School Climate: Using Actual-Preferred Discrepancies to Inform School Improvement Decisions

Research suggests that a positive school climate supports the success of change efforts and improving student outcomes. Consequently, assessing school climate perceptions is becoming prevalent in schools. Although practitioners commonly collect perception data related to measuring the experienced (actual) school climate, consideration of what stakeholders would prefer is rare. Using a sample of 2983 primary school students, we examined whether the difference between students’ actual and preferred perceptions was related to students’ reports of wellbeing, resilience, and bullying. Preliminary findings suggest that examining the actual-preferred gap could provide information to support decisions about where to focus improvement efforts.