AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Purpose. This study investigated the relationship between organizational climate and academic achievement of students in elementary schools. The research was designed to determine: (a) if a relationship existed between teachers' perceptions of their school's organizational climate and academic achievement of their students from low socioeconomic backgrounds; and (b) if a particular dimension of the school's organizational climate (i.e., Esprit) related to academic achievement of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.;The second phase of the study required the researcher to secure mathematics scores of all fourth grade low socioeconomic students from those schools having certain characteristics (i.e., most and least open climates and highest and lowest OCDQ Esprit subtest scores). The Science Research Associates Test (SRA) was the instrument utilized to measure students' achievement in the areas of total mathematics, mathematics computation, and mathematics concepts. A mean school score was computed for each mathematics subtest using individual students' scores from those schools identified as having the most and least open climate schools. The procedure was repeated for those two schools having the highest and lowest OCDQ Esprit subtest scores.;A series of t tests was the statistical method used to identify differences between mathematics achievement of students in the two types of school climate, most and least open. The same statistical method was utilized to determine differences between mathematics achievement of students in schools having the highest and lowest OCDQ Esprit subtest scores. The critical probability associated with the testing of the hypotheses was .05.;Results. Comparisons were made between SRA mathematics subtest scores of fourth grade low socioeconomic students in schools having the most and least open school organizational climates. Significant differences were determined to exist between student achievement on the mathematics subtest of total mathematics, mathematics computation, and mathematics concepts in the most open and the least open climate schools.;Procedures. The first phase of the study required the identification of: (a) schools with the most and least open climate, and (b) schools with the highest and lowest Esprit. The Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) was administered to 508 teachers in 32 schools. The OCDQ was scored by the method prescribed by Halpin and Croft, and an openness score was determined for each school. Schools were ranked by openness score from most to least open; the two schools which received extreme scores were selected for study. Next, the schools were ranked by OCDQ Esprit subtest score from highest Esprit to lowest Esprit. The two schools receiving extreme scores were identified for study.;In addition, comparisons were made between SRA mathematics subtests scores of fourth grade low socioeconomic students in schools having the highest and lowest OCDQ Esprit subtest scores. Significant differences were found to exist between student achievement on the mathematics subtest of total mathematics and mathematics concepts in schools having the highest Esprit and lowest Esprit. No significant difference was determined to exist between student achievement on the subtest of mathematics computation in schools having the highest Esprit and lowest Esprit.;Conclusions. The following conclusions were generated as a result of this study: (1) A school whose organizational climate was classified as most open had fourth grade low socioeconomic students who scored significantly higher on the SRA subtests of total mathematics, mathematics computation, and mathematics concepts. (2) A school whose OCDQ Esprit subtest score was classified as highest had fourth grade low socioeconomic students who scored significantly higher on the SRA subtests of total mathematics and mathematics concepts.