A latent class analysis of school climate among middle and high school students in California public schools

Article history: Received 29 June 2015 Received in revised form 26 January 2016 Accepted 26 January 2016 Available online 29 January 2016 Research has shown that a positive school climate plays a protective role in the social, emotional, and academic development of adolescent youth. Researchers have utilized variable centeredmeasures to assess school climate, which is limited in capturing heterogeneous patterns of school climate. In addition, few studies have systematically explored the role of race and gender in perceived school climate. This studyutilizes a latent class approach to assess whether there are discrete classes of school climate in a diverse statewide sample of middle and high school youth. Drawing from the 2009–2011 California Healthy Kids Survey, this study identified four latent classes of school climate: Some caring, connectedness, and safe; negative climate; high caring, participation, and safe; and positive climate. The findings indicated that race and grade level significantly predicted school climate class membership. Black students were three times more likely to be members of the negative school climate class, when compared toWhite students. Gender did not significantly predict school climate classmembership. The results of this study provide school climate researchers and educatorswith a nuanced picture of school climate patterns among middle and high school students. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.