Abstract:

School climate is considered as a vital component when research in school effectiveness is performed. The basic school effectiveness framework explains how inputs into a school, in the form of resources, and the processes that occur within a school work together to create an effective school. School climate is regarded as one such process that is significantly related to learner achievement. Similarly, strong links have been found between socio-economic status (SES) and learner academic achievement in that learners from homes with a higher SES perform better than learners from homes with a lower SES. By bringing together these two core findings and utilizing the South African data of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted in 2015, the main aim of the current study is to better comprehend the role that school climate plays in understanding the relationship between SES and achievement. Due to the hierarchical nature of educational data, multilevel analysis will be employed to respond to the various research questions. The results show that school climate does not moderate the relationship between SES and achievement. It does, however, compensate for SES and four of the eight school climate components significantly mediate the relationship between SES and achievement.

Keywords:

Socio-economic status, school climate, academic achievement, Multilevel analysis, moderating, compensating, mediating.