Abstract:
This study investigated secondary level building principals’ perceptions of schoolclimate and of the bullying of students, including the bullying of students withdisabilities, and whether those perceptions differed based on if their schools were usingan evidence-based bullying prevention program.This study involved a quantitative research design using survey methods. Thesurvey was adapted from the Ministry of Ontario School Climate survey. The survey wassent out electronically via Survey Monkey to secondary principals in the state ofMissouri, and 179 of those principals chose to respond. Two-way chi-square tests ofindependence were used to examine the crosstab proportional distribution betweenprincipals’ perceptions of school climate and the implementation of an evidence-basedbullying prevention program, as well as to examine the interaction between principals’perceptions of bullying of students with disabilities and bullying of general educationstudents and the implementation of an evidence-based bullying prevention program.Findings indicated that according to principals’ perceptions, there was nosignificant difference in school climate or the bullying of students with disabilities or thebullying of general education students based on whether the school had implemented anevidence-based bullying prevention program or not. However a large percentage of thoseprincipals perceived that bullying was happening at their schools whether or not they hadimplemented an evidence-based bullying prevention program.