Developmental Contexts of Adolescence Reading Reaction

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The Racial School Climate Gap: Within-School Disparities in Students’ Experiences of Safety, Support, and Connectedness

Adam Voight1 • Thomas Hanson2 • Meagan O’Malley2 • Latifah Adekanye1

Published online: 16 September 2015

� Society for Community Research and Action 2015

Abstract This study used student and teacher survey data

from over 400 middle schools in California to examine

within-school racial disparities in students’ experiences of

school climate. It further examined the relationship

between a school’s racial climate gaps and achievement

gaps and other school structures and norms that may help

explain why some schools have larger or smaller racial

disparities in student reports of climate than others. Mul-

tilevel regression results problematized the concept of a

‘‘school climate’’ by showing that, in an average middle

school, Black and Hispanic students have less favorable

experiences of safety, connectedness, relationships with

adults, and opportunities for participation compared to

White students. The results also show that certain racial

school climate gaps vary in magnitude across middle

schools, and in middle schools where these gaps are larger,

the racial achievement gap is also larger. Finally, the

socioeconomic status of students, student–teacher ratio,

and geographic location help explain some cross-school

variation in racial climate gaps. These findings have

implications for how school climate in conceptualized,

measured, and improved.

Keywords School climate � Race � Adolescence � Youth

development � Schools � Diversity

Introduction

Racial and ethnic disparities in academic achievement and

school discipline are fundamental problems of educational

equity in the United States. A chorus of research findings have

demonstrated that Black and Hispanic students achieve at

lower levels than their White1 peers (see Duncan and Murnane

2011) and are suspended and expelled from school more often

(Losen 2015; Skiba et al. 2011). Racial2 gaps exist due to both

school segregation as well as racial disparities within indi-

vidual schools (Fryer and Levitt 2004; Page et al. 2008).

Reducing these racial gaps is central to the priorities of the US

Department of Education and to the values of community

psychology (Sarason 1996; Weinstein 2002).

One feature of schools that may be related to these gaps

and that has garnered increased attention of late among

researchers and policymakers is school climate (e.g., Kim

et al. 2014; US Department of Education 2014; Voight

et al. 2013). Climate refers to experiences of safety, con-

nectedness to school, opportunities for meaningful partic-

ipation, and the quality of relationships between students

and staff, and these factors are related to student achieve-

ment and behavior (Hanson and Voight 2014; Thapa et al.

2013). Conceptually, climate is generally understood as a

characteristic of schools, though there is mixed evidence—

reviewed below—to suggest that students within the same

& Adam Voight

a.voight@csuohio.edu

1 Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, JH 377,

Cleveland, OH 44115, USA

2 WestEd, San Francisco, CA, USA

1 The racial/ethnic labels ‘‘Black,’’ ‘‘Hispanic,’’ and ‘‘White’’ were

used herein in lieu of ‘‘African American,’’ ‘‘Latina/o,’’ and ‘‘White,’’

respectively, as they correspond with the California Department of

Education’s racial/ethnic designations, and thus our subsequent

operationalizations. Where appropriate, more specific racial/ethnic

labels are used. 2 While we appreciate the distinction between the terms ‘‘race’’ and

‘‘ethnicity,’’ we use the term ‘‘race’’ herein to refer to both for the

sake of brevity.

123

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

DOI 10.1007/s10464-015-9751-x

school may experience safety, support, and relationships

differently based on their race. This study examines the

nature of the racial school climate gap using a large sample

of California middle schools. It further examines the rela-

tionship between a school’s racial climate gaps and

achievement gaps and other school structures and norms

that may help explain why some schools have larger or

smaller racial disparities in climate experiences than

others.

Literature Review

Racial Disparities in Education

Education inequity is a persistent reality of American

culture. Almost 50 years ago, the Coleman Report (Cole-

man et al. 1966) put race-based achievement gaps on the

national radar. Since that time, achievement gaps have

remained largely unchanged (Duncan and Murnane 2011).

As early as kindergarten, there are marked differences in

academic performance between racial minority students

and their peers (Fryer and Levitt 2004). These differences

are sustained as students progress through school (Clot-

felter et al. 2009; Hanushek and Rivkin 2006).

Various reasons have been proposed to explain the racial

achievement gap. One of the simplest explanations is that

race is inextricably connected to socioeconomic status in

the United States. Poor students have fewer resources for

learning and must overcome greater barriers, and a dis-

proportionate number of poor families are racial minorities

(Hanushek and Rivkin 2006). However, even when

socioeconomic status is taken into consideration, an

achievement gap among racial groups remains (Clotfelter

et al. 2009). Social psychologists note ‘‘stereotype threat’’

as a possible contributor to the gap, wherein test takers of

stigmatized racial groups worry that they may confirm

stereotypes about intelligence, and thus perform worse due

to this stress (Steele and Aronson 1995). Other explana-

tions are socio-cultural, suggesting that minority peer

groups reward disengagement or that certain racial identi-

ties are not conducive to valuing academic success (Fryer

2010), although this explanation has been strongly con-

tested and met with much countervailing evidence (e.g.,

Warikoo and Carter 2009). Finally, some scholars point to

the disproportionate rate at which Black, Hispanic, and

American Indian students are disciplined and suspended,

distracting from learning time and undermining school

connectedness. This disparity is presumed to be a function

of either objective differences in student behavior or dis-

crimination on the part of school staff in their subjective

interpretation of student behavior (Gregory et al. 2010). A

common thread to these explanations is that the divergent

school social experiences of racial groups contribute to

educational inequalities.

School Climate

School climate refers to the school social experience (Co-

hen et al. 2009). Seidman et al. (Seidman 1988; Seidman

and Cappella, in press; Tseng and Seidman 2007) describe

climate as a social process or ‘‘within-setting social regu-

larities’’ that affect members’ subjective experiences of the

setting. The conceptualization and measurement of social

climate are longstanding projects of community psychol-

ogy (Henry, in press; Moos 1973; Trickett and Moos 1974).

A recent study identified several specific dimensions of

school climate in a survey of California middle school

students, including: (a) safety and connectedness; (b) adult-

student relationships; and (c) opportunities for meaningful

student participation (Hanson and Voight 2014). Based on

this definitional framework (which is characteristic of and

encompassed by other common definitions in the research

literature; see Cohen et al. 2009) a positive school climate

is characterized by a school environment that makes stu-

dents feel emotionally and physically safe, part of the

school community, that adults in the school respect them,

care about them, and have high expectations for their well-

being and success, and that they have opportunities to

provide input in how things work at the school.

Theoretically, having caring, supportive, respectful

relationships with adults and peers and having opportuni-

ties to meaningfully engage at school (that is, having a

positive school climate) is particularly important for mid-

dle school students, as early adolescents are understood to

have an increasing desire for autonomy and social accep-

tance (Eccles et al. 1993). Person-environment fit theories

suggest that middle schools with positive climates are a

good fit for students, leading to improved achievement

through increases in academic interest and motivation

(Moos 1987). These theories suggest that performance and

well-being are maximized when members of a setting see

their personal characteristics, abilities, and preferences as

congruent with the social processes of the setting (Moos

1987).

There is empirical evidence that a positive middle

school climate is associated with higher levels of student

achievement and lower rates of suspension and expulsion

(Brand et al. 2003; Hanson and Voight 2014). McCoy et al.

(2013) conducted one of the only studies that used longi-

tudinal data analyses to examine the directionality of the

relationship between school climate and academic

achievement in Chicago elementary schools, finding a

positive bidirectional relationship between the two vari-

ables. Furthermore, middle school students’ perceptions of

positive adult-student relationships are associated with

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 253

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higher self-esteem and lower rates of depression and

behavior problems (Way et al. 2007). Student participation

and positive adult–student relationships have been corre-

lated with lower rates of secondary school violence in both

quantitative (Khoury-Kassabri et al. 2004) and qualitative

research (Johnson et al. 2012). Elementary and middle

schools with more positive relationships between adults

and students were found to have greater success imple-

menting a classroom-based violence intervention (Gregory

et al. 2007). A positive school climate appears to be gen-

erally beneficial for middle schools students.

Within-School Racial Disparities in School Climate

As mentioned above, person-environment fit theories con-

cern individuals’ appraisals of the congruence between

their personal characteristics and their settings. Different

people within the same setting can have different views of

what goes on in the setting, or how well it is working for

them based on their identity. Theorists of educational

inequalities suggest that students’ race may be an important

personal characteristic that conditions the way they expe-

rience school social processes, with Black and Hispanic

students reporting less favorable relationships and oppor-

tunities to participate at school than White students, due in

part to objective differences in how Black and Hispanic

students are treated (e.g., tracking them into less rigorous

courses) and in part to students’ subjective interpretations

of the school environment (e.g., not relating to dominant

culture teachers; Hill 1993; Noguera 2003). Thus, there is a

question as to whether the notion of climate can be gen-

eralized across an entire school. Is there a ‘‘school’’ climate

or are there ‘‘microclimates’’ of unique experiences, for

example based on a student’s race? The former under-

standing is representative of a positivist ontology, wherein

a single unified representation of climate adequately

describes any school environment, and the latter a con-

textualist one, suggesting that different students within a

school carry different representations of their school (see

Tebes 2005).

Few research studies have directly addressed this ques-

tion, but some studies of student perceptions of school

climate have included race as a control variable and report

correlations and regression coefficients that provide evi-

dence for racial disparities. Using a racially diverse sample

of middle school students pooled across schools in Illinois,

Way et al. (2007) found that students’ racial minority status

was weakly correlated with their perceptions of several

dimensions of school climate (-0.08\ r\ 0.08), includ-

ing adult-student relationships and opportunities for

meaningful participation. Using data from 19 middle

schools in a large district in Maryland, Bradshaw et al.

(2009) found that Black and Latino students were less

likely than White students to report feeling safe at school,

although these findings were not statistically significant.

These studies do not distinguish within-school differences

from between-school differences.

Several studies have documented a within-school racial

gap in school climate experiences. Shirley and Cornell

(2012) analyzed data from 400 students in one suburban

middle school in Virginia and found that Black students

were more likely than White students to report that their

peers supported aggressive behavior and less likely to

express willingness to seek help from their teachers for

bullying and threats of violence. Kuperminc et al. (1997)

examined one urban middle school in New York state and

found that being Black or Hispanic was weakly correlated

with the positivity of a student’s school climate percep-

tions. Using multilevel analyses, research in two separate

samples of Maryland schools found that, within particular

schools, White grade-5 (Mitchell et al. 2010) and high

school (Bottiani et al. 2014) students had significantly more

positive perceptions of school climate than their Black

peers. Fan et al. (2011), in a multilevel analysis of the

nationally representative Educational Longitudinal Study

of 2002, found that Hispanic students had less favorable

perceptions of school safety, and Black students reported

less positive teacher-student relationships than did their

same-school White peers. Evidence from various geo-

graphic locations and grade levels suggest that Black,

Hispanic, and White students experience their schools

differently from one another. The presence of within-

school climate gaps across middle schools in California is

addressed in the present study’s research question #1.

No research of which we are aware has directly exam-

ined the relationship between racial disparities in both

school climate experiences and achievement in a school,

but given the theoretical and empirically demonstrated

connection between climate and achievement, it stands to

reason that this relationship may exist and that racial dis-

parities in climate experiences (specifically safety and

connectedness, adult-student relationships, and opportuni-

ties for meaningful participation) could, indeed, explain

racial achievement gaps, as depicted in Fig. 1. This asso-

ciation is examined in the present study’s research question

#2.

School Characteristics Associated with Students’

Experiences of School Climate

Why might some schools have larger or smaller racial gaps

in school climate experiences? Little is known about school

characteristics that are differentially related to student

school climate perceptions and experiences based on race.

School setting characteristics that may influence students’

school experience, in general, include setting norms (e.g.,

254 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

123

respecting racial diveristy; Katz and Kahn 1978), structural

characteristics such as the average background character-

istics (Moos 1973) of students and teachers in the school,

and whether the school is located in an urban, suburban, or

rural location. In this section we review characteristics of

schools that have been empirically associated with stu-

dents’ school climate perceptions and experiences, inde-

pendent of race in most cases. Though few among the

reviewed studies examined how these school characteris-

tics are differentially associated with climate experiences

among student racial subgroups, their linkage with school

climate may serve as a starting point for an exploratory

investigation of school factors associated with greater

equity. An exploratory examination of the relationship

between these school structural characteristics and norms

and within-school racial climate gaps is described in this

study’s research questions #3 and #4, respectively.

School Norms of Respect for Diversity

When schools foster an appreciation and respect for student

diversity and culture—for example by encouraging stu-

dents of all racial and cultural backgrounds to enroll in

rigorous courses and using instructional materials that

reflect the culture—students may feel safer and more

supported, especially students of color, like Black and

Hispanic students. Mattison and Aber (2007), using a

sample of Black and White high school students in a

Midwest town, found reductions in the Black–White dis-

cipline gap in schools with high levels of racial fairness,

reported by students. Datnow and Cooper (1997), in a

qualitative investigation of Black students attending afflu-

ent, predominantly White high schools, found that

involvement in cultural groups and clubs such as Black

Student Unions, Black Awareness clubs, and multicultural

alliances was related to a greater sense of school con-

nectedness. Chang and Le (2010) found that Hispanic

middle school students were more empathic to their peers

when they felt their schools respected cultural diversity

(e.g., providing opportunities to learn about diverse cul-

tures and ethnic groups in the curriculum and work with

diverse students in school activities). Tan (1999) found that

Hispanic middle and high school students who felt that

their culture was respected by other students and teachers

reported more interest in school. Bellmore et al. (2012),

using a racially diverse sample of grade-9 students, found

that students, in general, reported less racial discrimination

in schools that had strong norms of respect for racial

diversity, evident, for example, in celebrations of traditions

and music of various cultures and teachers encouraging

collaboration among students of diverse cultural groups.

Two experimental studies found that interventions

intended to improve a school’s culture of respect for

diversity also improved students’ perceptions of school

climate. One intervention that involved a racially and

socioeconomically diverse sample of grade-8 students in a

10-week racism and prejudice awareness program was

found to improve student relationships and decrease

fighting and racist attitudes (Schultz et al. 2001). The

second intervention involved enrolling students in an urban

middle school who self-identified as being of African

descent in an African and African American culture class

and was found to improve participants’ sense of school

connectedness (Lewis et al. 2006).

Teacher Race

Research that examines the association of teacher race and

school climate outcomes is scant, but there is evidence to

suggest a connection between teacher race and student aca-

demic engagement. Goldsmith (2004) used a nationally

representative sample of grade-8 students to show that a

higher proportion of Black and Hispanic teachers in a school

was associated with more positive attitudes toward school

for Black and Hispanic students but was not significantly

associated with the attitudes of White students. Using a

sample of Texas school districts, Meier et al. (1999) found

that, after controlling for poverty rate and expenditures,

districts with more Black and Hispanic teachers had higher

levels of student academic performance, both for racial

minority students and for White students.

Student–Teacher Ratio

Research has shown that lower student–teacher ratios are

associated with lower frequencies of student victimization

in elementary and middle school (Bradshaw et al. 2009;

Khoury-Kassabri et al. 2004). In schools with large

Fig. 1 Conceptual model of the relationship between within-school

racial disparities in school climate experiences and academic

achievement. Note Concepts or linkages addressed by each of the

study research questions are noted

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 255

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student–teacher ratios, it can be difficult for teachers to

effectively manage student behavior, which may in turn

provide more opportunities for bullying to occur and

influence students’ perceptions of safety (Koth et al. 2008).

Research has shown that higher student–teacher ratios in

grade 5 are associated with more negative overall student

perceptions of school climate (Mitchell et al. 2010).

Student Racial Composition

The racial composition of a student’s school peer group

may condition her own social behavior, and this condi-

tioning may depend on the student’s own race. For exam-

ple, Voight et al. (2014) found that White urban middle

school students exhibited less prosocial behavior in edu-

cational settings with higher compositions of Black stu-

dents but Black students’ behavior was unaffected by racial

composition. Thus, the proportion of Black students in the

setting was related to the racial disparities in student

prosocial behavior.

Student Socioeconomic Status

Waters et al. (2010), using a sample of grade-8 Australian

students, found that in schools with more poor students,

students felt less connected to school. A number of studies

have shown that, across diverse contexts, students experi-

ence more violence and victimization in schools with

higher poverty rates (Bevans et al. 2007; Bradshaw et al.

2009; Khoury-Kassabri et al. 2004; Koth et al. 2008).

Location

Where a school is located may have some bearing on how

students of different races experience climate. Rural

schools have been shown to have lower rates of student

victimization and higher student reports of feeling safe than

schools in suburban and urban locales, respectively

(Bradshaw et al. 2009).

When schools maintain a norm of respect for diversity,

Black and Hispanic students may have more equitable

experiences of safety, connectedness, positive relation-

ships with adults, and engagement, compared to their

White peers. Further, a number of school structural

characteristics have been linked to students’ general

perceptions and experiences of school climate. While

many of these latter studies did not examine the moder-

ating effects of student race, they point to school struc-

tural characteristics that could be explored for their

equity-enhancing value. The conceptual relationships

between school norms and structural characteristics and

within-school racial disparities in school climate experi-

ences are shown in Fig. 2.

Rationale and Research Questions

As the above review shows, there is limited evidence for

racial gaps in school climate experiences within individual

schools. A novel contribution of the present study is that it

uses a large sample of middle schools to provide broader

evidence for within-school racial climate gaps. Another

contribution of this study is that it directly examines

whether a school’s racial climate gap is associated with its

racial achievement gap. Finally, there is some evidence that

suggests how characteristics of schools affect students’

experiences of school climate, but little of that evidence

shows whether such effects are different for students of

different races. A final contribution of this study is that is

examines how school norms and structural characteristics

correlate with the school’s racial climate gap. Each of these

contributions add to the literature on school climate. The

specific research questions addressed in this study are:

1. What, if any, racial school climate gap exists within

middle schools?

2. Are within-school racial climate gaps associated with

within-school racial achievement gaps?

3. What school structural characteristics are correlated

with the magnitude of a school’s racial climate gap?

4. Is a school’s norm of respect for diversity associated

with the magnitude of its racial climate gap?

Method

Sample

This study relied on student and staff survey data and state

administrative data from 754 middle schools in California

that administered both the California Healthy Kids Survey

to grade-7 students and the California School Climate

Survey to teachers in either the 2008–2009 or 2009–2010

school year.3 In those years, 187,120 grade-7 students and

17,646 teachers completed the survey. A single adminis-

tration of the surveys was required of California public

schools during the 2008–2009 to 2009–2010 period as a

condition of Safe and Drug-Free School and Communities

(Title IV) funding and the state tobacco prevention pro-

gram. The sample middle schools comprised approxi-

mately half of all middle schools in the state and reflected

similar student demographics, on average, compared to all

middle schools statewide. In one large district, a sample of

the entire population of schools completed the survey, and

other schools did not administer the survey due to not

3 Schools in California typically complete the surveys every other

year.

256 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

123

receiving Title IV or tobacco prevention funding, being

exempt from this requirement under the Rural Education

Achievement Program, or for unknown reasons.

From this group of 754 schools, two separate analytic

samples were employed to examine the Black–White and

Hispanic–White school climate gaps, respectively. The

inclusion criteria for each of these samples required that a

school (a) have at least 10 student survey responses from

each of the two relevant racial subgroup categories,

(b) have a significant number of students of each of the two

relevant racial subgroup categories based on federal

reporting regulations for the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act, and (c) have at least 5 staff survey

responses. Forty-six middle schools were retained in the

Black–White school climate gap analytic sample (de-

scriptive statistics for these school are in shown in Table 1)

and 420 middle schools in the Hispanic–White school

climate gap analytic sample (Table 2). Within these

schools, only Black and White grade-7 students

(n = 3805) were retained in the Black–White school cli-

mate gap analytic sample, and only Hispanic and White

grade-7 students (n = 70,526) were retained in the His-

panic–White school climate gap analytic sample. The

number of respondents to the teacher survey in these two

analytic subsamples of schools were 1331 and 9942,

respectively.

Measures

This study relied on three sources of data: (a) the California

Healthy Kids Survey for grade-7 students; (b) the

California School Climate Survey for staff; and (c) publi-

cally available school administrative data from the Cali-

fornia Department of Education (CDE). Survey data were

identified by school identification number but not at the

student level; thus, individual-level student survey data was

linked with school-level aggregated staff survey data and

school-level administrative data.

Student Race

Race was operationalized via a series of binary variables

for Black, Hispanic, and White, scored based on students’

self-reported race and ethnicity (i.e., non-Hispanic Black,

Hispanic, or non-Hispanic White) on the California Heal-

thy Kids Survey.

School Climate

Recent psychometric evidence (Hanson and Voight 2014)

suggests that the California Healthy Kids Survey validly

and reliably measures three school climate factors exam-

ined in this study: (a) safety and connectedness (6 items,

Cronbach’s a = 0.80); (b) adult-student relationships (6

items, a = 0.85); and (c) opportunities for meaningful

student participation (3 items, a = 0.68). Students use 4-

and 5-item strength-of-agreement Likert-type response

scales to indicate their personal feelings of safety and

connectedness at schools (for example, one items reads, ‘‘I

feel like I am a part of this school’’), the quality of their

personal relationships with adults at school (for example,

‘‘At my school, there is a teacher or some other adult who

Fig. 2 Conceptual model of the

relationship between school

structural characteristics and

norms and within-school racial

disparities in school climate

experiences. Note Concepts or

linkages addressed by each of

the study research questions are

noted

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 257

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really cares about me’’), and their perceptions of opportu-

nities to personally engage in the life of the school (for

example, ‘‘At school, I help decide things like class

activities or rules’’; see Hanson and Voight 2014 for all

item wordings and technical details). For the present study,

individual students’ scores were standardized (i.e., M = 0,

SD = 1) relative to all 187,120 grade-7 students in the 754

schools that completed the survey in 2008–2009 and

2009–2010.

Academic Achievement

School and student racial subgroup academic performance

were measured using California’s Academic Performance

Table 1 Black–White sample demographics

Student level (n = 13,460 surveyed) M Range

Safety and connectedness, overall -0.17 -3.81–1.82

Safety and connectedness, Black students -0.33 -3.37–1.82

Safety and connectedness, White students -0.12 -3.81–1.77

Adult-student relationships, overall -0.07 -3.46–1.77

Adult-student relationships, Black students -0.06 -2.82–1.52

Adult-student relationships, White students 0.03 -2.73–1.77

Opportunities for participation, overall -0.11 -2.12–2.87

Opportunities for participation, Black students -0.07 -2.12–2.87

Opportunities for participation, White students -0.06 -2.12–2.87

%

Race

Asian or Pacific Islander (%) 13.6

Black (%) 12.3

Hispanic (%) 39.9

Mixed race (%) 8.2

White (%) 16.0

Other (%) 10.3

Male (%) 48.2

School level (n = 46) M Range

Student characteristics

Black-White achievement gap 112.8 -2–301

Academic performance 764.2 675–890

Percent Black students 18.3 9–33

Percent Hispanic students 39.3 15–68

Percent White students 25.0 8–54

Percent low-income 53.1 12–83

Staff characteristics

School-wide respect for diversity 0.01 -0.83–0.90

Percent Black staff 7.5 0–26.9

Percent Hispanic staff 10.1 0–26.2

Student–teacher ratio 20.1 11.7–25.3

%

Location

Rural 23.9

Suburban 50.0

Urban 26.1

Table 2 Hispanic–white sample demographics

Student level (n = 109,386 surveyed) M Range

Safety and connectedness, overall 0.02 -3.81–1.85

Safety and connectedness, Hispanic students 0.00 -3.58–1.82

Safety and connectedness, White students 0.12 -3.81–1.85

Adult-student relationships, overall 0.01 -3.46–1.77

Adult-student relationships, Hispanic students -0.06 -3.46–1.77

Adult-student relationships, White students 0.13 -3.46–1.77

Opportunities for participation, overall 0.01 -2.12–2.87

Opportunities for participation, Hispanic

students

-0.09 -2.12–2.87

Opportunities for participation, White students 0.10 -2.12–2.87

%

Race

Asian or Pacific Islander (%) 12.3

Black (%) 4.8

Hispanic (%) 40.7

Mixed race (%) 7.0

White (%) 23.8

Other (%) 11.4

Male (%) 48.7

School level (n = 420) M Range

Student characteristics

Hispanic–White achievement gap 94.9 -46–267

Academic performance 801.8 625–967

Percent Black students 5.9 0–33

Percent Hispanic students 40.4 9–86

Percent White students 39.0 8–80

Percent low-income 43.3 0–100

Staff characteristics

School-wide respect for diversity 0.01 -3.43–1.13

Percent Black staff 2.4 0–26.9

Percent Hispanic staff 9.6 0–42.0

Student–teacher ratio 20.7 11.7–29.1

%

Location

Rural 18.6

Suburban 47.3

Urban 34.0

258 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

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Index (API), which is a single number ranging from 200 to

1000 that reflects average student performance across

multiple content areas of the California Standards Tests

(CST), the annual statewide standardized test. In 2010, the

statewide average school API was 765 for grades 7 and 8,

according to the CDE (2011), and the student subgroup

averages for Black, Hispanic, and White students were 677,

706, and 842 respectively. Each school has its own student

subgroup API for each numerically significant subgroup.

For each school in each analytic sample, a school-level

achievement gap was calculated for Black–White students

(M = 114.1) and Hispanic–White students (M = 94.7) that

represented the difference in API between the two sub-

groups (i.e., White API minus Black API and White API

minus Hispanic API).

School Norms of Respect for Diversity

A single score representing norms of respect for diversity

was calculated for each sample school by averaging all

teacher survey responses to six strength-of-agreement

Likert-type items regarding the degree to which the school

encourages students of all races to enroll in rigorous

courses, prioritizes closing the racial achievement gap,

emphasizes culturally relevant instructional materials, has

staff examine cultural biases, and fosters an overall

appreciation and respect for student diversity. For example,

one item reads, ‘‘This school emphasizes using instruc-

tional materials that reflect the culture or ethnicity of its

students.’’ Teacher survey responses were standardized

relative to all 17,646 teachers in the sample prior to being

aggregated to the school level.

School Structural Characteristics

School demographic information was extracted from the

CDE’s California Basic Educational Data System, includ-

ing the percentage of students in a school who were Black,

Hispanic, and eligible for free or reduced-priced meals (a

proxy for poverty), the student–teacher ratio, the percent-

age of teachers who were Black and Hispanic, and the

geographic location of the school (i.e., rural, suburban, or

urban).

Analytic Approach

A series of multilevel regression models were estimated in

Stata 13 to examine within-school, shared variance in

students’ reports of school climate experience and explore

how various school characteristics explain this within-

school variance (Raudenbush and Bryk 2002). Separate

models were estimated for the Black–White and the His-

panic–White analytic samples. Students’ school climate

experiences were modeled as dependent variables. Prior to

analysis, all school-level covariates were standardized

within their respective analytic sample to allow for a

comparison of regression coefficients across covariates

(Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal 2012).

To test the existence of racial school climate gaps within

schools, we first estimated a one-level OLS regression to

determine the overall statewide school climate gap, irre-

spective of school membership using the equation:

yi ¼ b0 þ b1Racei þ ri ð1Þ

where y is alternatively, in separate models, the reported (a)

safety and connectedness, (b) adult-student relationships,

or (c) opportunities for participation of student i. The

coefficient b1 is the model-implied overall statewide gap in

the outcome between White students and either Black or

Hispanic students. To determine the average within-school

racial gaps, random-slope multilevel models were esti-

mated that allowed school-specific racial gaps to vary

across schools.

yij ¼ b0j þ b1jRaceij þ rij ð2Þ

b0j ¼ c00 þ l0j

b1j ¼ c10 þ l1j

In the multilevel Eq. (2), the coefficients are subscripted

with a j to indicate that each school j has a unique racial

gap. The model-implied mean within-school gap is indi-

cated by c10 in the level-2 equation. The proportion of the

overall statewide racial school climate gap that is attribu-

table to within-school disparities can be estimated by

dividing c10 in Eq. (2) by b1 in Eq. (1).

To address the second research question, another set of

multilevel models were estimated to determine the rela-

tionship between the model-implied racial climate gap, b1,

of school j and its racial achievement gap. School-level

covariates indicating the racial achievement gap, AchGap,

and the overall academic performance, Ach, were added to

the level-2 equations that solve for the intercept and slope:

b0j ¼ c00 þ c01AchGapj þ c02Achj þ l0j ð3Þ

b1j ¼ c10 þ c11AchGapj þ c12Achj þ l1j

The coefficient c11 indicates the model-implied association

between a school’s racial school climate and achievement

gaps, controlling for the overall academic performance of

the school.

To address the third research question, another set of

multilevel models were estimated to determine the rela-

tionship between the model-implied racial climate gap, b1,

of school j and its structural characteristics. Six school-

level covariates were added to the level-2 equations, indi-

cating the percentage of students in a school who were (1)

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 259

123

Black or Hispanic (depending on the analytic sample) and

(2) low-income, the (3) student–teacher ratio, the (4) per-

centage of teachers in the school who were Black or His-

panic (depending on the analytic sample), and binary

variables indicating whether the school was in (5) a sub-

urban location or (6) a rural location (urban location was

the reference category).

b0j ¼ c00 þ X6

k¼1

c0kStructurekj þ l0j

b1j ¼ c10 þ X6

k¼1

c1kStructurekj þ l1j

ð4Þ

Each of the six coefficients, c11 through c16, provide an

estimate of the relationship between an aspect of school

structure and the racial school climate gap, controlling for

other aspects of school structure.

In the final set of models, a school-level covariate

indicating norms of respect for diversity was added to the

level-2 Eq. (4) to address the fourth research question. The

coefficient associated with norms of respect for diversity

estimated the relationship between the magnitude of a

school’s racial climate gap and its norm of respect for

diversity, controlling for school structural characteristics.

Due to the standardization procedures described above,

coefficients estimated by these multilevel models can be

treated as standardized regression coefficient effect sizes.

We further report the percentage of the overall cross-school

variance in racial school climate gaps that is explained by

each set of covariates. Multilevel models were estimating

using a maximum likelihood approach. There were no

missing data on the school-level covariates and less than

1 % of cases had missing data on student survey constructs.

This lack of missing data may be due to the fact that

schools are required to administer the surveys, as noted

above, and typically devote instructional time to allow

students to complete them.

Results

The results of the study analyses are reported below,

organized according to the four research questions. Stan-

dardized regression coefficients and p values are reported

in parentheses (‘‘n.s.’’ indicates that the coefficient was not

significant at the p\ .05 level).

Research Question #1: Do Racial School Climate

Gap Exists Within Particular Schools?

The analyses showed that, for both racial comparisons and

for most school climate dimensions, significant gaps exis-

ted within schools (Table 3). In schools with significant

numbers of both Black and White students, Black students

reported, on average, lower levels of safety and connect-

edness (c = 0.154, p\ 0.001) and adult-student relation-

ships (c = 0.077, p\ 0.05). There was significant

variation across the 46 sample schools in the magnitude of

the Black–White gap in safety and connectedness

(SD = 0.117). However, the within-school gap in adult-

student relationships did not vary across schools

(SD\ 0.001), suggesting that in the 46 sample schools, the

Black–White gap was more or less steady at 0.077. On

average across the Black–White subsample, there was no

significant within-school gap in opportunities for mean-

ingful participation between Black and White students.

However, there was substantial variation in this subgroup

difference across the 46 sample schools (SD = 0.088). In

other words, the average Black–White gap in opportunities

for meaningful participation across the 46 schools was not

significantly different from zero, but the cross-school

variation in the gap suggests that in certain schools it was

larger, smaller, or reversed direction.

The results showed an overall statewide gap in experi-

ences of safety and connectedness (b = 0.202, p\ 0.001)

and adult-student relationships (b = 0.090, p\ 0.001)

between Black and White students and suggested that these

overall gaps were due more to disparities within schools

(76 and 86 %, respectively) rather than to inequalities

between schools segregated by race.

In schools with significant numbers of both Hispanic and

White students, Hispanic students reported lower levels of

safety and connectedness (c = 0.049, p\ 0.001), adult-

student relationships (c = 0.151, p\ 0.001), and opportu-

nities for meaningful participation (c = 0.155, p\ 0.001).

There was substantial variation across the 420 sample

schools in the magnitude of the Hispanic–White gap in safety

and connectedness (SD = 0.067) and adult-student rela-

tionships (SD = 0.079). However the within-school gap in

perceived opportunities for meaningful participation did not

vary across schools (SD\ 0.001), suggesting that the His-

panic–White gap was more or less constant at 0.155 across

all of the sample schools.

The results further showed overall statewide Hispanic–

White gaps in adult-student relationships (b = 0.182,

p\0.001) and opportunities for meaningful participation

(b = 0.190, p\0.001) and suggested that these overall gaps

were due more to within-school (83 and 82 %, respectively)

rather than between-school disparities. The results further

showed an overall statewide Hispanic–White gap in safety and

connectedness (b = 0.130, p\0.001); however, the results

suggested that this gap was due more to differences between

schools, which are often segregated by race (37 % of the

overall statewide gap was due to within-school disparities).

Because the subsequent analyses attempted to explain

variation in within-school racial climate gaps using school-

260 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

123

level covariates, those gaps that did not vary across schools

were not included (i.e., Black–White gap in adult-student

relationships and Hispanic–White gap in student

participation).

Research Question #2: Are Schools’ Racial Climate

Gaps Associated with Their Racial Achievement

Gaps?

The first set of multilevel regression models included

school racial achievement gaps and overall school aca-

demic performance as predictors of within-school racial

climate gaps. In general, the results showed that there is a

significant relationship between the racial climate gap and

racial achievement gap in a middle school. Holding con-

stant overall academic performance, schools with larger

Black–White achievement gaps had larger Black–White

gaps in perceived safety and connectedness (c = 0.095,

p\ 0.05) and opportunities for participation (c = 0.084,

p\ 0.05; see Table 4). This suggests that in a school with

no Black–White achievement gap—equity between the two

groups—there would be no significant difference in reports

of safety and connectedness between Black and White

students (see Fig. 3), and Black students would report

significantly more opportunities for meaningful participa-

tion compared to their White peers by 0.15 standard

deviation units.

The same general findings, with lesser magnitudes, were

evident for Hispanic–White disparities (see Table 5).

Again, holding constant overall academic performance,

schools with larger Hispanic–White achievement gaps had

larger Hispanic–White gaps in perceived safety and con-

nectedness (c = 0.029, p\ 0.001) and adult-student rela-

tionships (c = 0.025, p\ 0.01). This suggests that in a

school with no Hispanic–White achievement gap, there

would be no significant difference in reports of safety and

connectedness between Hispanic and White students, and

the gap in adult-student relationships between Hispanic and

White students would be reduced by half that in an average

school (Fig. 4).

Research Question #3: What School Structural

Characteristics are Associated with the Magnitude

of its Racial Climate Gap?

The third set of multilevel regression models added a series

of school-level structural variables to the model to help

explain variation in within-school racial climate gaps. In

sum, few structural characteristics were significantly rela-

ted to either the Black–White or Hispanic–White school

climate gaps. Schools with more low-income students

(c = -0.091, p\ 0.05) and larger student–teacher ratios

(c = -0.084, p\ 0.05) had smaller Black–White gaps in

safety and connectedness. Point estimates suggested that,

with all other structural characteristics fixed at the sample

mean, there is no significant gap in safety and connected-

ness between Black and White students in schools where

more than 60 % of students are low-income or where the

student–teacher ratio is 23 or higher. A higher concentra-

tion of low-income students is associated with reduced

safety and connectedness for both Black and White stu-

dents, but this negative association is stronger among

White students. This suggests that, in general, Black–White

gaps in safety and connectedness are more prominent in

higher income, highly staffed schools.

As with the Black–White sample, schools that serve

more low-income students had smaller Hispanic–White

gaps in safety and connectedness (c = -0.045, p\ 0.05).

Point estimates suggested that in schools where more than

52 % of students are low-income, there is no significant

Hispanic–White gap. As with the Black–White sample, a

higher concentration of low-income students is associated

Table 3 Within-school means and standard deviations of racial school climate gaps (standard errors in parentheses and percent of total gap

attributable to within- versus between-school disparities in italics)

Safety and connectedness Adult-student relationships Opportunities for participation

M SD M SD M SD

Black-White within-school

gap (N = 46 schools)

0.154***

(0.039)

76 %

0.117 0.077*

(0.034)

86 %

\0.001 0.008

(0.036)

n/a

0.088

Hispanic–White within-school

gap (N = 420 schools)

0.049***

(0.009)

37 %

0.067 0.151***

(0.009)

83 %

0.079 0.155***

(0.008)

82 %

\0.001

Only schools with a significant number of Black and White students and Hispanic and White students, respectively, were included in the two sets

of analyses

* p\ 0.05; ** p\ 0.01; *** p\ 0.001

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 261

123

with reduced safety and connectedness for both Hispanic

and White students, but this negative association is stronger

among White students. Further, rural schools had smaller

Hispanic–White gaps in safety and connectedness than did

urban schools (c = - 0.019, p\ 0.05). This suggests that,

in general, Hispanic–White gaps in safety and connected-

ness are more prominent in higher income, urban schools.

Because the Black–White sample was smaller (46

schools versus 420 schools in the Hispanic–White sample),

models based on that sample had less power to detect

significant school-level effects. For instance, despite not

reaching statistical significance, the estimated effect sizes

for the rural covariate on gaps in safety and connectedness

was actually larger for the Black–White (c = - 0.056,

n.s.) than for the Hispanic–White sample.

Research Question #4: Is a School’s Norm

of Respect for Diversity Associated

with the Magnitude of its Racial Climate Gap?

A stronger norm of respect for diversity in a school, as

reported by teachers, was related to smaller Black–White

school climate gaps (c = - 0.067 for safety and connect-

edness; c = - 0.069 for opportunities for meaningful

participation), but while these associations approached

statistical significance, they did not meet the p\ 0.05

criterion. In the Hispanic–White sample, the results sug-

gested, paradoxically, that schools with higher norms of

respect for diversity had larger Hispanic–White gaps in

safety and connectedness (c = 0.018, p\ 0.05), control-

ling for school structural characteristics. Of note, school

norms of respect for diversity have a significant positive

relationship with the reported safety and connectedness of

both Hispanic and White students, but because the rela-

tionship is significantly stronger for White students, higher

Table 4 Multilevel regression results with random-slopes for Black-White school climate gaps and school-level covariates (n = 3798 students

in 46 schools)

Safety and connectedness Opportunities for participation

1. Within-school Black-White gap in

outcome

0.141***

(0.037)

0.145***

(0.038)

0.149***

(0.035)

0.002

(0.036)

-0.002

(0.037)

0.002 (0.035)

1a. School Black-White achievement

gap

0.092*

(0.037)

0.085*

(0.036)

1b. School overall academic

performance

0.056

(0.038)

0.063

(0.037)

1c. School-wide respect for diversity -0.067 (0.037) -0.069 (0.037)

1d. School percent Black students -0.040

(0.048)

-0.042 (0.045) 0.017 (0.047) 0.013 (0.045)

1e. School percent low-income

students

-0.091*

(0.044)

-0.114

(0.042)**

-0.061

(0.043)

-0.084

(0.041)*

1f. School student–teacher ratio -0.084*

(0.041)

-0.101 (0.039)* -0.043

(0.040)

-0.059 (0.039)

1g. School percent Black teachers 0.085 (0.044) 0.083 (0.042) -0.005

(0.043)

-0.003 (0.042)

1h. Suburban location -0.012

(0.049)

-0.014 (0.046) 0.006 (0.048) 0.002 (0.045)

1i. Rural location -0.056

(0.047)

-0.056 (0.044) -0.020

(0.046)

-0.024 (0.043)

19 % \1 % 58 % 15 % \1 % 67 %

Not shown in the results table are main effect coefficients for variables 1a–1i

* p\ 0.05; ** p\ 0.01; *** p\ 0.001

-.4 -.3

-.2 -.1

0 .1

.2 .3

.4

S tu

de nt

p er

ce pt

io ns

o f

sa fe

ty a

nd c

on ne

ct ed

ne ss

0 100 200 300

School Black-White achievement gap

White students Black students

Fig. 3 Relationship between school Black–White achievement gap

and student report of safety and connectedness, by race

262 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

123

norms of respect for diversity in a school are actually

associated with larger subgroup gaps.

Discussion

The findings from this study problematize the concept of a

‘‘school climate’’ by showing that different student racial

subgroups within a particular middle school may have

significantly different experiences of safety, connectedness,

relationships with adults, and opportunities for participa-

tion. In middle schools with significant numbers of Black

and White students, Black students, on average, reported

poorer safety and connectedness and adult-student rela-

tionships than White students. In middle schools with

significant numbers of Hispanic and White students, His-

panic students, on average, reported poorer safety and

connectedness, adult-student relationships, and opportuni-

ties for meaningful participation. Just as previous research

has illustrated racial gaps in achievement and discipline,

this study shows that students’ experiences of school cli-

mate may also be function of race. Discussing climate as a

whole school phenomenon, therefore, may obscure

important inequities. To borrow a term from the atmo-

spheric sciences, school climate may better be understood

as a series of ‘‘microclimates’’ within a school that are

organized around student identity. For example, schools

may, at once, create an environment characterized by

Table 5 Multilevel regression results with random-slopes for Hispanic–White school climate gaps and school-level covariates (n = 70,427

students in 420 schools)

Safety and connectedness Adult-student relationships

1. Within-school Hispanic–White gap in outcome 0.032***

(0.009)

0.030***

(0.009)

0.029***

(0.009)

0.140***

(0.009)

0.147***

(0.010)

0.146***

(0.010)

1a. School Hispanic–White achievement gap 0.030***

(0.009)

0.025**

(0.009)

1b. School academic performance 0.047***

(0.009)

-0.008

(0.009)

1c. School-wide respect for diversity 0.018*

(0.009)

0.016

(0.010)

1d. School percent Hispanic students -0.018

(0.016)

-0.018

(0.016)

0.026

(0.017)

0.025

(0.016)

1e. School percent low-income students -0.045*

(0.014)

-0.042**

(0.014)

-0.016

(0.015)

-0.014

(0.015)

1f. School student–teacher ratio -0.018

(0.009)

-0.018

(0.009)

-0.010

(0.010)

-0.010

(0.010)

1g. School percent Hispanic teachers -0.004

(0.012)

-0.004

(0.012)

0.000

(0.012)

0.000

(0.012)

1h. Suburban location -0.009

(0.010)

-0.008

(0.010)

-0.007

(0.011)

-0.006

(0.011)

1i. Rural location -0.019

(0.009)*

-0.016

(0.010)

-0.010

(0.010)

-0.008

(0.010)

Percentage of overall cross-school variance in Hispanic–White gap

explained by school-level covariates

13 % 27 % 21 % 8 % 8 % 6 %

Not shown in the results table are main effect coefficients for variables 1a–1i

* p\ 0.05; ** p\ 0.01; *** p\ 0.001

-.4 -.3

-.2 -.1

0 .1

.2 .3

.4

St ud

en t p

er ce

pt io

ns o

f sa

fe ty

a nd

c on

ne ct

ed ne

ss

-100 0 100 200 300 School Hispanic-White achievement gap

White students Hispanic students

Fig. 4 Relationship between school Hispanic–White achievement

gap and student report of safety and connectedness, by race

Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267 263

123

safety and connectedness for White students and one

characterized by lack of safety and disconnectedness for

Black students.

This study also shows that Black–White gaps in safety

and connectedness and opportunities for participation and

Hispanic–White gaps in safety and connectedness and

adult-student relationships vary across middle schools.

That is, these gaps are larger or smaller from school to

school. In middle schools where these gaps are larger, the

racial achievement gap is also larger. In middle schools

where these gaps are smaller, the racial achievement gap

is smaller. There is a significant association between

racial disparities in achievement and climate within a

given school. While causality cannot be inferred from

these cross-sectional analyses, the results point to the

racial school climate gap as a potential source of inequi-

ties in achievement. This finding represents evidence

contrary to the ‘‘cultural’’ explanation (e.g., that minority

peer groups reward disengagement or that certain racial

identities are not conducive to valuing academic success)

for the racial achievement gap, suggesting instead that

middle school environments are systematically perceived

as less welcoming, nurturing, and engaging for students of

color.

Why might some middle schools have larger racial cli-

mate gaps than others? Few of the school structural char-

acteristics examined in this study helped explain cross-

school variation in climate gaps. The socioeconomic status

of students, student–teacher ratio, and geographic location

may offer some explanation. While there was evidence for

a racial gap in safety and connectedness in low-poverty

schools, the gap was insignificant in poorer, under-re-

sourced schools. In these latter schools, results suggested

that all students, regardless of race, had more or less

equally low reports of safety and connectedness. An

increase in socioeconomic and human resources to a school

appear to benefit all students’ feelings of safety and con-

nectedness, but White students seem to benefit more than

their Black and Hispanic peers.

Similarly, all students appear to have more positive

experiences of school climate in schools that create a

strong norm of respect for diversity by prioritizing

closing the achievement gap, training staff in multicul-

tural competencies, and reflecting students’ ethnic back-

ground in course curricula. However, the present results

suggest that White students benefit more from this norm

than Hispanic students, thus widening that racial gap in

felt safety and connectedness. This suggests that the

activities that many schools undertake with the express

purpose of closing racial gaps and appreciating diversity

may ‘‘lift all boats’’ but may not help students of color,

in particular.

Limitations

This study is descriptive and exploratory, and due to its

cross-sectional design, its findings are insufficient evidence

to draw casual conclusions regarding model variables. The

study results would not allow one to assert that a racial

climate gap causes a racial achievement gap or that certain

school structures and norms cause a racial climate gap.

There are potential third-variable explanations for the

associations demonstrated in the study, as are there ques-

tions regarding the directionality of the associations.

Participating schools in this study were solely from

California, which has a unique racial, ethnic, and cultural

landscape that may limit the generalizability of these

findings to other contexts. Further, this study makes no

distinction among various Black or among various His-

panic cultures or national origins, all of which may have

different school experiences. Previous research has shown

that Mexican–Americans, for example, had lower math and

reading standardized test scores than other Hispanic stu-

dents (Eamon 2005).

Additionally, norms of respect for diversity were mea-

sured by teacher report only, and students’ perspectives of

norms of respect for diversity are not captured. Further-

more, regarding norms of respect for diversity, teachers

were not asked to specify which races, ethnicities, or cul-

tures are the focus of curriculum, professional develop-

ment, or other interventions. Thus, a teacher could report a

strong norm of respect for diversity in his or her school

while not considering a particular subgroup like Hispanic

students.

Finally, the internal consistency of the opportunities for

meaningful participation construct is slightly below the

commonly accepted cutoff for good reliability attributed to

Nunnally (1978), although this construct was also made up

of the fewest items, and a small number of items in a scale

strongly reduces alpha values (Cortina 1993).

Implications

Implications for Future Research

In light of this study’s findings, future research on school

climate may consider whether school climate is usefully

measured as a school-average of individual student reports,

the approach most commonly employed (Henry, in press).

This study shows that there are significant differences in

school climate experiences among various student sub-

groups within a school; thus, simply averaging all students’

reports to create a single school-level score may obscure

important information regarding unique subgroup climates.

264 Am J Community Psychol (2015) 56:252–267

123

Researchers may consider treating student subgroups as a

level of analysis, apart from schools or classrooms. This

study is also unable to explain how much of the racial

climate gap is a function of the different ways in which

students of different races may interpret their school

environment versus objective differences in treatment of

students of different races. A more in-depth qualitative

investigation of the experiences of students in mixed race

schools could contribute in this area.

Furthermore, there are still many questions regarding

why some schools have more pronounced racial school

climate gaps than others. What explains this variation

across schools and what can be done to close racial school

climate gaps? Future exploratory research could consider

other characteristics of schools that might explain cross-

school variation in racial. Experimental and quasi-experi-

mental research could assess the effectiveness of school

interventions in reducing within-school climate gaps. For

example, a sample of schools could be divided randomly

into a treatment and control group to test whether a

restorative justice program reduces disparities in experi-

ences of safety and connectedness between Black and

White students in the treatment schools.

Practical Implications

There is increased educational policy interest in school

climate of late, at the federal, state, and local levels. Pol-

icymakers are encouraging schools to address issues like

safety, connectedness, adult-student relationships, and

meaningful student participation, and many of these ini-

tiatives require schools to measure their climate using

student, staff, and parent surveys. The results of this study

suggest that such measurement efforts would benefit from

reporting survey results disaggregated by student sub-

groups to allow educators to assess racial (and other forms

of difference) gaps in school climate. It would also be

prudent for the evaluation and monitoring requirements of

school climate policies to consider student subgroup indi-

cators alongside whole school indicators of climate. Fur-

thermore, the activities that schools implement to improve

climate should be sensitive to student diversity. For

example, a common school climate improvement inter-

vention involves ‘‘universal’’ instruction in social skills

(Osher et al. 2010); the present study suggests that edu-

cators should carefully consider how responsive such uni-

versal interventions are to the cultural experiences of all

student subgroups and whether to adjust interventions

accordingly. As the results show, this latter point may be of

particular concern for more affluent schools. Finally,

schools that undertake efforts to address ‘‘respect for

diversity’’ should be sensitive to and inclusive of all stu-

dent subgroups that they serve.

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