Districts conduct climate surveys in response to an urgent need or locally important issues. Because surveys are typically developed and administered in isolation from other schools and districts, the information they yield is limited to a static measure devoid of context.

To address these issues, the National Benchmark Climate Survey (NBCS) is in development. This instrument is being designed to provide school districts and their communities a versatile tool for understanding the educational climate. Improvements over current practices include:

• Customizable Content
  As opposed to a one-size-fits-all survey instrument, the NBCS will allow school districts to select content that is most relevant for their situations. While there will be a core set of items that gauges the general education climate, optional detailed components may be selected and included for the administration.
• Annual Trends
  Consistency of survey forms and administration procedures across years is the key to monitoring improvement. A stable set of core items will allow for tracking of climate on an annual basis. While school districts are free to customize their climate surveys by selecting optional components, the constituent items will likewise be of high quality and consistent from year to year; allowing for annual monitoring of specific areas as determined by district needs.

• National Benchmarks
  Reviewing data within a context provides an improved level of understanding and interpretation. A national sample of schools and districts provides this context for the NBCS. Schools and districts will be able to see how they compare to the national sample as well as to a sample of similar schools and districts.
• Flexible Reports
  End users will be empowered to examine their data from a variety of perspectives to promote data interpretation and usage. Beyond examination of responses to items in isolation, the user will be able to include specific population segments and appropriate comparison groups from the national sample. Selection of comparison groups from the national benchmarks will be based on a variety of flexible criteria, including demographics, locality, academic performance, and school district/community characteristics.

K12 Insight staff and researchers are engaged in a rigorous instrument development process. The process began with a review of existing survey forms and instruments commonly used by school districts around the country. But more importantly, an ongoing dialogue with school districts superintendents and staff ensures that the NBCS addresses concern of the education community.

In the early stages of the process, the scope of issues germane to the measurement of school climate has been identified. Issues such as the critical features of the school climate, the appropriate respondent groups that should be queried, logistical concerns, and competing demands on school districts have been explored.

Creation of the NBCS is a process driven by an ongoing dialogue between K12 Insight, school district superintendents and district staffs. However, the final product will not be a survey by committee, but rather an instrument based upon rigorous empirical study. The proposed items are being critically evaluated through a stringent pilot testing procedure. Factor analytic techniques are used to discern the dimensions of school climate captured by the item and to identify those particular items that best measure the dimensions. These "best items" will form the core and supplementary scales for the final climate instruments.

Beyond the pilot phase of development, the final survey forms are being administered to a nation-wide sample of school districts to build the national benchmark database. The data collected will be subjected to ongoing quality control analyses to continue to ensure the reliability and validity of the NBCS.

If you are interested in more information about the National Benchmark Climate Survey Project, contact us.