The impact of school culture on school safety: An analysis of elementary schools in a Southwestern metropolitan school district

Abstract

Purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship that exists between school culture and school safety. The principle school culture subscales measure (1) Collaborative Leadership, (2) Teacher Collaboration, (3) Professional Development, (4) Collegial Support, (5) Unity of Purpose, and (6) Learning Partnerships. The safety subscales utilized were (1) Valuing Influence of Teachers and Staff, (2) Feelings of Fear and Lack of Safety, (3) Stressors and Daily Discomforts, and (4) Positive Attitude Toward School Environment and Community. This relationship was surveyed using the School Culture Survey (Gruenert & Valentine, 1997) and the Inviting School Safety Survey (Lehr & Purkey, 1997) among seven metropolitan elementary schools in one Southwestern section of the United States. Procedures. The study included seven elementary schools. Teachers in each school were surveyed on numerous aspects of culture and safety. Teacher data were collected through surveys. Two hypotheses were tested using Pearson-Product Moment Correlation to determine if any of the six subscales of culture from the School Culture Survey correlate with the four safety subscales of the Inviting School Safety Survey. Ordinary Least Squared Regression was used to identify school culture factors that predict school safety factors. The six subscales of culture from the School Culture Survey were used as predictor variable for each of the four Inviting School Safety Scales. Findings. A high level of correlation was found between teachers' perceptions of school culture subscales with School Safety subscales when controlling for the variables of SES, percent of special education students, mobility rate, and number of students. A statistically significant predictive relationship was found for the School Culture subscales with each of the School Safety subscales. Low correlation and low predictive relationships was found for the six School Culture subscales with the School Safety subscale of Feelings of Fear and Lack of Safety. If schools are to be safe for all students, school leaders must change the culture of their schools.