Johnson, Cynthia K.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine school connectedness and therelationship it has to the following: race, achievement, attendance, socioeconomic status,and behavior. This study focused on students who were in grades 6 - 8 and attendedGrandview Middle School. Grandview Middle School is an urban school in theGrandview C4 School District. This study was the second administration of the 10questions on the MSIP AQ School Climate and Equity Sub Scale used to measure schoolconnectedness. The original survey was part of the DESE fourth cycle Missouri SchoolImprovement Program (MSIP) visit in March 2009. Questions from the School Climateand Equity Subscales were re-administered as part of the current study.A quantitative design was used. Measurement was determined by results from the10 questions School Connectedness Survey. The items on the School ConnectednessSurvey were rated on a five point Likert Scale, where 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 =Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree. Permission letters weredistributed to 565 students. One hundred eighty students participated in the study. Oneway ANOVA, Pearson correlations, and t tests were used to analyze and test thehypothesesResults yielded from this study showed a marginally significant relationshipbetween student perceptions of equity and student achievement. The data of otherhypotheses tests revealed no significant relationship or differences between schoolconnectedness and the following: race, attendance, behavior, and socioeconomic status.