THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL CLIMATE AND OUT OF SCHOOLSUSPENSION

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed qualitative and quantitative study was to examine therelationship between the number of out of school suspensions and teacher perceptions of schoolclimate. A second purpose was to examine the effect free-reduced lunch percentage had on therelationship between climate and out of school suspensions. The study was conducted in aschool district in a suburb of a major mid-western city in the United States. Included were 3906students in ten elementary schools employing 311 teachers. The relationship between out ofschool suspensions and school climate during the 2009-10 school year was investigated in thequantitative portion of the study. A correlational method was employed to determine the extentof a relationship between these variables. For the qualitative part of the study, a comparativemethod was utilized. Principal expertise was elicited through interviews to provide furtherinsight into any relationship. The data from the quantitative and qualitative methodology werecombined to fully describe the relationship of out of school suspension rate and staff climate.The data showed a statistically significant negative linear relationship between out of schoolsuspension (OSS) incidents and climate as measured by survey item six, “My principal takesadequate disciplinary measures to deal with disruptive behavior.” Additional findingsdemonstrated the socio-economic status of the school population has no effect on the relationshipbetween out of school suspension and school climate.