collaboration, etc.) set students up for success later in life. Attending schools with a positive school climate reduces students’ likelihood of engaging in problem behavior, including risk-taking and violence. Research has also identified school climate as a lever for reducing teacher turnover, raising test scores, and shrinking achievement gaps.

Our measure of school climate is composed of students’ average responses to items on the annual NYC School Survey related to relationships, sense of belonging, support, and safety at school (see the specific survey items in the textbox at the bottom of this page). 

Which students attend schools with a more positive school climate?

The interactive dashboard below shows the percentage of students who attended schools with low, moderate, and high levels of supportive school climate in middle and high school. Readers can view differences by race/ethnicity, students’ median neighborhood income, Individualized Education Plan (IEP) status, English Learner (EL) status, and gender.

Key Takeaways

• Black students are the most likely to attend low support schools and the least likely to attend high support schools, with differences that are especially large in the middle grades.
• We see fewer and smaller differences in school support by neighborhood income, EL status, IEP status, and gender. 

These findings highlight that most NYC students attend schools with moderate or high levels of perceived support, as well as relatively equitable access to these schools based on income, IEP status and English Learner status. Differences by race stand out, however, with Black students substantially overrepresented in schools in the low-support category. This raises important questions about the experiences of Black students in our system. The next section looks at how different groups of students rate the school climate within low, moderate and high support schools. 

How does student experience differ within schools with low, moderate, and high perceptions of support on average?

Below, we examine the percentage of students who reported a high level of support within each school opportunity category. Readers can view subgroups defined by race/ethnicity, neighborhood income, IEP and EL status or gender.

Key Takeaways

• Across all middle schools, Asian and White students were the most likely to report high perceived support, and Black students were the least likely, with the greatest differences being present in low support schools. In these schools, White and Asian students were 1.3x more likely than Black students to describe a high level of support.
• Across all high schools, Latinx and White students were most likely to report high levels of support, and Asian students were least likely, with the greatest differences appearing in high support schools. 
• Across all middle schools, students from affluent neighborhoods were the most likely to report high levels of support, whereas across high schools, students from low-income neighborhoods described the highest levels of support.
• In middle schools, former ELs were the most likely to report high levels of support, regardless of a school's opportunity level. In high schools, current ELs were most likely to report high levels of support. 
• In middle schools, across school opportunity categories, students with IEPs had slightly lower perceptions of support. In high school, this pattern reversed, and students with IEPs tended to report cushigher levels of support. 
• Male students consistently reported higher levels of support than female students in middle and high school, across all opportunity categories. 

Discussion

For most student subgroups, there were notable differences between the middle and high school setting. For example, in middle school, across most opportunity categories, Black students, current English learners and students with IEPs had the lowest perceptions of support. But in high school, their ratings of school climate were closer to–and in some cases–higher than those of their peers. Gender was the exception to this pattern, with male students describing higher levels of support in both middle and high school, across every group of schools we examined. These findings underscore that school climate is highly context-specific and that improvement efforts must be tailored to the unique environments and specific student experiences they aim to address. 

It is also noteworthy that regardless of race, gender, income, EL or special education status, students in high-support schools reported stronger relationships and more positive experiences than students in the other school categories. Looking forward, it will be important to identify practices and conditions that make these schools stand out.

Big Questions

• What factors account for the different patterns of school climate inequality observed in middle and high school for race/ethnicity, income, EL and IEP status?
• Why do girls consistently rate the learning environment less positively than boys, across all grades and opportunity levels? Are there specific survey items driving these differences? What might more nuanced information about students’ gender identity and LGBTQ status tell us about their experiences of school climate? 
• What practices are being used in the schools with the highest, most equitable perceptions of school climate? To what extent could these be replicated in other school settings?
• Have patterns of inequitable school climate changed over time? If so, what factors are contributing to these changes?

This Spotlight post was authored by Erin Readling, James Kemple and Chelsea Farley.