The Impact of School Culture on Student Achievement

Past research on the impact of school culture on students’ achievement suggests a significant correlation between school culture and student performance. Researchers believe that a positive school culture characterized by such aspects as good leadership, teacher efficacy, concentration on the progress of students, and encouragement of a positive learning environment impact student performance positively. Edgar Schein’s framework on organizational culture is the most widely used. The framework takes a functionalistic perspective and describes culture as basic assumptions discovered, invented or developed by a certain group in a bid to be able to cope better with problems with internal integration and external adaptation, and that have worked well enough to warrant validity and therefore passed on to new members of the group as the right way to think, perceive, and feel with regards to those problems (Tharp, 2013).

According to this model, culture exists on three main levels which include: 1. This presents a hard approach when it comes to analyzing and understanding through an objective approach. Variables such as socialization, language, authority, and technology have a huge impact upon this process. Schools, in particular, are a good example of products of cultural paradigm in the society. Most of the schools cultivate different cultures from others depending on the environment and school processes. Many variables related to schools are affected by the objective aspects of school culture yet they are the most important factors in explaining the achievement of different students (Matthew et al. School culture is upheld by several elements; such as the school mission, vision, and values. The school mission and vision help in the determination of the philosophies and the standards that the students attending that institution will achieve when they attend that school.

Vision statements are very important in helping giving assurance to the students that wish to attend that school. It also sets a bar that the teaching staff has to achieve for the success of the school at large. Norms also help in creating a positive school culture, the unspoken aspect of norms helps govern the rules and regulations that the teachers and the students are supposed to embrace, understand and follow in order to help the school become a better environment for learning and development purposes. Artifacts such as statues of famous people who led to the success of the school help in giving the staff and students motivation in improving the schools learning and interactive environment. Symbols such as the school logos, mascots, and banners displayed around the school should be of positive transformation to the recipients of the information.

Mascots of fierce and brave animals could be a point to encourage these values to the students whose schools are associated with them. Overall, the principal and the teachers should set a good example for the students in order to help a positive culture in the school community (Çogaltay et al. Roles of School Leaders (Principals and Teachers) School principal School principals being the heads or the leaders of the whole institutions have a huge role in ensuring that the school has a positive culture. As a principal, one should identify the set of social skills that one should instill in the students in order to demand a code of behavior from them. School principals should be good role models to the teachers and the students in order to create a positive learning culture.

Students often learn from observing what their teachers are doing. This helps them to cope in different situations. In light of this, principals should encourage the teachers to be good role models so that the students can have a good platform to emulate from. They are the most likely that the students are likely to derive behaviors from. The teachers should take leadership roles in the schools that they teach in. such roles could be serving as head of academic departments, leading in sporting activities amongst others. Students also emulate such opportunities as they see in their role models who are the teachers (Dweck, 2015). The teachers can also help by guiding the students and letting them create their own goals and mindsets.

As such, a school must understand its culture through such ways as identifying its barriers and leverage points; it’s past and present state in order to have an idea on the areas that need improvement as this will determine the approaches taken to develop the culture. With this, a school is now able to embark on the task of developing a positive school culture by coming up with a team, establishing the changes that need to be made, evaluation of the current state and capacity building for change (Gruenert & Whitaker, 2015). Some of the ways through which schools may develop a positive school culture include: 1. School-wide Positive Behavior Support According to Bosworth and Judkins (2014), SWPBS is a “set of systems that define and teach appropriate behaviors, reinforce positive behaviors, discourage problem behaviors through consistent consequences, promote positive student-teacher interactions by focusing adult attention on positive behavior, and collect behavior data on which to base decisions” (p.

The approach works by encouraging and rewarding positive behavior in the school as opposed to relying on exclusion or punishment as a response to behavioral problems with the goal of coming up with a positive school culture while also minimizing the occurrence of behavioral problems thereby increasing the academic and social outcomes of students. They are expected to be effective to at least 80% of the students (Flanner et al. ii. Targeted interventions: these are interventions designed for smaller subgroups within the school population to whom the universal interventions are not effective but whose state is not bad enough to resort to the third tier intervention model. These interventions usually target about 15% of the student population and involve support in such areas as social and organizational skills (Flanner et al.

iii. This goal was however too broad and was made more specific by being defined as an approach: “designed to provide teachers with skills needed to create a caring, well-managed classroom environment that ultimately strengthen teachers’ instructional efforts, improve teachers’ and students’ social and relational skills, and enhance students’ academic and social outcomes” (Baroody et al. This approach focuses on developing a positive school culture by nurturing more positive student-teacher relationships. This is because research has proven that close teacher-student relationships have such benefits for the students as a better adjustment to school and higher levels of achievement and engagement (Baroody et al. Research on the Impact of Positive School Culture on Academic Achievement Numerous studies have proven that a positive school culture influences academic achievement.

This has been determined through comparisons between student achievement and school culture. Another study conducted by Yasin et al. (2017) also found a positive correlation between school culture and student achievement. The study involved 255 high school teachers from 16 government schools within Melaka Tengah Kota Tinggi and Port Dickson districts of peninsula Malaysia. From the study, it was concluded that a positive school culture, characterized by such activities focusing on student achievement as concentration on the progress of students and encouragement of a positive learning environment within the school as well as the input of the principal in creating, impacting and overseeing the school culture were found to have positive effect on general academic achievement of the school. Similarly, a study conducted by Quin et al.

One of the ways through which collaborative leadership can be implemented is through empowerment. This involves the inclusion of members of staff, parents and students in decision making. This encourages participation and autonomy, fosters teams and generally gives work meaning thereby increasing productivity. Principals can also empower their staff by acknowledging their efforts, increasing their autonomy and encouraging innovation and creativeness by allowing them to try out new approaches to teaching. By creating an environment characterized by respect, care, trust and honesty, the commitment and involvement of the various stakeholders in the school is enhanced and this, in turn, results in better overall performance. ”Palestrica of the Third Millennium-Civilization and Sport, Vol. 16, No. Baroody, A. E. , Rimm-Kaufman, S. , & Judkins, M. “Tapping into the power of school climate to prevent bullying: One application of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports.